Lesson Plan in Teaching Writing

(Verbal Participle)

I. Objectives:
At the end of the 60-minute English class, the fourth year students are expected to:
 Employ verbal participles to avoid grammatical errors in writing i.e. dangling
modifiers;
 Expand personal ideas about the topic, “masquerade”, through writing a narrative
paragraph; and,
 Adopt the appropriate modes of paragraph development on one’s composition.

II. Subject Matter:

A. Topic / Content
 “masquerade”
 Verbal Participle

B. References
 Ferrel, B. D. (2011). Splashes from the River Corp. Retrieved February 2, 2011,
from http://www.splashesfromtheriver.com/.../verbals-participles.html
 Graham, J.E. English Grammar and Composition
 MacFadyer, H. (20110). University of Ottawa.Org. Retrieved February 2, 2011,
from http://www.writingcentre.uottawa.ca/.../verbals.html.
 Nordguist, R. (2011). The New York Times Company. Retrieved February 4,
2011, from About.com: http://www.about.com/identifyingverbals/html
 Woods, G (2011). Wiley Publishing Inc. Retrieved February 2, 2011, from
http://www.dummies.com/how-to-use-verbals-in-writing.html

C. Materials
 Mask
 Semantic Map
 Worksheet for verbal participles
III. Teaching-Learning Sequence:
A. Pre-Activity
1. Semantic Mapping
Students brainstorm on their concept of masquerade, for example costume party,
conceal, ugliness, and the like. They must be able to explain why they thought of
such.
2. Grammar in Focus
In line with the previous activity, the teacher discusses a recall on verbal participle –
a pretentious grammar item. Thus, students will be first engaged to analyzing the
following sentences:
a. Broken, the toy still ran.
The toy was broken but still ran.
b. Planning their trip, the class learned some geography.
While they were planning their trip, the class learned some geography.

Points for discussion:

 A participle is a verbal ending in –ing (present) or –ed, -en, -d, -t, -n, -ne
(past) that functions as an adjective, modifying a noun or pronoun.
E.g.: The crying baby had a wet diaper.
Shaken, he walked away from the wrecked car.
 A participial phrase consists of a participle plus modifier(s), object(s), and/or
complement(s).
E.g.: Removing his coat, Jack rushed to the river.
Delores noticed her cousin walking along the shoreline.
 Participles and participial phrases must be placed as close to the nouns or
pronouns they modify as possible, and those nouns or pronouns must be
clearly stated
E.g.: Carrying a heavy pile of books, his foot caught on a step.
Carrying a heavy pile of books, he caught his foot on a step.

In the first sentence, there is no clear indication of who or what is performing

the action expressed in the participle carrying. Certainly foot can’t be
logically understood to function in this way. This situation is an example of a
dangling modifier error since the modifier (the participial phrase) is not
modifying any specific noun in the sentence and thus is left “dangling.”
Since a person must be doing the carrying for the sentence to make sense, a
 noun or pronoun that refers to a person must be in place immediately after
the participial phrase, as in the second sentence.
 A participial phrase is set off with commas when it:
 Comes at the beginning of the sentence
 Interrupts a sentence as a nonessential element
 Comes at the end of a sentence and is separated from the word it
modifies

B. While Activity
Students compose a well-structured paragraph about a personal experience of wearing
masks or concealing their real self. Their composition should furthermore tell the
audience why they have to pretend and what are the results of their pretension. They must
use verbal participles in their essays to avoid dangling errors.

Note: The rubric to be use in checking the student’s piece will be determined with the
partaking of the class.

C. Post Activity
The teacher processes her students’ craft through the following guidelines:
 Was there a clear and creative presentation of the topic?
 Do sentences present unity?
 Do the ideas presented strictly account to the topic?
 Does the presentation of ideas follow a smooth transition?
 Were there correct uses of verbal participles?
IV. Evaluation:
Students answer a five-item quiz on verbal participles. They would have to identify the
participles in each of the sentences and the word it modifies.

1. Ruined spaghetti covered the stove.

2. A broken kite fell out of the tree.
3. Whipped cream tastes yummy on ice cream.
4. The breaking story at twelve is about our football championship.
5. The student earning the highest grade point average will receive a special award.