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Tracey Driedger

3: Run-on Sentences
Grade/Subject: Grade 4-6 ELA
SPECIFIC
OUTCOMES
FROM ALBERTA
PROGRAM OF
STUDIES

4.3
4.3

Unit: Writing

Topic: Run-on Sentences

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Lesson Duration: 40 min.

Formative & Summative

ASSESSMENTS
Students will:
Identify run-on sentences in writing

Correct run-on sentences in a variety of ways

Key Questions,
Observation & Products
Key Questions,
Observation & Products

LEARNING RESOURCES CONSULTED

Resource #1: BrainPOP: Run-on Sentences (2:07)
Resource #2: The Teacher Studio: Punctuation Power

MATERIALS/ EQUIPMENT/ SET UP

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A physical giant run-on sentence rolled up

Prep BrainPOP movie
Prep SMARTboard run-on sentence
Blank paper cut into sentence strips (legal size cut horizontally one for each student)
Exit slips (one for each student)

PROCEDURE
Introduction (5 min.): 8:30-8:35
Attention Grabber: Run-on sentence prop. Unroll the sentence in front of the class (student help?). I found this
sentence in one of my stories. Without reading it, do you think there might be something wrong with it?
Assessment of Prior Knowledge: What do you need to make a sentence? (A subject, a verb and a complete
thought birds fly) What is a run-on sentence? (when two or more parts of a sentence more than one
complete thought are written as though they were one)
Expectations for Learning and Behaviour: Class discussion hands up. Individual revising quiet so everyone can
focus.
Advance Organizer: Today we are going to do a few different activities to review run-on sentences and use what
we know to improve our writing.
Agenda:
1. BrainPOP
2. Sentence Surgery
3. Revising
4. Publishing
Specific Learner Considerations: Give clear, brief written or visual as well as oral directions. Activities broken into
short, easy-to-manage steps. Help students identify goals. High response rate learning activities. Provide visual
referents.
Transition to Body: We are going to start by watching a BrainPOP about run-on sentences. Listen for the ways
we can fix run-ons.
Body (30 min.): 8:35-9:05

What is the teacher doing?

What are the students doing?

Learning Activity #1: BrainPOP: Run-on Sentences (5 min 8:35-8:40)

Show movie. List key points on the board.

#1 Actively watch movie. Answer

questions.

Assessment: Key Questions What are the three ways that we can fix a

run-on sentence? (a period, a semicolon or a comma with a

conjunction) What is a conjunction? (connecting word: For, And, Nor,
But, Or, Yet, So)
Transition to Activity #2: Lets look at my example and see if there is any

way we can fix it now that we know some strategies.

Learning Activity #2: Sentence Surgery (7 min 8:40-8:47)

#2 Identify why the sentence is a run-

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Tracey Driedger

Read the model sentence aloud with no breaths or pauses. Ask for
volunteers to reread the sentence, stopping where they think should be
a pause. Insert their choice of punctuation, then ask for a new volunteer
to continue. Reread the model sentence.
Assessments: Key Questions & Product Why is this a run-on

on. One rereads the run-on sentence,

stopping where they think there
should be a pause for punctuation.
Another continues once the
punctuation is added.

sentence? Does our new punctuation make it easier for you to read the
sentences? Looking for correct division of run-on sentences and use of
punctuation and capitals.
Transition to Activity #3: Grab your writers notebook from the bin and

return to your seats.

Learning Activity #3: Revising (10 min 8:47-8:57)
Send students to study their own writing and hunt for places to put in
missing punctuation. Now that we know how to fix a run-on sentence, I
would like you to open your writers notebook to the story that you have
been working on this week.
Assessments: Observation Circulate. Looking for correct division of run-

on sentences and use of punctuation and capitals.

#3 Hunt for places in their writing to

add missing punctuation. Fix
sentences where necessary.
Highlight some of their favorite
sentences sentences that convey
an idea very clearly or in a descriptive
or interesting way.

Transition to Activity #4: Now that you have fixed some of your sentences, I

want you to pick one of your favorite sentences to publish.

Learning Activity #4: Publishing (8 min 8:57-9:05)
Explain activity. Confirm pairing. Distribute sentence strips.
Assessments: Product Looking for clear, grammatically correct

sentences.
Transition to Closure: Close your writers notebooks, but keep your pencils

out.
Sponge Activity: Work on Writing

#4 Confirm with the person beside

them that their highlighted sentences
ARE a full sentences. Choose one to
write largely on a sentence strip, then
trace over it in marker to make it pop.
Sponge Continue to work on this
weeks story. If finished, begin a new
one or work on writing by developing
ideas.

Closure (5 min.): 9:05-9:10

Consolidation/Assessment of Learning: Exit slip: 1. What 3 parts do you need to make a sentence? 2. What is one
way to fix a run-on sentence?
Feedback From Students: Put your fingers up to show me how many run-on sentences you were able to fix today.
Feedback To Students: You are great writers. From now on, remember to look for run-on sentences when you are
revising and it will make your writing even better. Your ideas will become much clearer.
Transition To Next Lesson: Tomorrow we are going to start with a Christmas book! For next class though, Grade
5s can come to the front row and Grade 4s and 6s can go to the back half of the classroom.

LESSON REFLECTIONS

Lesson Description
What did they learn?

How did they behave?

What is the evidence?

If I deviated from the lesson plan, why did I do so?

Strengths
2

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Tracey Driedger

3-5 main strengths of my lesson plan and the lesson as taught and evidence/reasoning:

Improvements
1-3 key improvements to make to the lesson plan and my instruction, and evidence/reasoning that it
needs improvement:

Reflections
Connect my teaching performance in this lesson to my teaching philosophy/personal vision of
teaching.