Mini-Lesson Template

Mini Lesson Topic

Name the teaching
point.
Materials
Gather materials,
mentor texts...

Connection
Tell them what you
taught the previous
lesson. The last writers
workshop, we learned
how to...

Dangling Modifiers A word or phrase that

modifies a word not clearly stated in the sentence.
(OWL at Purdue)
White boards (class set)
Markers for the white board (only a few per group)
Markers for my white board
Their Eyes Were Watching God novel (should be
reading this already)
<1 min: During the writers workshop, we should
have gone over modifiers (words that change the
meaning of a sentence.) Students should be able to
recognize modifiers easily, however, since the last
writers workshop was not in this unit (or Ive
noticed something that needed to be addressed in a
mini-lesson in between workshops) we will quickly
review them.
In fact, in Their Eyes Were Watching God, a novel
we will be reading for the Harlem Renaissance unit,
there is a modifier on page 166 (and throughout):
The dog stood up like a lion, stiff-standing hackles,
teeth uncovered as he lashed up his fury for the
charge. (Thank you Jeff Anderson and Mechanically
Inclined.)

Explicit Instruction
Tell them what you will
teach today. Today Im
going to teach you...
Show them exactly how
to do it. Watch me do
it.,. or Lets take a look
at how (author) does
this when s/he writes...

4 min: Today, were going to be talking quickly

about dangling modifiers and how you can fix them
in your writing as well as spot them in other
peoples writing.
I will write down a quote on the board that could be
confused because of a dangling modifier: Yoko Ono
will talk about her husband, John Lennon, who was
killed in an interview with Barbara Walters. (Again,
thank you Mechanically Inclined who borrowed from
Richard Lederer.)
We will talk about why the sentence is confused. (I
will be looking for reasons that include Barbara
Walters not being the one who killed John Lennon.)
We will discuss how there are two different modifiers

in this sentence (since there are two clausesYoko

Ono, will talk and in an interview as well as
John Lennon and who was killed the former
being independent and the latter being dependent.)
We will talk about which modifier is fine (who was
killed) but try and figure out how we can fix the rest
of the sentence because of the modifier in an
interview.
(Examples: Yoko Ono will talk in an interview with
Barbara Walters about her husband, John Lennon
who was killed.)
I will use different colors to identify and show the
students where each part of the sentence goes.
I will then write down a sentence on the board: The
cat walks up to me. I then ask students to visualize
this. I then will ask the students to call out a few
modifiers about what the cat could be doing. (As an
example: purring, meowing, hissing, licking
its whiskers, etc.)
We will then pick one (as an example: licking its
whiskers) and break the students into groups of
two to three.
Guided Practice
Ask them to try it out
with a partner, or with
you for a few minutes.
Now try it out with a
partner...

3 min: Each group will get three white boards and

three different colored markers. They are to write
down the sentence The cat walks up to me as well
as licking its whiskers. I will explain that the
students are to write each on a white board, then
rearrange them as they please, trying to find the
best and worst possible locations for the modifier. I
will let them know that the third white board can be
used if they want to be creative and split the
sentence up if they feel like it. (Good example: The
cat walked up to me, licking its whiskers and The
cat, licking its whiskers, walked up to me.) We will
talk about how these are all good examples of nondangling modifiers.
I will then ask the students, as a group, how the
sentence could be changed into a dangling modifier.
This will allow me to check and see if they actually
understand what a dangling modifier is. I will let
students know that they may need to change the
sentence in order to make it dangle.

Examples: The cat approached me, licking its

whiskers.
Thinking it was cute, the cat approached me.

Independent Practice

Remindstudentshowthe
teachingpointcanbeused
inindependentwriting.
(Thereshouldbealink
betweentheminilessonand
thestudentsindependent
writinglives.)

Group Wrap-Up
Restate the teaching
point. Ask: Did you try
what was taught? Did it
work for you? How will it
affect your future
writing?

2 min: I will remind the students to be careful about

dangling modifiers, watching out for them in their
writing. Since we are in the Harlem Renaissance unit
and different vernacular is being used, they need to
be careful to spot it in things they read and write in
these different vernaculars.

<1 min: I will ask students how this will affect their
future writing and how they will use modifiers to
better their writing and how they will look out for
dangling modifiers.
1-5 fingers on how well they understand dangling
modifiers.