1. Grammatical Gains
A unit about grammar in media by Meghan Blair

2. Rationale
 This unit is intended to not only meet the standards for the
English Language Arts curriculum, but to incorporate the rules
of grammar into the daily lives of students. Students will
examine the grammatical errors and differences within media,
social settings and scholarly writings to effectively connect to
the academic content. These examinations will occur in a
student guided manner, thus relating to Buckingham’s idea of
using pleasurable activities to enhance critical thinking
 By so doing, this unit aligns with the NAMLE Core Principles in
that it “builds and reinforces skills for learners…those skills
[that] necessitate integrated, interactive and repeated practice”.
Additionally, this unit will expand the concept of literacy from
beyond the academic setting into daily media influences.

3. Target Population
 3rd grade inclusion classroom
 Suburban school district
 Students age 7-9
 Levels vary from below grade level to above grade level
having students with physical and learning disabilities as well
as students who are gifted and talented
 The concepts and activities in this lesson can be adapted to
meet the standards of other grade levels and student
abilities.

4. Objectives
 Students will identify and correct a grammatical error in
advertisement.
 Through class discussion, students will demonstrate an
understanding of inaccuracy in media presentation.
 In writing students will employ at least 2 of the 4 discussed
grammatical elements correctly (capitalization, punctuation,
preposition usage and subject/verb agreement)
 Working in groups, students will use collaborative skills to
create a grammatically correct advertisement in the medium of
their choosing.

5. ELA Standards (Common Core)
 Conventions of Standard English:
 1) Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English
grammar usage
 2) Demonstrate command of the standard English capitalization,
punctuation and spelling
 Knowledge of Language: Apply knowledge of language to
understand how language functions in different contexts, to make
effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully
when reading or listening.
 Language Standard Grade 3b: Recognize and observe differences
between the conventions of spoken and written standard English.

6. Media Literacy Standards
 1) Practice general observation, critical thinking, analysis,
perspective-taking, and communication skills by being flexible
in assignments, allowing students to choose which media formats
are the most effective way for them to communicate the required
information or complete the required task.
 2) Media Literacy Education expands the concept of literacy
(i.e., reading and writing) to include all forms of media.
 2.1 Like print literacy, which requires both reading and writing, MLE
encompasses both analysis and expression.
 2.4 MLE should be taught across the pre-K-12 curriculum. It can be
integrated into nearly any subject area.
 2.5 MLE welcomes the use of a broad range of media “texts,”
including popular media.

7. Materials and Resources
 Magazine advertisements
 Television commercials via YouTube and other websites
 Radio advertisements
 Political slogans & campaigns
 Computers with Internet access
 ELA textbook from McGraw-Hill
 Paper
 Pencils
 Resources for presentation (poster board, makers, etc.) based on
student need
 Under, Over, By the Clover: What Is a Preposition? by Brian P. Cleary
 Incorrect sentence strips
 Index cards with prepositions, capitalized words, etc.

8. Unit Outline
 Day 1: Review of known grammatical elements (45 minutes)
 Day 2: Introduction through presentation of advertisements in several forms of
media (45 minutes)
 Day 3: Discussion of capitalization & punctuation rules and processes (45 minutes)
 Day 4: Discussion of subject/verb agreement (45 minutes)
 Day 5: Discussion of prepositions (45 minutes)
 Day 6: Media Exploration (1.5 hours)
 Day 7: Advertisement critique (45 minutes)
 Day 8: Advertisement creation (1.5 hours)
 Day 9: Advertisement creation (continued) (1.5 hours)
 Day 10: Presentation (1 hour)
 Day 10: Presentation (1 hour)

9. Lesson 1(day 2)
 Introduction: Play the interview between Ryan Lochte and Matt Lauer from the
London Olympics. Ask do you think anything was wrong with this interview?
http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/48480570
 Body: Provide students with a brief summary of grammatical rules (when to use
he/him, more vs. –er)
 Present students with a t-chart; side 1= quote from the video side 2= student correction of
the statement
 Replay the video and provide students with Obama’s 1st presidential campaign slogan
“Change we can believe in”
 Have a class discussion with the following guiding points:
 Which errors did you find in these media resources?
 Did you think that interviews could have mistakes?
 Did you think that media slogans could have mistakes?
 Can you think of any other places you could find grammatical errors today when you are
not at school?
 Closure: Ask students to get their math textbooks from their cubbies when you call
their name. Inform students they have to correct your sentence before they can get
their book. Ex. (while pointing to student next to the one named) “Matt and him can
get their books”

