Direct Instruction Lesson Plan Template

Grade Level/Subject: 5th

Central Focus: Adjectives, Adverbs, Comparatives, and Superlatives

Essential Standard/Common Core Objective:

NCES ELA-LITERACY RL.5.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are
used in a text, including figurative language such as metaphors and similes.

Date submitted:

Date taught:

Daily Lesson Objective: The students will know how to identify modifiers, including phrases; how to identify and use
adjective and adverbs correctly. Students will be able to use comparatives and superlatives correctly in sentences.
21st Century Skills:
Academic Language Demand (Language Function and Vocabulary):
Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
I can identify modifiers, including phrases and use adjectives and adverbs
correctly. I can use comparatives and superlatives correctly in sentences.
Prior Knowledge: parts of speech, sentence structure

Activity

1. Focus and Review

2. Statement of Objective
for Student

3. Teacher Input

Description of Activities and Setting

Alright everyone, since we will be working with sentence structure today I
want to think back through our parts of speech. There are four main ones
that Im thinking of, and that we will be working with today: nouns, verbs,
adjectives, and adverbs. Now what is a noun again? Right, a person, place, or
thing! And an adjective does what? That describes a noun, exactly. And weve
got to have an action in the sentence, right? What is that called? A verb!
What describes our actions? Perfect, adverbs do!
Now today we will be working with those parts of speech but taking it a step
further to work with two modifiers called comparatives and superlatives.
After today you will be able use these modifiers to embellish your stories even
more and add rich detail.
Today, we will be working with modifiers. A modifier is something that is
added to a sentence that aids in describing in writing. There are two types of
modifiers: comparatives and superlatives. Now lets look at comparatives;
what do you see in that word? Compare right? When we use a comparative,
it is usually to compare two things. A comparative will always end with -er.
Then, we have superlatives. A superlative is used when we are describing
something to the highest degree. A superlative will always will end in -est.
Lets look at a few examples of these:
Michael Jordan is taller than me. It looks like this is comparing two people:
Michael Jordan and I. I also see an er at the end, so it must be a? Right! A
comparative!
What if I were to say I am the shortest student teacher at Socrates.? I only

Time

1-2 mins

30 secs

5 mins

4. Guided Practice

5. Independent Practice

6. Assessment Methods of
all objectives/skills:

7. Closure

see one person being talked about here, and we are describe that I am the
shortest, the absolute shortest student teacher here. Therefore, it must be a
superlative. Great!
Now I want to have a little fun with these! Have you guys ever played Mad
Libs? Well we are going to today! First we are going to fill in the story with
parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs), read it, and then we
are going to add in some sentences with comparatives and superlatives, and
see how that adds even richer detail for us. Lets give this a shot. As I go
through this story, I will shout out the part of speech I need, and I want you to
raise your hand and give me a word that matches that. I will add that to the
story and we will see how our story ends up sounding!
Start to ask for the part of speech that the story asks for, going in order. Fill
in the words as you call on the children. Once you have filled in the words, go
back and read the story with the words the children chose.
Wow, that was quite the story! Now I want to add a few more sentences to
our story, so we can see how much more detail we can have by adding
10 mins
comparatives and superlatives. We are going to keep the same story and the
words that you chose, but I need new words for these new sentences. So
remember what we talked about and raise your hand as I call out that I need
either a comparative or a superlative.
On the attached sheet there should be sentences labeled 1-6 asking for
superlatives or comparatives in the blanks. Walk through the sentences
asking the students for words to fill in those blanks with. Once you have filled
that sheet in, read the story again. There are numbers highlighted in the
story bracketed in between sentences, showing where to read the sentences
on the comparative/superlative sheet. When you come to a bracketed
number, read the sentence that correlates on the comparative/superlative
page.
Awesome job you all! Now I have a worksheet for you to work on with
comparatives and superlatives. Complete the worksheet and bring it up to me
15 mins
when youre done.
Pass out the worksheets for them and let them work.
Informal Assessment:
During the review, gauge where the students are with working with parts of speech.
During Mad Libs, try to at least call on every student once to gauge their ability to give a
part of speech.
Formal/Summative Assessment:
Check for understanding with the worksheets
Great job today! Im very impressed with your work! Lets make sure we got
everything from todays lesson!
5 mins
Can someone remind me again what an adjective is? Good! And what does it

8. Assessment Results of
all objectives/skills:

do? Great, yes it describes a noun or pronoun!

And how about an adverb? Right, and what does an adverb do again? Yes!
Describes the verb or the action taking place!
Then we have our modifiers: what are those? Comparatives and superlatives,
yes! Remind me what those do again?
Awesome! You got this! Great job today!
The students did great with this worksheet. Only four out of twenty missed a problem on
the worksheet, and it seemed like careless errors, not a comprehension problem.

Targeted Students Modifications/Accommodations:

No students with special needs or ELLs in Mrs. Haighs
class.
Materials/Technology:

Student/Small Group Modifications/Accommodations:

Students got the opportunity to volunteer their answers
during the Mad Libs.

(Include any instructional materials (e.g., worksheets, assessments PowerPoint/Smart Board slides, etc.) needed to implement the lesson at the end of the lesson plan.)

Mad Libs worksheet(s) [modified] and worksheet for summative assessment.

References:
Study Island (Socrates Academy), Mad Libs Inc [modified]
Reflection on lesson:
Overall I feel like this lesson went well. The students were very engaged throughout and excited to make their own
story. Each student got to participate and they really enjoyed the lesson. I hope to continue to work on classroom
management, because I feel like at times their excitement got out of hand and caused us to lose time getting way of
track. I also hope to learn to be firmer with my students; I think sometimes I dont know how to be firm enough to
establish my authority. I also wish I had more examples for comparatives and superlatives. I only had one for each and
with that being the main part of the lesson, I dont feel like I did well with presenting that like I could have. Overall I am
very pleased with how this went!