Language Arts Lesson

GRADE LEVEL: Third

OVERVIEW: This lesson instructs the skill of making adjectives comparative and superlative. The
attentional prompt starts students’ thinking on how to compare items with adjectives. Then the
direct instruction involves comparisons of students as an example for saying phrases and adding the
suffixes. Students practice adding suffixes and saying comparative phrases during guided practice. A
second direct instruction guides student to explore the different spellings involved with adding the
suffixes. A guided practice follows. This concept of spelling exceptions is an introduction and will be
practiced more in following lessons while using comparative and superlative adverbs. An
independent practice finishes the lesson with an ungraded formal formative assessment. The
independent work is tailored to levels. The worksheets will be evaluated and used to guide the
lesson the following day on how to review the concepts. The next couple lessons would fulfil the
standard by students writing about comparative and superlative adjectives and adverbs.

RATIONALE: This lesson uses the method a showing patterns of adjectives to teach the concept.
Using patterned words was instructed in EDCI 370 as a way to teach new vocabulary. The students
are experiencing the words in action and can make connections with the pattern. This language
experience uses multiple senses, which makes a more memorable experience. (Helman, 2012, p. 58)
Different senses are used again during independent practice; students feel the adjectives of the
nouns. Using the sense of touch helps to comprehend the word since most can be unknown to level
1 and many for level 2 students. Nouns and adjectives are key vocabulary in this lesson and their
definitions are reviewed at the beginning of the lesson. The first guided practice begins with
students working with the teacher and limited oral language. Then it leads into students directing
the conversation and full oral participation. Samway explains that talk is an important influence in
developing fluency. (2006. p. 27) Students can practice saying these adjectives in a comfortable
situation to help them reach fluency. The lesson uses different modes and examples throughout
each section of the lesson to give students multiple ways to reach understanding.

WIDA STANDARD: English language learners

communicate information, ideas, and concepts necessary for

academic success in the content area of Language Arts.

INDIANA STATE STANDARDS:

3.W.6.1c Adjectives/ Adverbs –Writing sentences that include comparative and superlative
adjectives and adverbs, choosing between them depending on what is to be modified, and
explaining their functions in the sentence.
LESSON TOPIC: Comparative and Superlative Adjectives

OBJECTIVES:

Content

• Students will add er to make an adjective comparative.

• Students will add est to make an adjective superlative.

Language

• Students will write ‘er’ or ‘est’ to compare adjectives.

• Students will say comparative and superlative adjectives associated with a noun.

MATERIALS:

• 3 strings of varying lengths

• Cards of nouns from direct instruction

• 2 Cards with ‘er’ or ‘est’ for direct instruction

• Class birthday chart

• Completed PowerPoint containing pictures of nouns and written adjectives

• Reversible ‘er’ and ‘est’ cards for each student

• Individual whiteboard and marker

• 4 sets of: 3 leaves/burlap and cardboard/ribbons and fabrics/marshmallows

SDAIE STRATEGIES

1.b. Content is academically demanding

4.a. Gestures, facial expressions, action to dramatize, meaning

4.c. Graphs, pictures, visuals, maps

5.c. Plans for students to actively participate in learning activities verbally and nonverbally according
to functional English abilities.

6.a. Heterogeneous groups

6.b. Pair work

LEVELED QUESTIONS:
 Leveled Questions or Prompt Possible Student Responses

Level 1 Question 1: Which one is the biggest? Student labels the biggest marshmallow.

Question 2: Would you add er or est? Student holds up designated card.

Question 3: Which one is thicker? Student points to the thicker book.

Level 3 Question 1: How would you compare these two hairy dogs? This one is hairier than that
one.

Question 2: How did your partner compare these dogs? He/she said that this one was
hairier than that one.

Question 3: What if there was a thicker book. How would you compare this new book to the
others? The new book would be the thickest.

Level 5 Question 1: Tell me a sentence that would compare these books. The book on the left
is thicker than the one on the right.

Question 2: How are comparative and superlative adjectives different? Comparative

adjectives use ‘er’ to compare only 2 nouns. Superlative adjectives use ‘est’ to compare more than 2
nouns.

Question 3: Why did you choose to add ‘er’ and not ‘est?’ I am only comparing to
nouns, so I use ‘er.’

KEY VOCABULARY:

Nouns: Noun, Verb

Verbs: Compare

KEY SENTENCE FRAMES:

Level 1: It is bigg_____ than the other.

Level 3: _____ is/are __________ than ______.

