1 2nd Grade English Language Arts Samantha Payne

Subject: 2nd Grade English Language Arts Topic: Adjectives

Purpose: Todays lesson will teach the students about adjectives, and how they apply to writing sentences. Students will need to be able to write longer sentences with a more complex meaning, so they can enhance their writing abilities. Instructional Objectives: Students will be able to define/tell what an adjective is. Given the attached worksheet about adjectives, students will be able to identify the adjective in a sentence.

Expressive Objectives: I can define an adjective. I can identify the adjective in a sentence.

Review: We have learned about nouns and verbs. Who can remind the class of what a noun is? Give me three examples of a noun. Who can remind us about what a verb is? Give me 3 examples of a verb. In order to make a very simple sentence we need just a noun and a verb. An example of this would be: The dog ran. Can you think of three other simple sentences examples? Their sentences should not have any descriptive words. Students will raise their hands to answer. (Thank students for their examples.) Today we will be building on our discussion about nouns and verbs, but we will be taking the next step with our sentences. Answers: A noun is a person, place or thing. A verb is an action word, that describes what a noun is doing.

Anticipatory Set: The teacher is going to show the video clip below. It is a music video about adjectives. It is old and kind silly, so of course you may laugh if you find something funny. There may be some words you dont understand in the song, but its okay. Please pay careful attention to the wo rds they are unpacking, when they are camping. Also look for the words put on the screen. This song

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gives you an idea of what we will be talking about today. The song is catchy, so feel free so sing along if you so choose to. (If time permits play this again in the closure.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkuuZEey_bs

Input The music video we just watched was about parts of speech called adjectives. In the video after the camping trip they were unpacking their adjectives. Can anyone recall a couple of the words they unpacked? Call on about 3 students, but dont turn students down if they know the answer. The word adjective may be hard to say so why dont we say it together. I will say it, then you can repeat after me on the count of 3. (If students still arent saying adjective correctly, say it once more for them to repeat. An adjective is a part of speech, like nouns and verbs, which we have already studied. Adjectives are important because they are words that give us detail. In a sentence an adjective describes a noun or a pronoun. We are going to learn about pronouns next week. Adjectives describe a person, place, thing or idea. When we are writing sentences, adjectives help us ask the question, What kind? Which one? How many? For example: There were 14 students on the baseball team. What question does this answer? And what word tells us the answer to the question? (Call on students to answer) (Answer: How many, and the number 14). When we are writing, adjectives are words that make our writing more interesting, even color can add spice to our writing. For example: The girl wore a sweater. This is the basic sentence that we have been writing. Now we want to add an adjective to make it exciting. How about we add a color as an adjective? (Call on one student to answer the question) (Hypothetically the student answered pink). So we would say the girl wore a pink sweater. See how we added some spice to our sentence, just by adding a color. What question did we answer about the sweater? What kind? Which one? How many? (Call on students to answer) (Answer: what kind). We can add a few adjectives in a sentence so that it is exciting, but we wont be doing that today, because we are just learning the basics. In the next few exercises we are going to discover more adjectives in our table groups. You are going to be working with others, and then you are going to have a chance to try it yourself and show me what you know. We are going to unpack our adjectives together as a class.

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Before we continue what are some examples of descriptive words that we know? They can be colors, ways things feel, the way something tastes, the way something smells, the way something looks, the way something sounds. When thinking about adjectives, remember your 5 senses. Sight, Touch, Hear, Taste, Smell. Thinking about your 5 senses will get you prepared for your group work in a little bit. (Write 5 senses on white board). We are going to transition to an activity where you will need your composition book for this class. If you dont have it go ahead and get it quickly and return to your seats. We are going to do something fun, but I need you all to stay quiet and show me that we can do things like this. Please be on your best behavior. Modeling: The teacher will be handing out a pack of SweetTarts to every student. Dont open these SweetTarts until the teacher has passed them out to entire class. In their composition book for the class, they will write at least 4 words about what the package looks like or feels like. Remind students that an adjective, is a word that gives detail to the sentence. Students will be given about 1 minute or less to complete this activity. Teacher will circulate around the room, to ensure that all students are participating. Next, instruct students to open their pack of Sweet Tarts. As they open them, remind them not to trade Sweet Tart flavors/ colors with their neighbors. These were handed out randomly. You take what you get and dont throw a fit. Tell students they make take one of the SweetTarts out of the package, and put it in their hand. Have them look at it for a second, then have them put it on the tip of their tongue. They arent to chew the candy, but rather to suck it. Have them w rite down a at least 3 adjectives about what it tastes like. Call on a few students to see what they wrote down in their notebook. Once every student has done this, repeat it for the second Sweet Tart. Now, for the second Sweet Tart, have students place it closer to the back of their tongue. Also have them write at least 3 adjectives. Ask the class if their answers were the same or different. Call on a few students to see what they wrote down in the their notebooks, dont call on the ones from the first trial with this. Have students circle what they feel is their best adjective that they wrote down. Check for Understanding: Ask the class the following questions: What is the definition of an adjective? (a describing word) What does an adjective describe? (a noun or a pronoun) Is color an example of an adjective? Give me a few examples, if the answer is yes. If no, explain why you answered no. (yes)

