Stage 1,2, and 3 of the New Lesson - January 2014

So; I shall now post the document for this sucker, as of last update, right here (rather, it's a link to the document on googledrive, which should make it easier to view):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8ZCkazrvXtgTUVLSENucXh3QzQ/edit?usp=sharing

The skill that I just taught at the beginning of the assignment cycle was about avoiding misplaced and dangling modifiers. This is one of the 2 specific grammatical focuses of this next writing assignment, and will be marked on their assignment sheets / essays.
The dangling modifier / misplaced modifier is one of my favorite grammatical quandaries, as it creates, in the words of one crafty student, "pictures based on literal interpretations of ridiculous sentences!!" It does indeed. It's slawesome.
The strategy employed was:
1. students draw 3 slips of paper out of the "Satch" (an old satchel that I use to distribute mysteriously grammatical things to students), on which are written sentences that have problems with misplaced / dangling modifiers.
2. Students type the sentence onto a document in their Notability app on their ipads, leaving myriad space between the sentences.
3. They figure out the problem with the sentence, and in the process discover the hilarity of the incorrectly-written sentence.
4. They depict, in visual form, the literal interpretation of the wacky sentence.
5. Underneath, they fix the sentence, so that it is correctly-written.
6. They post pictures of their artwork to a discussion board on Schoology to share with the entire grade!
7. Following the artwork, they then have to write their own sentences that have dangling / misplaced modifiers. My theory is that if they can create something themselves, they will have a more intimate understanding and competency with the concept. If they struggle with this, they can use sentence modeling techniques to insert their own concepts into the structure of a previously-written sentence-- either on the slips, or on the previously-done worksheets we did while initially learning the concept.

The results were, quite frankly, spectacular, for a couple of reasons: 1. Students love to see their work on a screen; 2. students love to see their work on the interwebs; 3. Students love to draw weird stuff on their ipads; 4. Students love to work with misplaced modifiers...partially because I say the sentences while laughingly playing air-guitar, committing to the moment in the most serious and epic of ways.
Here are a couple of examples of the students' work (permission granted!)

I would do this again (this isn't my first time doing the assignment - it's a classic), and plan to! Booyaa.