Rebecca Harwood

LAE 4332
June 8, 2015
Grammar in Pop Culture Mini-Lesson
Purpose/Rationale: This lesson will take place in the beginning of the year for a 9 th
grade class. This is a short lesson on grammar and how it is commonly misused in
everyday life. This lesson also integrates pop culture through a vlog by the famous author
John Green. Not only is this video on the commonly used YouTube site, but also this
video has ample pop culture references that the students in 9 th grade will easily relate to
when learning about grammar mistakes.
Standards:
Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when
writing or speaking.
a. Use parallel structure.
b. Use various types of phrases (noun, verb, adjectival, adverbial, participial,
prepositional, absolute) and clauses (independent, dependent; noun, relative,
adverbial) to convey specific meanings and add variety and interest to writing or
presentations.
Objectives:

SWBAT identify multiple grammar mistakes from watching John Greens 38

Common Spelling and Grammar Errors

SWBAT correct grammatically incorrect tweets pulled off of the Grammar
Police Twitter Page.

Materials:

Computer and projector to pull up John Greens 38 Common Spelling and

Grammar Errors for classroom viewing

Access to the Grammar Police Twitter page

Anticipatory Set:
The teacher will write on the board the following prompt: Why do you think
grammar is important? Do you think communicating with grammar is easier or harder
than communicating without it? Why or why not? Can you think of any examples where
grammar may have been helpful?
Teaching Procedure/ Strategy/ Activity:
Time
7 min

Student is Doing
Watching the John Green
video that the teacher has
pulled up. Writing down
anything they find
interesting from the video
in their notebooks.

3 min

Students are sharing their

opinions about the video.
Sharing anything they
found interesting or funny
and sharing any of the
grammar mistakes that they
have been prone to commit.

4 min

Raising hands and calling

out the mistakes made on
the celebrity tweets.

Teacher is Doing
Telling the students to take
notes on anything they may
find interesting in the video.
Playing the video and
monitoring to make sure
students are paying
attention and not distracting
others.
The teacher is calling on
students to share any
thoughts they may have on
the video and asking them if
they have a different view
of grammar from watching
the video. The teacher is
calling on students to share
if they have ever made any
of these grammar mistakes
without realizing it.
The teacher is pulling up
different tweets on the
Grammar Police Twitter
page and having the
students call out the
common grammar mistakes
made in each one.

Closure:
The teacher will have a discussion with the students about how they feel grammar
affects their everyday conversation and culture now that they have watched the video and
corrected the tweets. The teacher will restate the original question in the bell ringer about
whether or not the students believe grammar is important, especially for communication.
Assessment:
Informal: The teacher will monitor to make sure all of the students are participating in the
discussions and watching the video.
Homework: The teacher will have the students find two other examples of misused
grammar in pop culture such as movie posters, Facebook posts, videos, etc. The example
must be school appropriate.
Accommodations: If the students need more time discussing the video in relation to the
bell ringer, more time can be spent on that.
If students are having difficulty listening to the video, the teacher can put on the subtitles.
If students are having trouble seeing the video, the teacher can allow the students to
watch the video on a laptop with headphones in.
Appendix: None.
Citations:
WatchThisAwesomeVideoToClearUp38CommonGrammarMistakes.(2013,May
9).RetrievedJune7,2015,fromhttp://www.cinemablend.com/pop/Watch
AwesomeVideoClearUp38CommonGrammarMistakes55506.html
GrammarPolice.(n.d.).RetrievedJune7,2015,fromhttps://twitter.com/_grammar_