Age Level: 19-32
Ability Level: Level 2A (First half of level 2)
Type of Lesson: New
Objectives- By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
- Define and provide examples of nouns
- Identify various objects (e.g., door, ceiling, desk)
- Use correct pronunciation when defining nouns
- Use listening skills and subtle clues to solve answers
- Use nouns (words) in sentences while upholding grammatical integrity
Materials Needed:
- Cards (provided by the teacher)
- Tape
- Computer
- YouTube
- Classroom
Preparation: Before the class, the teacher will have written all of the nouns he wishes to use on index cards.
Location: Regular Classroom
Warm up/Anticipatory Set/Activation (5 minutes): When the students enter the room, the teacher will first take attendance while ensuring that he provides examples of nouns. For example:
- “Hi Gustavo”
- “Hi Leanne, I like your shirt!”
- “Michael– I haven’t seen you in a long time; how is your dog doing?”
- “I need a new pen! Does anyone have a pen I could borrow?”
- “Make sure you have the new book for tomorrow’s ”
It is the teacher’s hope that the students recognize the teacher’s over-exaggeration of certain words. By extension, the teacher hopes that at least one student will inquire as to why such stress has been placed on certain words; if this is not the case, the teacher will simply say, “There are way too many nouns in this room!”
Review (10 minutes): Because this is a level 2A class, it is assumed that the students have acquired at least some knowledge as to what nouns are. The teacher will ask the students, “What are some nouns in here?” (Pause). “Remember, a noun is a person, place, physical “thing” or an idea.” Most likely, the students will begin saying, “Oh, Gustavo is a noun—he’s a person!; I’m a noun I think; my book is a noun!” The teacher will accept all of these answers and will ask the students to expand on their knowledge by asking, “What other “things” do you see in this room? It is assumed that the students will point to items and either 1) say the word in their native language (which will not be permitted) or 2) will point and make the teacher aware that he or she does not know the word in English.
Presentation of New Material/Procedure (15 minutes): The teacher will commend the students for their abilities to identify the common nouns they uttered, but will express that he wants the entire classroom “noun-den-tified”—meaning, he wants all of the nouns in the room to be considered. To do this, the teacher will ask one student to volunteer to be the first to “noun-den-tify” one physical thing in the room.
- The teacher will ask the student to come up to his desk and pick a card up from his desk; on the card, is a word (for example wall). The teacher will ask the student to try to say the word (wall). Then, the teacher will give clues and ask the entire class to also provide clues (but not the answer).
- For wall, the teacher might say, “I am white. I am all around you. I am hard and cold.” With additional clues provided as needed, the student will place the “wall” card upon the wall and select another student to go; every student will have at least one, if not two, chances to go.
- Other nouns that will be used include (note that clues will be given for each noun):
- Poster
- Door
- Computer
- Outlet
- Ceiling
- Teacher’s Desk
- Student’s Desk
- Chair
- Floor
- Radio
- Radiator
- Pipe
- White Board
- Marker
- Class Dictionary
- Teacher
This will continue until each item in the class is “noun-den-tified.”
Although the teacher does not anticipate a student struggling too hard or not being able to place the appropriate card in the correct place, the student will be given another card to try.
Pronunciation (5 minutes): Although pronunciation will be integrated throughout the duration of the lesson (by way of having one read the word prior to placing it onto the item), further attention will be given. The teacher, as a way of assessing the word recognition and pronunciation, will point to one of the cards and ask the students to say the word; in a way, it’s a chorale-reading drill in that all participants will be actively engaged at the same time. Further, mispronunciations will be detected and remedied as needed by the teacher; the teacher will say the word the way he thought someone said it and ask the students (as a whole) what is wrong with that pronunciation in hopes that the students will correct him.
Grammar (5 minutes): Although this is not a grammar lesson, as a closing assignment, students will be asked to select three nouns that we have studied and write sentences containing a subject, a form of the verb ‘to be’ and the noun.
Closing (5 minutes): See “Grammar exercise.” Also, the students will listen to “Nouns” by SchoolHouse Rock http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Schoolhouse+rock-+nouns
Rationale: The structure of this lesson has been carefully thought out based upon the teacher’s knowledge of the students’ learning styles. Further, this lesson allows students to be active in their learning rather than stative and also permits the students to learn from each other; aside from the teacher providing the clues to where the cards should be placed, the students basically teach/guide each other. Moreover, the teacher providing clues serves as a way to integrate prior knowledge into the new lesson (that is, the teacher might use adjectives/descriptors/actions to describe, say, the door: I’m cold, I open and close; I separate us from the hallway; both the clues and the grammar exercise help to remind students of the typical English sentence and allows them to practice forms of the verb ‘to be’.
By Robert J. Platt, M.A.