Heather Parr

TE 407
Mini Lesson

Title:
The Adjective/Adverb Battles

Introduction of Audience
This lesson is designed for a middle school or early high school English class (not honors
and not students who are behind). The students come from middle to working class
backgrounds and live in a fairly suburban area that borders on an urban area, making the
classes fairly diverse. The students in this particular class have been having difficulty
differentiating between adjectives and adverbs in their homework assignments within the
overall grammar unit. The students have a short attention span when it comes to lecturing
and in-class worksheets, so I need to plan a lesson in which all students can be actively
involved and use their energy in a positive way.

Placement of Lesson within Larger Unit

This mini-lesson is within a larger overall grammar unit in which students are learning to
identify and correctly use the different parts of speech in their everyday speaking and
writing.

Issues for Observation:

Movement around the classroom and praise for students.

Objectives (during this lesson, students will…):

1. Be able to differentiate between adjectives and adverbs
2. Recognize the defining characteristics of each
3. Be able to properly use adjectives and adverbs in everyday writing and speech
and be able to recognize that they are using that specific form

Materials Needed
Laptop Computer for Teacher
Overhead Projector
Access to Audio System
Homework Assignment

Preparation
1. Teacher will prepare PowerPoint presentation prior to class
2. Split the desks/ chairs into two teams (split right down center of the room and
have students sit in their normal seats to avoid argument over who is on which
team)

Intro/ “Hook”
Teacher will show a paragraph in which adverbs stand in for adjectives and adjectives
stand in for adverbs. TEACHER WILL NOT TELL THE STUDENTS WHAT IS
WRONG WITH THE PARAGRAPH. Ask the class if anyone can tell what is wrong with
the paragraph.

Presentation of Lesson (5 min)

Transition: Show students the same paragraph from the opener but with the adjectives
and adverbs in the correct places. This shows how easily the two can be confused and
how we mix the two up in our every usage of them.
1. Show slide which defines each term and tells when to use it. Show music example
after each definition.
2. As a class, go over examples in the PowerPoint and have students volunteer to
tell me the adjectives and the adverbs in the song examples.

Assessment (4 min)
Transition: Now we’re going to do some more practice with these forms
1. After each explanation, students will be asked to come up with their own examples
of sentences using adjectives and sentences using adverbs. The students will then
share their sentences with their neighbor, and any volunteers may share their
sentences with the class.

Assignment
For homework, students must find lyrics of songs in which they identify the use of
adjectives and adverbs (3 songs for each). Students will write song title, artist, and lyrics
containing the adjective or adverb on the homework sheet to be handed in on Monday
(they get the weekend to do it to accommodate students who may not have access to
computers/music recordings to find song lyrics the night the assignment is given).