Misplaced Modifiers Lesson Plan: Conventions of Standard English

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This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic Misplaced Modifiers, and supports the standard of placing phrases and clauses within a sentence and recognizing and correcting misplaced and dangling modifiers. Students demonstrate understanding through a variety of projects.

Step 1: ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Display a sentence with a misplaced modifier, like the one below:

I ate a mushy plate of mashed potatoes and peas.

Ask students:

• What does the word “mushy” describe in this sentence?
• Where in the sentence would you move “mushy” to make the meaning clearer?

Step 2: BUILD KNOWLEDGE

• Read the description on the Misplaced Modifiers topic page.
• Play the Movie, pausing to check for understanding. 
• Assign one of the five Related Reading to each student. Partner them with someone who read a different article to share what they learned with each other.
  

Step 3: APPLY and ASSESS 

Assign Misplaced Modifiers Quiz, prompting students to apply essential literacy skills while demonstrating what they learned about this topic.

Step 4: DEEPEN and EXTEND

Students express what they learned about misplaced modifiers while practicing essential literacy skills with one or more of the following activities. Differentiate by assigning ones that meet individual student needs.

• Make-a-Movie: Produce a tutorial that explains how to rearrange a sentence to correct a misplaced modifier.
• Make-a-Map: Create a concept map identifying types of misplaced modifiers and describing how each affects a sentence’s meaning.
• Creative Coding: Code a comic illustrating an example of a misplaced modifier. 

More to Explore 

Grammar Unit: Continue to build understanding around conventions of standard English by exploring more BrainPOP grammar topics.

Teacher Support Resources:

• Pause Point Overview: Video tutorial showing how Pause Points actively engage students to stop, think, and express ideas. 
• Learning Activities Modifications: Strategies to meet ELL and other instructional and student needs.
• Learning Activities Support: Resources for best practices using BrainPOP.