Lesson Plan for Comparative and Superlative Adjectives
Posted: 10 Jun 2008, 05:42
Hey there Lucy (and all members :) )
I'm doing my TESOL course currently and have been assigned to do a lesson plan (eek eeek and more eeeek). I have to present it this coming Saturday and have 20 minutes!!!!!!
I struggled to get a topic going and thought, okay, since I like comparing, let me do comparatives and superlatives!
I'm still struggling with the following however:
1. Do I teach both the comparative and superlative or just one and then the other?
2. How in depth do I go before it's too much for the students? What I mean is, do I tell them about good, better, best? more difficult, most difficult?
3. For what level would comparatives and superlatives be? Elementary? Pre-intermediate?
I have a rough draft of what I want to do, which goes like:
Warmer:
Divide class into groups of three and play "River, river, bank bank"
The group who wins gets a prize.
PRESENTATION:
Select three students (the winners of the prize) and ask them how old they are.
“26- Greg, 18- Autumn, 29- Michelle”
Write their names and ages on the board.
Say out loud, “Autumn is 18 years old. How old is Autumn?” Answer: 18.
Repeat it with Greg and Michelle.
Ask the students to put the three in age order.
After doing this, say, “Autumn is 18 years old. Yes?” Answer: Yes.
Write old down on the board next to Autumn’s name.
“Greg is 26 years old. Greg is older.”
Write older next to Greg’s name.
“And Michelle is 29 years old. He is the oldest.”
Write oldest next to Michelle’s name.
Repeat the exercise with the class repeating after:
“Autumn is old. Greg is older, Michelle is the oldest.”
Concept Checking:
“Richard, is Autumn the oldest?” “No, Michelle is the oldest.”
“MJ, is Greg the oldest? No, Michelle is the oldest.”
“Sholony, can I say, Greg is more old than Autumn? No. Greg is older than Autumn.”
Greg, what are we doing when we say, “Greg is older than Autumn?”
(Hopefully he will say comparing!) Comparing means putting two things next to each other/side by side/ and seeing what is the same and what is different.
“Andrea, when I say Michelle is the oldest what do I mean?”
“Michelle is age is more than Greg’s and Autumn’s.”
Review: Autumn is old, Greg is older, Michelle is the oldest.
Using the same students, and the same presentation we do
“tall, taller, tallest.”
“Michelle is tall, yes?” Yes.
“But Autumn is- Taller”
“Greg is the tallest.”
Do another Concept Check.
One more is done with ‘small’ and the students are asked what do they see as a pattern between all the words. This should elicit ‘er’ and ‘est’ and ‘the smallest, the tallest, the oldest’.
Students are then asked to come up with adjectives examples (we would do about five and hopefully one of them would have the CVC), which would be written on the board.
Hot
Big
Young
Pretty
Angry
Before writing anything down, elicit from the students what the comparatives and superlatives are for the list:
“Kevin, it is hot in Northern California. But in Southern California it is?
“Hotter.”
“But in the desert it is the?”
“Hottest”
“Ebru, Jane’s bag is big, but Tony’s is?”
“Bigger”
“And Joshua’s bag is the biggest.”
After this I write them down on the board
And explain to them the CVC as the HOT words.
“Words with CVC (what does CVC mean? C is consonant, V is vowel, C is consonant are HOT) why are they hot? Because their last letter gets doubled/becomes two) and then we add our partners/friends- er and est.”
I write down the spelling of the HOT words and pronounce them. I get the students to say it with me in choral. Hot – Hot, Hotter - Hotter, Hottest - Hottest.
Big – Big, Bigger – Bigger, Biggest – Biggest
Then we move on to the next one:
Young
I say Young and point at Tony and he has to expand it to younger and youngest. If he gets it right, “Good Job!” Now, do we make the last letter two? “Noooooo. Why? It’s not CVC. It’s not a HOT word.”
Spell it on the board.
Say, “I gave Chris one dollar and he was happy”. “If I give PJ five dollars, he would be “Nicole?”
If she says Happyer, I’ll say, “Yes!”
Does anyone know how to spell happier?
And I spell it on the board.
“Words that end with Y are magic words. The Y changes to I and then we add our friends, er or est. So, Happy, becomes Happier and then Happiest.” (write it down on the board)
Ask someone for a sentence with Happier and Happiest.
“Pete, what about angry? Can you give me sentences?”
Little Song:
Adjectives that end with Y are magic words
When we compare we change the Y into an I
And add our friends, ER or EST.
To get Pretty, Prettier and Prettiest
Happy, Happier and Happiest”
PRACTICE
In groups of three, try and fill in the handouts.
Concept checking and review. Ask them to read aloud and spell “Nice Nicer, Niciest? Nooooo.”
Assigned five of the adjectives and need to put them into a short story.
They swap stories with the next group and read aloud.
Concept Checking
“Do I say, “It was darkest than yesterday? Nooooooo”.
PRODUCTION
Put in groups of three again, they come up with a dialogue or little skits showing the degrees of comparison.