10. Lesson 2(Day 5)
 Introduction: On the board write “What do the words at, in and on have in
common?” Provide students with 5 minutes to write and/or draw their
explanation of similarities.
 Provide a brief explanation, ex: They all describe a location. “My mom is at work”
“We are in school” “The book is on the desk”.
 Body: Write the word “preposition” on the board and say it aloud. Read the
book Under, Over, By the Clover: What Is a Preposition? by Brian P. Cleary.
Follow with discussion asking students for their definitions of a preposition.
Have students break into 4 groups of 5 and write a definition together.
Compare these definitions to the dictionary definition on the board. (A
preposition is a word that indicates the relationship between a noun or pronoun and other
words in a sentence.)
 Closure: Mouse in the House Activity (need 2 milk carton houses & one
construction paper mouse for each student)
 Using the sentence structure “ The mouse is _______ the house” have students
place the mouse in the proper location. On the worksheet with 10 sentence frames
have students fill out the preposition in the blank after moving the mouse. (in, on,
above, behind, between, near, under, outside, upon, at)
 Final task, “the students are standing IN line”

11. Lesson 3(Day 6)
To introduce this lesson, the librarian and computer teacher will share
resources that can be used by students to find samples of media that can be
critiqued. This will be a continuation of the lessons being taught in these
classes for the week prior, it will be approximately 20-30 minutes long.
I will provide students with an explanation of the project in the classroom. They
will be expected to find at least 3 samples of media in which there is a
grammatical mistake. These examples should be printed or their website
written down. After 40 minutes of exploration, students will work in groups of
4 to share their 3 examples. Peer comments will guide the decision as to
which media will be used for the final project. This discussion will last for
approximately 10 minutes. In closing, students will return to their work
stations and either print, cut out or describe their media. This paper product
will serve as their “ticket” to lunch/recess.
Throughout the period I will be walking around assisting students, guiding their
research and answering questions.

12. Lesson 4(Day 7)
 Introduction: When students return from Music, there will be a slip of paper
on each desk with an incorrectly written sentence. Students will be instructed
to re-write the sentence using the correct grammar. A review of the
grammatical rules and terms will occur following this activity.
 Body: For the majority of this lesson, students will be re-writing their
advertisement to have correct grammatical structure. They will also begin
work on their presentation which must include: the original piece of media,
its corrected form, the justification for grammatical changes and an opinion
of why media has incorrect grammar.
 Closure: Toward the end of the period I will provide each student with an
index card. Each card will have one word on it that will either need to be
capitalized, put into lowercase form or be a preposition. Three of the
classroom corners will be labeled as “capital”, “lowercase” and “preposition”.
Students must stand in the appropriate corner with their card.

13. Assessment & Evaluation
 To evaluate the instruction and format of the lesson, I will monitor
the use of time to see if it was designed correctly. Additionally, I
will align the lesson with the Common Core evaluation form
created by my district. Finally, I will reflect upon the impact of the
lesson on students through informal observation of future
grammatical use and conversation about media in later lessons.
 Student work will be evaluated based upon the criteria in
objectives. Their presentations will be evaluated based upon the
attached rubric.

14. Rubric
4 3 2 1
Presentation Well-rehearsed with Rehearsed with Delivery not smooth, Delivery not smooth
smooth delivery that fairly smooth but able to maintain and audience
holds audience delivery that holds interest of the attention often lost.
attention. Clearly audience attention audience most of Does not show the
shows the original most of the time. the time. Shows the original piece of
piece of media. Briefly shows the original piece of media.
original piece of media with difficulty.
media.
Content Covers topic in- Includes essential Includes essential Content is minimal
depth with details knowledge about information about OR there are
and examples. the topic. Subject the topic but there several factual
Subject knowledge knowledge appears are 1-2 factual errors.
is excellent. to be good. errors.
Requirements All requirements All requirements -Media corrected One requirement
are met and are met. -Media accurately with was not completely
exceeded. -Piece corrected incorrect rationale. met. -Media is
of media is accurately with OR -Media incorrectly edited.
accurately incorrect rationale. correction has OR -Incorrect
corrected. - OR -Media minimal errors. Rationale OR -
Explains the correction has Rationale or
grammatical rule minimal errors. correction is