Class Mad-Libs

Overview
Children will practice reading skills and parts of speech by using madlibs. They will first do a mad-lib as a class. Then they will each get their own mad-lib story and will pair up with another student to get individual practice.

Literacy: Reading 4th grade

Materials
Mad-libs Smart board/projection unit (optional) Paper Pencils

Standards
DPI Content Standard: B.4.3 Understand the function of various forms, structures, and punctuation marks of standard American English and use them appropriately in communications. Specific to this lesson children will understand and use parts of speech effectively, including nouns, verbs, and adjectives

Classroom Management
Material Distribution: Hand out mad-libs to students while they are getting out their writing utensils. Behavior: Try to pair students up with someone that they will not get off track with and fool around with. Time: If you are short on time, children do not have to share their mad-libs at the end. If you have extra time you could have several children share or you could go through another mad-lib as a class. Groups: Students can be paired however you would like. Some ideas are pairing them up by whom they are sitting next to or by having them count off by numbers and pairing up by numbers. Transitions: When transitioning from whole group to pairs, make sure children do not get too loud and do not get off task and take away from the time they have to work on their mad-libs.

Prior Knowledge
Children will have prior knowledge of different parts of speech and their function in sentences. They will also have had practice with identifying different words by what part of speech they are. We will practice what they already know by having a large group brainstorming session. On the board, write the parts of speech that the children have been working on. Go through each part of speech one at a time and have children brainstorm words that belong to that part of speech (ex. Verbs: run, walk, sleep, dance; Nouns: cat, dog, store; Adjectives: tasty, dirty, smelly etc.). Write down the words they brainstorm under each category.

Goals and Objectives

Remembering: Children will remember the three parts of speech we have been working on in class noun, adjective, and verb. Understanding: Children will understand how the different parts of speech function in sentences. Applying: Children will apply their knowledge of the parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective) by using these types of words to complete a story (mad-lib). Evaluating: Children will be evaluating their partners work by listening when their partner picks a word to go in the blank. They will decide whether or not the word their partner said is the correct part of speech for the blank they are on. Creating: Children will create their own mad-lib by filling in

Other Resources
http://dpi.wi.gov/standards Mad lib worksheets can be found online and printed out at website like these: http://www.classroomjr.com/printablemad-libs-for-kids/ http://www.teachnology.com/worksheets/language_arts/madl ibs/ www.it.iitb.ac.in/~vijaya/ssrvm/ 1

Class Mad-Libs

the blanks with the correct part of speech. They will make sure the words in the blank are the correct part of speech so that the story makes sense. They will learn from this activity that using the correct part of speech in a sentence is important because if the wrong part of speech is used the sentence may not make sense.

worksheetscd/getWorksheets.com/ Language%20Arts/madlibsdoc.pdf

Motivation
Begin the lesson by reading a completed mad-lib that you did on your own before class. Use a story that ended up being funny. The children will most likely enjoy the story and laugh at how it turned out. Have the children listen for words that do not seem to fit in with the story and listen for what words/phrases make it funny. This will make children excited to write their own funny story.

Steps and Procedures

1. Begin by asking students if they know what mad-libs are. If a student knows have them explain it to the class. If no one knows you will explain it to the class. (1-2 minutes) Then give the children an example of a mad-lib by bringing up a mad-lib on the Smart board if you have one. If you do not have a Smart board you can project it by other means or can just read through it. Make sure the example is a mad-lib with the blanks not filled in so that the students can just see what part of speech the word needs to be that will go in the blank. (2-4 minutes) After giving the example, ask the children what parts of speech they saw under the blanks in the mad-libs that are also parts of speech we have been working on. After they list the three parts of speech we have been working on in class (noun, verb, adjective), begin the brainstorming activity described in the prior knowledge section. (5-8 minutes) Next, practice how to do a mad-lib as a class. Go through the mad-lib saying only what types of words are needed to fill in the blanks. Say the part of speech needed and call on different children until all of the blanks are filled in. Then read the completed story out loud to the class. (5-8 minutes) Make sure the students understand how to do a mad-lib. Answer any questions they have. (1-2 minutes for questions and clarification) Then explain what they will be doing next. Tell them that they will each be getting their own mad-lib and will be paired up with a partner who will come up with words for the blanks. They will then read the completed mad-lib out loud to their partner. Tell them that they should also be making sure that their partner is coming up with words that are the right part of speech. If they notice that their partner says a word that is the wrong part of speech they should tell them to try again

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Class Mad-Libs

and if their partner gets stuck they should try to help them think of a word. (1-2 minutes for explanation) 7. Pair students with a partner that is sitting next to them and begin handing out the individual mad-libs. (2 minutes) 8. Once everyone has a mad-lib and a partner they can get to work. One partner will come up with words to go in the blanks first while the other reads the parts of speech needed and then reads the completed story out loud. They will then switch roles. (15 minutes) 9. At the end, some students could share their completed madlibs. Allow all students who want to share a chance to read their story to the class but if students do not want to share they do not have to. (5-10 minutes) 10. Have children hand in completed mad-libs. (1 minute)

Differentiation
To use this activity with younger grades, it could be made into a whole group activity and could be simplified by leaving blanks for characters names instead of parts of speech. The steps would be the same except it would be done as a whole class and once the story is written, the names of the characters would be replaced by blanks. The children would then have to write names of people they know or their own names on the strips of paper. Then the names would be used to fill in the blanks to complete the story with new people each time. The lesson could also be made more challenging by using mad-libs that have more parts of speech (adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, etc.) You could also leave the example mad-lib projected on a screen so that children who learn best by visuals have an image to reference if they forget how they are supposed to do the mad-lib. You could also pair students based on ability. You could pair up students who you know have been struggling with parts of speech and reading with a student who you know is doing well in reading so that they could help the struggling student.

Closure
Having children share their stories is a good way to close the lesson. This gives children a chance to read out loud to the class and practice their reading skills. This also gives them a chance to share their completed story to the class. You could also send home blank mad-libs for the children to do at home for fun with their family if they would like to.

Assessment
The mad-libs will be collected for assessment. To assess, make sure that the children used words of the correct part of speech for the blank it filled in. Another way to assess would be to listen to the children share the story out loud to the class. Listen for any words that they

Class Mad-Libs

struggle with reading. Also, observe the children while they work in pairs to see which students need help from their partner and which students are the ones helping their partner.

Class Mad-Libs