Lesson Activity: Introductory lesson on comparative and superlative adjectives (Day 1)
Lesson: Taught to ELL students in the small-group setting
1. Introduce the lesson by explaining to students that they will be learning a new grammar rule today. Explain to them that this is a mystery rule, and they are going to have to use the examples provided to investigate and figure out the rule. 2. Have a t-chart on the small-group table, but do not have labels on the top. Introduce the examples one by one, discussing how the underlined word changes in each example and why it might change. a. Example: Place Rey is taller than Diego on one side and Xavier is the tallest of the boys in our class. Ask students, what do you notice is different about the base word tall in these two examples. What else do you notice is different about these two sentences? Allow students to share their ideas. Continue placing examples, asking questions to guide students to discover the rule. Other examples include: Emely is nicer than her brother. Some students think Emely is the nicest student in our class. Cayenne is faster than Cierra. Clara is the fastest runner in the entire school! 3. After progressing through examples, ask students, do you think you have figured out the mystery rule? Lets look at just this column (point to the comparative column) What did you notice here? Do the same thing for the superlative column, writing down student responses on another piece of chart paper beside the examples. 4. Explain to students that they were able to figure out the mystery rule. Introduce the names of the two different types of adjectives. Comparative and Superlative. Be sure to point out that comparitve adjectives are used to compare two things and you attach er to the base word. Superlative adjectives are used to compare one person or thing to every member of a group and you attach est to the base word. Have students write the t-chart into their grammar toolkits. Create examples of each together. 5. Next, have students work on a comparative/superlative worksheet. At first, students are underlining the comparative and superlative adjective and identifying which one it is and explaining why. (You may choose to do this using the GRR depending on level of students)
6. Students will also practice changing a comparative adjective to a
superlative and vice-versa. 7. Now, show students the comparative/superlative T-chart on the Smartboard. Students will get a chance to 1-by-1 come up to the Smartboard and drag the provided sentence to the correct category and explain why. 8. Before moving on to the context of reading, provide pairs of students with a conversational dialogue with partner A and partner B lines. Read throught the lines together as a group, discussing any unfamiliar words. The partners will read through the conversation and practice reading it and saying it together. Sample: Partner A: My sister and I were racing yesterday, and I totally creamed her. I am faster than my sister. Partner B: Oh yea, well I bet that I am faster than you. Partner A: Impossible. Coach M, our P.E teacher, told me that I am probably the fastest kid in the grade. Partner B: Well that may be true. But you arent in my grade. Guess what?! Coach M told me that I am the fastest kid in the school! Partner A: I dont believe it. We have to have a race so that I can prove I am faster than you. Partner B: Lets have every one race so that I can prove I am faster than you and that I am the fastest kid in the school! Partner A: Its on! 9. After reading the conversation orally and practicing with the different kinds of adjectives, show students that they are going to work with their partner to identify the comparative and superlative adjectives in the conversation. Explain to them that they will use a pink highlighter to highlight comparative and a yellow highlighter to highlight superlative adjectives. Model how to do one, thinking aloud. Then, allow students to finish the rest with their partner. Walk around and assist if needed. 10. Next, provide students with the text, Pig, Pigger, Piggest by Rick Walton. Read the book together, hunting for examples of comparative and superlative adjectives. Make a list together of everything found. 11. To close the lesson, have students write a story that includes at least 2 comparative and superlative adjectives. Ask students, think about what you could write about that you can compare things. Do you have any ideas? Allow students to share their ideas with the group. Then allow students to begin writing. 12. After students are finished writing, have them switch with a partner. Their partner should identify the comparative adjectives
used in pink highlighter and the superlative in yellow. Share
some examples 13. End by having students share what comparative and superlative adjectives are in their own words, sharing examples of each.