Level 5: _______________________ than _____________.

Procedure:

Attentional Prompt/Motivation (5 minutes)

1. I will pin up three strings of different lengths up on the board. “Tell or show me something
about these strings.” I will listen to student responses to hear how they compare. Students who are
not verbal can point and demonstrate length.

2. I will point to the smallest and medium sized string. “Compare these two strings. Tell me
what is the same and different of the two strings”
3. I will point to the largest. “What can you tell me about this string?”

4. “Today, we are going to learn how we change adjectives to describe nouns around us, like
these strings.”

Review of past lesson/information

5. “What are nouns? Give me some examples. What is an adjective? Give me some
examples”

Direct Instruction (10 minutes)

1. I will have students join me at the carpeted area sitting around as a group. I will choose
three students of different heights to come stand in front of everyone. I will give the shortest
student a card with the word tall. “Student’s name is tall.” I will motion from the ground to the top
of the student’s head to demonstrate tall. Then I will give the second tallest student the card with
‘er.’ “Student’s name is taller.” I will demonstrate this by motioning from the top of the short
student’s head to the top of the taller student. “I am only comparing two people (point to each
saying one, two) so I add ‘er’ to tall.” Then I will give the tallest student the ‘est’ card. “Student’s
name is the tallest.” “I am comparing more than two people (point to each saying one, two, three)
so I add ‘est’ to tall. Then I will reiterate while hovering my hand over each student and then write
the word on the board, “Tall, taller, tallest.”

2. I will choose a student with hair to his/her shoulders to come up and give him/her the card
that says long. “Student’s name has long hair.” I will gesture to the length of his/her hair. Then I
will bring up a student with longer hair and hold up the ‘er’ card saying, “I am comparing only two
people,” before I give him/her the ‘er’ card to hold. “Student’s name has longer hair than student’s
name.” (Gesturing to students and their hair) I will hold up the ‘est’ card, “Now we are comparing
more than two people, who has the longest hair?” I will take suggestions from the students and I
will call a student up to hold the ‘est’ card. “Student’s name has long hair. Student’s name has
longer hair. Student’s name has the longest hair.” I will write these words on the board.

3. I will choose another student with hair to about his/her shoulders to come up and give
him/her the card that says short. “Student’s name has short hair.” I will gesture to the length of
his/her hair and gesture short with my hands close to each other. Then I will ask, “Who has shorter
hair than student’s name?” I will be holding the ‘er’ card while asking then will bring up the student
suggested. “Student’s name has shorter hair than student’s name.” I will gesture to each student’s
length to show comparison. “Who has the shortest hair?” I will give the student the ‘est’ card.
“Student’s name has the shortest hair.” I will then reiterate like before but pause for students to say
short, shorter, and shortest. “Student’s name has ____ hair. Student’s name has ____ hair.
Student’s name has the ___hair.”

4. I will bring up the sign that has the class birthdays and ask students to stand up. I will point
to the sign, “Student’s name has the first birthday. Who is next?” I will help students to get in a
circle according to age. I will be at the center of the circle and start with the oldest student. I will
hold my hand over his head, “He/she is young but next student’s name is younger. I will continue to
the next, “student’s name is younger than student’s name.” I will do this pattern for the first 5
students then have them continue it by saying, ‘I am younger than the name of the person before
them.’ Level 1 and 2 students will have the option to say younger or point to the ‘er’ or ‘est’ card.
After the youngest says it I will say, “student’s name is the youngest in the class.” Then I will reverse
it. I will point to the second youngest student and say he/she is older than the student before. I will
demonstrate the first 5 again then have students say, ‘I am older than the name of the person
before them.’ Same accommodation for level 1 and 2 students as before. We will do it all the way
around again and I will say, “student’s name is the old__ student.” I will let the students fill in the
est in the blank.

Guided Practice (10 minutes)

1. I will direct students back to their seats and pass out pairs of cards to each student that say
‘er’ and ‘est’. I will pull up a PowerPoint slideshow. “I am going to show you pictures of nouns. The
pictures will have an adjective. What is an adjective? Great! So in this first one, we have
flowers(point to flowers). This is a noun because it is a thing. Pretty is describing flower so it is the
adjective. This is a pretty flower(point to first flower) and this is a pretty flower(point to second
flower). Would I add ‘er’ or ‘est’ (show cards from previous step) to compare these pretty flowers?
Flip to ‘er’ card if you think prettier(write this word on board) and ‘est’ if it should be prettiest.(write
this word on board). “Yes, I am only comparing 2 flowers, 1, 2.(Pointing to each flower) This flower
is prettier than the this one.” (I will point to the flowers again)

2. I will do the same as step one with 4 animals and the adjective hairy. I will ask, “If this has
the most hair, do we say it is hairier or hairiest?” I will write these two words on the board. “Yes,
we say it is the hairiest because it is compared to more than two animals. One, two, three,
four(while pointing).”

