Lesson Twenty-Two: Review of Fragments / Practice In Context

Recognizing more than ever the difficulty developmental writing students have identifying and correcting fragments in context, I designed this short slideshow as a review of the fragment types and an in-context revision practice. Because the recent two-week segment on fragments moved quickly and introduced a lot of challenging information, I think a succinct review is essential if the students are to grasp and retain the new knowledge and skills.

The dynamic elements in these slides are similar to those used in the primary slideshows on fragment types presented over the last two weeks. One element that should be scrutinized is the “correction” components of the in-context practices: are they clear and bold in such a way that minimizes the potential confusion over the various options for correcting the fragments? As always, my goal is to simplify the concepts and the options, without severely misrepresenting the full grammatical scope.

Unfortunately, neither the online quizzes nor the textbook exercises offer an excellent sequence of homework for the students. The textbook exercises (correcting fragments in-context, short paragraphs) once again are too difficult, thrusting students into overly complicated in-context situations. We should be able to develop a smoothly sequenced set of online quizzes to help students master this pivotal material. This week could be a superb learning and consolidation opportunity for the students, but due to the lack of first-rate homework material, I think the experience will be mediocre at best. We can rectify this insufficiency when we revise and augment the website material this summer.