(I think my production is a little weak!!)
All and any advice welcome!!!
I'm doing my TESOL course currently and have been assigned to do a lesson plan (eek eeek and more eeeek). I have to present it this coming Saturday and have 20 minutes!!!!!!
I struggled to get a topic going and thought, okay, since I like comparing, let me do comparatives and superlatives!
I'm still struggling with the following however:
1. Do I teach both the comparative and superlative or just one and then the other?
2. How in depth do I go before it's too much for the students? What I mean is, do I tell them about good, better, best? more difficult, most difficult?
3. For what level would comparatives and superlatives be? Elementary? Pre-intermediate?
I have a rough draft of what I want to do, which goes like:
Warmer:
Divide class into groups of three and play "River, river, bank bank"
The group who wins gets a prize.
PRESENTATION:
Select three students (the winners of the prize) and ask them how old they are.
“26- Greg, 18- Autumn, 29- Michelle”
Write their names and ages on the board.
Say out loud, “Autumn is 18 years old. How old is Autumn?” Answer: 18.
Repeat it with Greg and Michelle.
Ask the students to put the three in age order.
After doing this, say, “Autumn is 18 years old. Yes?” Answer: Yes.
Write old down on the board next to Autumn’s name.
“Greg is 26 years old. Greg is older.”
Write older next to Greg’s name.
“And Michelle is 29 years old. He is the oldest.”
Write oldest next to Michelle’s name.
Repeat the exercise with the class repeating after:
“Autumn is old. Greg is older, Michelle is the oldest.”
Concept Checking:
“Richard, is Autumn the oldest?” “No, Michelle is the oldest.”
“MJ, is Greg the oldest? No, Michelle is the oldest.”
“Sholony, can I say, Greg is more old than Autumn? No. Greg is older than Autumn.”
Greg, what are we doing when we say, “Greg is older than Autumn?”
(Hopefully he will say comparing!) Comparing means putting two things next to each other/side by side/ and seeing what is the same and what is different.
“Andrea, when I say Michelle is the oldest what do I mean?”
“Michelle is age is more than Greg’s and Autumn’s.”
Review: Autumn is old, Greg is older, Michelle is the oldest.
Using the same students, and the same presentation we do
“tall, taller, tallest.”
“Michelle is tall, yes?” Yes.
“But Autumn is- Taller”
“Greg is the tallest.”
Do another Concept Check.
One more is done with ‘small’ and the students are asked what do they see as a pattern between all the words. This should elicit ‘er’ and ‘est’ and ‘the smallest, the tallest, the oldest’.
Students are then asked to come up with adjectives examples (we would do about five and hopefully one of them would have the CVC), which would be written on the board.
Hot
Big
Young
Pretty
Angry
Before writing anything down, elicit from the students what the comparatives and superlatives are for the list:
“Kevin, it is hot in Northern California. But in Southern California it is?
“Hotter.”
“But in the desert it is the?”
“Hottest”
“Ebru, Jane’s bag is big, but Tony’s is?”
“Bigger”
“And Joshua’s bag is the biggest.”
After this I write them down on the board
And explain to them the CVC as the HOT words.
“Words with CVC (what does CVC mean? C is consonant, V is vowel, C is consonant are HOT) why are they hot? Because their last letter gets doubled/becomes two) and then we add our partners/friends- er and est.”
I write down the spelling of the HOT words and pronounce them. I get the students to say it with me in choral. Hot – Hot, Hotter - Hotter, Hottest - Hottest.
Big – Big, Bigger – Bigger, Biggest – Biggest
Then we move on to the next one:
Young
I say Young and point at Tony and he has to expand it to younger and youngest. If he gets it right, “Good Job!” Now, do we make the last letter two? “Noooooo. Why? It’s not CVC. It’s not a HOT word.”
Spell it on the board.
Say, “I gave Chris one dollar and he was happy”. “If I give PJ five dollars, he would be “Nicole?”
If she says Happyer, I’ll say, “Yes!”
Does anyone know how to spell happier?
And I spell it on the board.
“Words that end with Y are magic words. The Y changes to I and then we add our friends, er or est. So, Happy, becomes Happier and then Happiest.” (write it down on the board)
Ask someone for a sentence with Happier and Happiest.
“Pete, what about angry? Can you give me sentences?”
Little Song:
Adjectives that end with Y are magic words
When we compare we change the Y into an I
And add our friends, ER or EST.
To get Pretty, Prettier and Prettiest
Happy, Happier and Happiest”
PRACTICE
In groups of three, try and fill in the handouts.
Concept checking and review. Ask them to read aloud and spell “Nice Nicer, Niciest? Nooooo.”
Assigned five of the adjectives and need to put them into a short story.
They swap stories with the next group and read aloud.
Concept Checking
“Do I say, “It was darkest than yesterday? Nooooooo”.
PRODUCTION
Put in groups of three again, they come up with a dialogue or little skits showing the degrees of comparison.
(I think my production is a little weak!!)
All and any advice welcome!!!