3. I will do this activity two more times with words that double the last consonant. I will write
these words again on the board and say the same types of sentences. I will use 3 pictures of people
that are sad and five pictures of balls with different sizes. For the balls, I will compare just two then
all five so students will use ‘er’ then ‘est.’

4. Then I will pair up students (heterogeneous) next to each other. I will show a slide and ask
them to talk with their partner about the nouns and what adjective they would use to compare
them. I will show 4 more slides in the same format.(curly hair, thick book, skinny tree, good child) I
will have sentence frames written on the board for students to use and students can use ‘er’/’est’
cards and point to the picture. I will be walking around and listening to students’ responses.

Direct Instruction (5 minutes)

1. I will resume with the last adjective, “good.” I will ask students what words they used to
compare the children. “Good is a special adjective and it does not follow the rules. What did you
say to compare the good child?” “We say good, better, best. This child is good(pointing to first
child). This child is better than the other child(pointing). This child is the best(pointing to child).” I
will write these on the board as well.

2. “We have some other exceptions, words that do not follow the rules. Let’s look at the
words we wrote. (words from past 2 steps) Are they all spelled the same way when ‘er’(pointing)
and ‘est’(pointing) are added?” I will have students evaluate and respond. “What do these letters
end with? When we add ‘er’ or ‘est’ we will change the y to an i.” I will point to the past examples
and then rewrite to demonstrate my instructions. “These words’ last two letters are a vowel then a
consonant.” I will point to these words and find their vowel and consonants. “So we double the last
consonant.” I will rewrite the word.

Guided Practice (5 minutes)

1. I will ask students to pull out their whiteboard and put up the whiteboard picture on the
board to show what they need. “Practice some words with me. Let’s write curly.” I will right on the
board as they do on their white board. “Why is this word special? Yes, so we need to erase the “y”
(do together) and add an “i” before er.(do together) Show me curlier.” I will have students show
the whiteboard. “How about silly? (I will write it on the board) Write sillier and silliest.” I will have
students try it on their own and show their whiteboard.

2. “How about the word ‘hot,’(write it) what is special about that?” “Let’s write down ‘hot’ and
‘yes,’ we need to double the last consonant so we write an extra t before “er.” I will demonstrate
and ask students to show me. “Now you try the word ‘red.’” I will write it on the board. “Write
redder and reddest.” I will have students try it on their own and show their whiteboard.

3. “Now I have two good pens (I will hold them up), what word do I use to compare them,
write it on your write board.” I will give level 1 and 2 students the options between better and
gooder if needed. I will have them show me and check. I will then hold up two more pens with the
original 2. “I have 4 pens, what do I say to compare them all? Write that down.” I will do the same
accommodation again. I will look at their whiteboards for the word best.

Independent practice (8 minutes)

1. I will split the students into homogenous groups of four. Each group of four will go to the
groups of four tables together. Each table will have different items: leaves with the adjective green,
cardboard and burlap with the adjective bumpy, fabrics and ribbon with the adjective smooth, and
marshmallows with the adjective small. Each group will have different items and they will have
different questions on their paper to answers. They will go to each desk and answer the question.

Levels 1 and 2

• There will be three leaves of varying amounts of green and they will be labeled 1, 2 and 3.
Students will have a piece of paper with the word greenest. They will have to write the number of
the leaf that is the greenest.

• There will be a piece of cardboard and burlap, labeled 1 and 2. The word ‘bumpier’ would
be on their paper and they would write the number of the item that is bumpier.

• There will be five pieces of ribbon and fabric, labeled 1-5. The sentence frames, “____ is
smoother than ______ .” will be written on their paper for them to fill in the numbers.

• There are 3 sizes of marshmallows labeled 1-3. The question on the worksheet will say,
“Number 2 is the bigg______ marshmallow.” Students will have to write ‘est.’

Levels 3 and 4
• There will be three leaves of varying amounts of green and they will be labeled 1, 2 and 3.
Students will have a piece of paper with the sentence frame, “Leaf number ____ is the
____________.” They will have to fill in the leaf number and greenest.

