Noah Dovre

7 December 2014
Sentence Dissection
ACTFL Standards:
1.2 Students will be translating and identifying the parts of a sentence.
4.1 Through the activities and introduction students will be identifying the parts of English and
Latin sentences and will be asked to compare the two.
Context:
This lesson takes place a little into the course, students know a decent amount of vocab
but this will be their first real grammar lesson.
Students will be familiar with members of the family, specifically their Latin pronouns,
their dress, and how their typical day progresses.
By the end of this lesson students should be able to identify the subject, verb, and
compliment in a Latin sentence.
Objectives:
TSWBAT identify and describe the role of the subject, verb, and compliment.
TSWK endings and clues to differentiate the roles of in the sentence.
Activities:
At the beginning of class students will answer questions written on the board on a scratch
piece of paper. The questions will be: What would a Roman man and woman wear? What
was the Toga Virilis? Who would wear the Bulla? This will serve as review for the
previous lesson as well as allow the teacher to see how well the students retained the
information.
After a brief overview of the subject, verb, and complement students will split into small
groups to work on identifying some sentences themselves. Following this will be a
discussion on things the students noticed or what they found difficult.
Assessment:
Take a break every 4-7 minutes and ask a question, such as What be the subject here?
Move about the classroom during the group/individual work and take note on what
students are answering or in the activity, drawing. Are they correctly identifying? Do
they seem to be struggling?
Comment on what students are answering. Ask why they identified the word as such and
see if they can explain their thought process or support their answer.
Rationale:
When studying a language it is important to set a ground work of identifying the parts of a
sentence. It gives the students the tools to dissect a sentence to help in translation and is the
foundation to learn the rest of the grammatical concepts such as the tenses and cases. Most
students will only have experience with subject, verb, etc. in English which has few ways to
identify them besides context in the sentences. This is a stark difference from Latin or a romance
language where each part of the sentence has a different endings based on their role. Pointing out
and telling students how to spot and identify these ending will prove vital with the more
advanced grammatical concepts that all revolve around different endings.

Academic Language:
Pater- Father
Mater- Mother
Puer- Boy
Puella- Girl
Sorore- Sister
Frater- Brother
Servus- Slave
Ancilla- Slave Woman
Pater- Father
Mater- Mother
Domus House
Villa Country home
Subject
Verb
Compliment a noun or adjective that modifies the subject.
Adaptations/Diverse Learners:
Depending on a students IEP exemptions for correct pronunciation or spelling as well as
being tasked with fewer sentences to read is possible.
Students that have a difficulty seeing the figures in the pictures can be given an enlarged
or color copy.
Materials:
Textbook
Whiteboard and markers
Identification sheet
Management:
Looking for engagement in the students, a willingness to ask questions, read, and discuss
the lesson or material.
o Eye contact, nodding, slouching, and daydreaming are behaviors to watch out for.
Meeting off-task behavior with direct but un-confrontational responses to maintain a
friendly atmosphere but remove the distraction. i. e. If students are talking off topic
saying Can I be part of your conversation? Or can you be part of mine?

Preparation for Learning:

At the beginning of class students will answer questions written on the board on a scratch piece
of paper. This will serve as review for the previous lesson as well as allow the teacher to see how
well the students retained the information from the previous lesson. It will also get them into the
mindset for Latin.

Strategy

Purpose

Time:

Clothing Review:
At the beginning of class students will answer
questions written on the board on a scratch
piece of paper. The questions will be: What
would a Roman man and woman wear? What
was the Toga Virilis? Who would wear the
Bulla? Following this will a short discussion
of what students remembered.

This will serve as review for the previous

lesson as well as allow the teacher to see
how well the students retained the
information.

10
min.

Subject, Verb, Compliment:

A brief introduction to each of the concepts
and their roles in the sentence. Beginning
with an English example and then a Latin.

This will introduce the students to the

concept beginning with likely a review for
the English sentence making the switch to
Latin easier. The introduction will explain
what each is and where it fits in the
sentence but details as to identify them
should be left vague besides context to
give students the chance to find ways to
identify them.

10
min.

Group Work:
Students will work in groups of two or three
and identify the subject, verb, and
compliment in some short sentences. Once
completed they will be a short discussion on
their thoughts and possible ways to identify
the parts. Following this students will
translate two complete sentences, slightly
more complex from the practice ones.
Students will need to identify the correct
parts with not each word in the sentence
being one of the three.

This gives students the practice they need

in identifying the parts as well as giving
them the chance to find new ways to
identify the word on their own. These
other ways will be revealed before the
more complex sentences however to give
students a better chance for correct
identification.

30
min.

Assessment:
Gather the students worksheets and take note of whether they correctly identified the
parts of the sentence or seemed to struggle. (Fixed mistakes, lots of erasure, and so on).
Pay attention during final section of the group work. Are the students struggling?
(Arguing meaning/purpose, staring at the page with a perplexed look, etc.)
Closure:
At the end of class ask the students how they feel when it comes to identify the sentences.
Remind them to keep an eye on word endings from now on as they will clue them in to the
purpose and use of the word in the sentence as well as being mindful of context.