Easily+confused+verbs

Do you ever wonder when to use lie or lay in your writing? How about sit or set? Do you ever say arise when it ought to be rise? Do you have any issues with take and bring? Well, you won't have that problem anymore! Together we will explore the common misconceptions with these difficult verbs. We will determine when it is correct to use particular verbs and we will all feel more confident about our own writing!

Students will be split into four groups and each will take a short quiz on their difficult verbs.


 * Group 1:** Lie vs. Lay


 * Group 2**: Sit vs. Set


 * Group 3**: Rise vs. Arise


 * Group 4:** Take vs. Bring

After these quizzes, we will discuss the common misconceptions about each set of verbs. We will try to gauge why the verbs can be so confusing, especially lie vs. lay. This will hopefully be contextualized so we can understand why it is difficult for middle school students. As we are discussing each set of verbs, I will give a very short mini lesson and hopefully a mnemonic or some type of way to remember the differences. We will look at the quizzes of each group in order to make the necessary corrections if there are any.

Hey, Jesse, Again, a good idea. See my e-mail responses for feedback. Best, Dr. Y

** Jesse Gore **, ECI 430, October 29, 2010 ** Unit and/or Lesson Title: ** Easily Confused Verbs Part 1: Lie vs. Lay ** Context: **After Dr. Pope’s minilesson on the differences between affect and effect during ECI 405 this semester, I thought of how there are many words that are commonly used in incorrect situations. I personally have trouble distinguishing when to use lie and when to use lay. Therefore, since my colleagues and I are planning to become language arts teachers, I feel we ought to get some of these “easily confused verbs” straightened out so we can impart this knowledge onto our students. This particular lesson will focus on the controversy between lie and lay. In contextualizing this lesson for middle school students, I want to begin teaching students about easily confused verbs in order to strengthen and improve their writing. I will use quotes from novels that we will be reading in our class. These novels will include // Tuck Everlasting //, // The Outsiders //, and // Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry //. ** Plan Number: ** One in a series of four ** Primary Instructional Objective and Related NC Course of Study Standard for MG LA:   ** · Students will be able to determine when to use certain verbs that are easily confused with other verbs, specifically lie vs. lay · Students will be able to conjugate lie and lay into the present, past, and past participle tense · NC Course of Study: 6.01—Model an understanding of conventional written and spoken expression by:  o Using subject-verb agreement and verb tense that are appropriate for the meaning of the sentence ** Materials/Technology Resources Required: ** · Smart Board · Copies of the Lie vs. Lay Bell Ringer Quiz (also imported to Smart Board) · Copies of the Lie vs. Lay Conjugation Chart (also imported to Smart Board) · Conjugation cards · // In The Middle //, Nancy Atwell (copies of pages 189-90 for students) · Online resources with information on lie vs. lay ** Time: ** One regular class period (50 minutes); Minilesson will consist of the first 12 minutes of the larger lesson ** Instructional Procedures/Steps: **(1) To begin the lesson, students will have one minute to complete a very quick bell ringer to assess the level of knowledge they already have on the easily confused verbs, lie and lay. The short quiz—that students will do individually—will test students on the different tenses of lie and lay. Students will be told that we will revisit the bell ringers after a few activities. (2) To bridge or introduce the students to today’s lesson, I will tell the students that I will perform two actions. One will be to lie on the ground and the other will be to lay a book on a table. Students will be able to offer hypotheses about which action is the one meaning to recline and the one meaning to place something. (3) After the hook, students will be asked to define lie and lay. The teacher will look for the following answers: Lie, an intransitive verb, means to recline, while lay, a transitive verb, means to put or place something. It is important to note that lay and any of its conjugations require a specific object being used. (4) After defining these two terms for one minute (or less), students will be introduced to the different tenses of lie and lay. A chart will accompany this part of the lecture that describes the conjugations. We will take five or six minutes to go over the chart. For the present tense, students should remember the following: You __lay__ objects down, and people __lie__ down by themselves. (5) After we have seen the examples presented on the chart, students will have one minute to check their answers and change them if they noticed anything that they would like to change. (6) After checking their answers, students will be assigned a variation of the word lie or lay. The students will have 30 seconds or so to become familiar with their form of the word. (7) Once each student is familiar with his or her variation, we will check the answers on the quiz for the final two or three minutes. Students will have to perform their word and sentence when their word is the correct answer. On a white board, the words present, past, and past participle will be present. When performing, the students will read the entire sentence and do the action that is present in the correct section of the white board. As the words are being performed, we will discuss why each answer is as it is and why. (8) The remainder of the class period (after the minilesson is over) will consist of students silently reading page 189-190 of Nancy Atwell’s text, // In The Middle // for further understanding and clarification. Students will compare the examples in Atwell’s text to the ones on the chart they completed during the mini lecture. The teacher will briefly go over this page to reiterate the points made earlier in class. (9) After using the Atwell text for five minutes, students will then begin creating their definition videos of lie vs. lay. As they saw during the classroom examples, students will perform each variation of lie and lay with the groups at their tables. Each member must participate and the groups will find creative ways to represent each variation of the word. Students will also use this twenty-minute section of class to come up with creative mnemonic devices to remember the conjugations. (10) Students will present their videos to the class during the next ten minutes. (11) We will finish class with a five-minute ** closure ** where we will redefine lie and lay and go over some of the mnemonic devices that students created during group time. // Where to go next //: The next few days will consist of similar discussions using different easily confused verbs. Since there are other easily confused verbs that have similar conjugations (sit and set, rise and raise), we will frequently reference the lie vs. lay lesson. ** Evaluation: **I will evaluate my lesson based on the participation level of the students in my classroom. During the mini lesson, I will determine if the students are able to figure out the correct answers to the quiz. The class will be able to work together during the review of each question, so I will determine if only a few students are participating, or if it is the entire class. For the period after the mini lesson, I will be able to determine if students understood the differences and variations of the words based on the definition videos they create. ** Accommodations: **N/A ** In Retrospect/In Reflection: ** N/A ** Appendix of Materials Needed: ** · Lie vs. Lay Bell Ringer Quiz (Attachment 1)  1. Lay (lie past tense)  2. Lay (lay present tense)  3. Lain (lie past participle)  4. Laid (lay past tense)  5. Lie (lie present tense)  6. Laid (lay past participle) · Lie vs. Lay Conjugation Chart (Attachment 2)