• There will be a piece of cardboard and burlap, labeled 1 and 2. The sentence frame’
“number_____ is bumpi______ than number _____.

• There will be five pieces of ribbon and fabric, labeled 1-5. The sentence frame, “____ is
smoother than ______,” will be written twice on their paper for them to fill in the numbers.

• There are 3 sizes of marshmallows labeled 1-3. The paper will have the sentence frame,
“Number ______ is bigger than number 1 and Number ____ is the ____________.”

Level 5 and EO.

• There will be three leaves of varying amounts of green and they will be labeled 1, 2 and 3.
Students will have a piece of paper and the question will ask, “Write a sentence about these leaves
using the word greenest.

• There will be a piece of cardboard and burlap, labeled 1 and 2. A question on the worksheet
will ask, “Write a sentence about these objects using the word bumpier.

• There will be five pieces of ribbon and fabric, labeled 1-5. The questions will ask, “Write a
sentences to compare ribbons number 3 and 4. Write a second sentence to compare ribbons 1 and
2.”

• There are 3 sizes of marshmallows labeled 1-3. The paper will ask the question, “Write a
sentence to compare these marshmallows.”

Closure (2 minutes)

1. I will pull back up the first slide of the PowerPoint with the two pretty flowers. “What is the
noun in these pictures? What is the adjective? Show me with your cards, what you would add onto
pretty to compare these two adjectives. Now pretty is an exception, it is spelled differently. Who
would like to show how to spell prettier?”

2. “Very good so we add ‘er’ when comparing 2 nouns and what do we add when we compare
more than one?”

Grade: Third

ELD STANDARD:

English language learners communicate information, ideas, and concepts necessary for academic
success in the content area of Language Arts.

CONNECTION: (state the main Indiana State Standards that connect with this lesson)
3.W.6.1c Adjectives/ Adverbs –Writing sentences that include comparative and superlative
adjectives and adverbs, choosing between them depending on what is to be modified, and
explaining their functions in the sentence.

EXAMPLE CONTEXT FOR LANGUAGE USE:

Students will add ‘er’ or ‘est’ to an adjective in order to compare nouns.

Cognitive Function: (state what kind of thinking functions this lesson will engage)

Students will choose either ‘er’ or ‘est’ to compare a designated number of nouns.

Students will say and write comparative or superlative adjectives to compare nouns.

Level 1: Entering Level 3: Developing Level 5: Expanding

DOMAIN: LISTENING

Match the ‘er’ or ‘est’ card to the comparison situation said verbally and with picture
support.

(“Would you say use prettier or pretties”) Hear the comparative or superlative adjective and
can write the corresponding ending. (“Write redder.”) Review student responses about
comparative and superlative expressions and then build off with a new sentence. (Student hears
partner say “book is thicker” and responds saying, “this other book is thicker than that one, it is the
thickest.”)

DOMAIN: SPEAKING Using a comparative or superlative adjective to describe a noun to a partner.

(Pointing to the picture of the skinnier tree and saying skinnier)

Form a sentence to describe a noun and chose the correct use of the comparative or
superlative adjective.

(“This book is thicker.”) Justify if a partner’s sentence uses the comparative or superlative adjective
correctly. (“My partner said that the first book is thicker than the second. This is correct because
he/she only compared 2 books.”)

DOMAIN:

READING Match a labeled noun to the comparative or superlative adjective. (Reads the word
“greenest” and matches it to leaf #2) Identify similarities and differences in the spelling of
adjectives.

(short, shorter, shortest/long, longer, longest.) Read a prompt in creating a sentence and fulfill the
requirements.

(Write a sentence about these leaves using the word ‘greenest’. )

DOMAIN: WRITING/VISUAL LITERACY Write er or est to the end of a word to make it comparative
or superlative. (Sentence frame: Number 2 is the bigg______ marshmallow.

“est”)
 Write superlative adjectives and their matching noun’s number to fill in the sentence frame
“Leaf number ____ is the ____________.”

( “3”, “greenest”) Write original sentences about comparative or superlative adjectives

describing a noun.

(Sentence frame: _____ than _____________. “Marshmallow 2 is bigger than marshmallow 1)

TOPIC-RELATED LANGUAGE: (state the grade-level words and expressions that apply to this lesson.)

Nouns, adjective, compare

Independent Practice

Level 1 and 2:
Levels 3 and 4
Level 5 and EO