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What about taste or flavor, is taste an example of adjectives? Give me a few examples, if the answer is yes. If the answer is no, explain why you answered that way. (yes) What are a few descriptive words to describe the teachers outfit? No mean or hurtful comments can be made. Why are adjectives important? (they give detail and interesting information) What are some adjectives that could describe the weather? (some examples are: sunny, rainy, wet, windy, foggy, etc.) Why do we need to know about adjectives? (so we can write better sentences with more detail) What does an adjective describe? (a person, place, thing or idea) What is an example of a place we might describe with adjectives? What is an example of a person we might want to describe? Guided Practice #1 Purpose: To get students to use their new knowledge to see where adjectives are placed in a sentence, and to identify adjectives in a sentence. Process 1. I will hand out the attached worksheet to the class. (EdHelper Sheet on adjectives). Remind students to put their names on the paper. 2. We will read the directions and the given examples. 3. We will do only the even numbered problems together. (These problems are highlighted in orange for the teacher copy.) DO NOT DO the ODD #!! Remind students what the even numbers are, then have them circle the even numbers, so there is no confusion. 4. Numbers 2,4 and 6 I will call on students to answer the questions together. Students will be writing the answers in as we go along. Call on different students for each example. 5. For numbers 8, 10, 12 and 14 students will work with the person sitting to them. They will be given about 3 minutes to complete this activity. 6. When all students are done with their partner activity, the class will reconvene and we will quickly go over the answers to numbers 8,10, 12 and 14. Students will not raise their hands, so that everyone has a fair chance to answer, and so that they pay attention to the questions and answers. The teacher will circulate around the room to ensure that every student is following along. Product: Students have now identified several examples of adjectives in sentences, in order to move onto the next guided practice this must be completed, because we will be continuing our study of adjectives. This provided a base knowledge and written examples for students.

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Guided Practice #2- Group Activities Purpose: The purpose is for students to have hands-on experience with describing different items in a group setting, so they gain a better understanding of how to use adjectives. Process: 1. Divide students into 4 groups of six or seven students. Since the desks are already in a setting for this, not much adjustment will be needed. In the case of absences, however, make sure that each group has relatively the same number of students. Students will be rotating on 5 minute intervals to the next station. When the group is finished they are to clean up the area, if they were too messy. 2. For each table group give them one bag per group. Group #1: has picture cards Group #2: has scraps of fabric and yarn, Group #3: has small samples of food, Group #4: has a small piece of poster board (18 x 24) and markers. 3. Students in group #1: will be discussing adjectives in their group for the picture cards. They have to choose a few images to discuss. These adjectives have to be clear and not confusing. This requires imagination, because they are black and white images. They dont have to write anything down in this group. Do not write or draw on the picture page, other groups have to use it. Students in group #2: will be discussing how the different scraps of fabric and yarn feel. These adjectives have to be clear. They will write a few of the group ideas down in their class notebook. The adjectives they write down must be about how the yarn and fabric feels, not how it looks. Students in group #3: will be discussing adjectives relating to food. Each group member must have at least two different types of food to try. (I have already taken food allergies into account.) They will be writing down at least 5 adjectives describing the food they tasted. For example the saltine crackers might taste sweet (this is an example for students, but they wont be sweet saltine crackers.) Dont tell students but the foods to try are saltine crackers, raisins, honey teddy grahams. Group members can discuss quietly as they are sampling the food, but dont talk too loud, because other groups will want to discover it for themselves. Students in group #4: have a piece of poster board and markers. In this group, students have to think about creative adjectives that have not been used yet or adjectives that they dont think will be used. There are plenty of words, so try to keep repeating words to a minimum. Each student must write at least 3 different words. Use a variety of marker colors. Have students put

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their first and last initial next to their adjective, so we can all see who added what words to the poster. This poster will be hung in the classroom, after this project is completed. Writing neatly is also key! 4. Once the materials have been handed out to each table group, students can begin working on their activities for that table group. After 5-7 minutes are up, they can rotate groups, but this transition will be teacher sanctioned. Repeat this until all groups have visited each of the 4 stations. 5. Once we are done, have students transition to their home group so that they can work on their independent practice. 6. As students work on independent practice, teacher will be picking up the materials left and the 4 stations, and throwing away empty and open food containers. Product: Students will have helped to create a poster with adjectives to hang in the classroom, to remember what they learned about. When this poster hangs in the classroom it will remind them to use adjectives when they are writing. The hands on experience will give students practice by doing, so they have a greater percentage of remembering what they were taught. Independent Practice: Worksheet Purpose: To get students to identify adjectives in a sentence when they are working independently not in a class discussion or with partners. Process 1. When students return to their desks from guided practice number 2, have them pull out their adjectives worksheet again. Point out to them that the evens on the right side of the page should be fully completed. 2. Now, looking at the left side of the page, the odd numbers should be completely blank. Students will fill out numbers 1,3,5, 7, 9, 11, and 13 independently. They may not work with partners, or as the teacher for help. This is to test their understanding. Give them about 5 minutes to complete this assignment. 3. If students complete the above directions, and the class period is not over, then they may work on the attached crossword puzzle. However, the only way they can start on the crossword is when the odd number side is completely filled out. The crossword puzzle will not be graded, but, the odd numbered problems will be. The crossword is just for a challenge until the others have finished. I dont want students to get up and turn these in until everyone is done.

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4. When everyone is all done, they may turn it in to the Language Arts bin. The independent practice problems will be graded, and the guided practice problems will be for participation points. Product: Students will have seven more examples of sentences with adjectives. They can show that they completed half of this worksheet independently. This is a visual and written example of what we learned in class today. Closure: Today we talked about adjectives, what they are and why we need them to spice up our writing. Play the video again, and ask students what they learned after the video has concluded. Assessment: I will assess the students work based on their performance in the independent practice and guided practice worksheet that they will hand in once they are finished with the assignment. I will be grading the independent practice, and giving them feedback on their work. The homework will still likely be assigned, even if students understand the content. Homework: Have students write 3 sentences that have a noun, verb and adjective. These sentences have to describe themselves. The sentence may have more than one adjective. Give them the following example: I am a girl with long brown hair or I like to wear orange shirts on Friday.