BYU English Teaching Program

Lesson Plan Template (2024 version—ENGL 426)

PLANNING
Date: 3/21/24 Class/Grade Level: 11th
Title of Lesson: Fragments in Dear Martin Lesson Length: 55 minutes

Standard(s): Learning Objective(s): Assessment(s):

Standard 11–12.SL.3: Use
appropriate language, grammar,
organization, development, and
delivery styles appropriate to
purpose and audience for formal or
informal contexts.
I can identify fragments in Formative: Students will ask chatgpt
Dear Martin. for sentences. Out of these sentences
they will create fragments and turn
I can create my own effective them in.
fragments.
Summative: Students will make a
letter of who they admire, they will
include some of the grammar crafts
we have been focusing on.

Rationale: Fragments are the most complex and controversial grammatical moves we will discuss in this unit. It is
placed near the end, so that students are able to build their confidence regarding their grammar abilities throughout the
unit. Chatgpt will help them to practice different grammar crafts and this will be a way they can use Chat GPT for good.
Concept(s) to Be Taught: Fragments Prerequisite Knowledge: Students are familiar with the
book as we have been discussing the themes and content.

Materials Needed: Technology Use: ChatGPT so that way students can see
● Writers notebooks and something to write with how ChatGPT can assist them in practicing different
● Examples of fragments from Dear Martin. grammar crafts.
● Chromebook to access ChatGPT.

Instructional Strategies:
reflective writing, class discussion, small group discussion, looking over Dear Martin for grammar crafts, sentence
imitation, recording responses on paper.
Differentiation and Accommodations:

PERFORMING
Time A) Preparing for Learning
10 Minutes Okay class today we are going to focus on craft moves! Let’s begin with sentence imitation practice.
Create three different sentences and the ny pick one you would be willing to share.
Sentence imitation

○ “His first thought: instead of Sonya Kitress, the name on the article should be Nunya Bidness” (pg
156).
○ After students have written to imitations, they will pick their favorite one and a couple of people will
be able to share.

Who would be willing to share their sentences that they created? *students share*
 B) Directing the Learning
7 minutes Okay class. Thank you for sharing your sentences! I hope you have all been enjoying Dear Martin so
far! I am excited to keep talking about this book. Today we are focusing on some more of the craft
moves that Stone uses in her writing. What do you notice about these? These are drawn from the last
chapter that you guys just read.
● To begin the mini lesson I will put three sentences that are fragments. I will ask students what they
notice about each of the sentences. The sentences will be:
○ “The feeling” (pg 53).
○ “Yale, for one” (pg 54).
○ “Obviously” (pg 63).
● Hopefully the students will notice that the sentences don’t have all of the parts of a sentence and that
they feel incomplete. If students don’t notice much I could ask guiding questions like: Do you think
5 minutes these are sentences? Why not?
I will also say to students: at the beginning of class we looked at a sentence to imitate. If we took away
certain parts of that sentence we could create our own fragments!
Why do you think that stone decided to add these into her writing?
○ Hopefully they will say something like this: used to create emphasis and to create a feeling of
7 minutes conversational language. These are called fragments. They can be used for a variety of different reasons.
The way we can point out fragments if it is an incomplete sentence and it is missing an important
element of the sentence.
Okay class, wonderful job. Now let’s turn to page 70 in Dear Martin, I am going to put a 2 minute timer
on the board and I want to see how many fragments you guys can find in the text. You may work with
your table partner. Ready, Set, Go!
I will then have students turn to page 70 in their book and have them see how many fragments they can
find in the text with their partner or group.
Okay class, what examples of fragments did you find? Why do you think that they are good examples?
15 minutes We will then discuss what the effect is of the fragments and why they are good examples.
Okay class, so now lets talk a little bit about what’s going on in the book. Would someone be able to
give a synopsis of what happened last night in their reading?
● Students will explain this part of the story.
Okay yes, now how do these fragments relate to the context of the story? What are they doing that is
driving the plot?
● Students will discuss and respond as a class.

10-15 C) Reinforcing the Learning

minutes Okay class! I am going to have you log into chatgpt because we are going to ask chat to generate some
sentences for us! So type in ChatGPT to your browser and then ask it to create a list of 10 sentences for
you that can be fragmented. *I will do this to show them*
Running through the fields, chasing dreams. = chasing dreams is a fragment
Lost in thought, wandering aimlessly. = wandering aimlessly is a fragment
Once you ask chat to give you sentences, use those sentences to gain inspiration on how you could make
your own fragments. Please create 7 fragments. You may work with your table partner. I will be walking
around if there are any questions.

Activity to Avoid Wasted Time:

Students may work on their letter to someone they admire. I will encourage them to look and see if there is anywhere
they might want to add a fragment.

FOCUS STUDENT: SKIP FOR NOW

Description of Focus Student Differentiation/Accommodation Plan

REFLECTING: SKIP FOR NOW

Reflection on the Lesson (write within 24 hours of teaching)