Lesson

Title/Focus

Comparative and Superlative forms of

Adjectives

Date

11/24/14

Subject/Grade
Level

Grade 6 Humanities

Time
Duration

55 min

Unit

Parts of Speech

Teacher

Trevor Maekelburger

OUTCOMES FROM ALBERTA PROGRAM OF STUDIES

General
Learning
Outcomes:

GLO #4: Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to enhance the clarity and
artistry of communication.

Specific
Learning
Outcomes:

6.4.2.A.3 Attend to grammar and usage: Students will identify comparative and superlative forms of
adjectives, and use in own writing.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Students will:
1. Distinguish between superlative and comparative forms of adjectives.
2. Use comparative and superlative forms of adjectives to compare nouns in writing.
3. Understand basic adjective rules for comparative and superlative forms of adjectives.

ASSESSMENTS
Observations:

Key Questions:
Products/Performances:

Observe students as they are writing their answers during LA#1, giving verbal
feedback on ones they may be struggling on. Will observe students responses as
we go over the worksheet as a class, to ensure that they are correctly
distinguishing between superlative and comparative. (LO#1,3)
I will ask students to give examples of superlatives and comparatives that apply
to the different rules during LA#2 (LO#1,3).
will observe students as they write their questionnaires and as they interact
around the room. I will ensure that their questions contain superlatives, and that
they are used correctly. (LO #1,2,3)
What form of adjectives do you use to compare two nouns? (LO #1)
What form of adjectives do you use to compare three or more nouns? (LO #1)
none

LEARNING RESOURCES CONSULTED

MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT

50 Instructional Routines to Develop Content Literacy, by

Douglas Fisher et al.
Alberta Education ELA Program of Study
Lesson plan resources from readwritethink.org
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/adjectives.htm
Smart Exchange

SMART board and laptop

Adjectives Comparative and Superlative Smart
notebook document downloaded from Smart
Exchange (preview available at
http://exchange.smarttech.com/details.html?id=
4973855c-701f-4261-b6e3-1a52f9c58ecf)
Dictionaries/Thesauruses
27 writing journals (students will already have
them in the classroom)

PROCEDURE
Attention Grabber

Introduction
As an introduction to the topic and some of the adjective rules, will start
out with a song about adjectives. Paint the way:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hIqdPrH--k

Time
6 min

Will tell the students to be watchful for any adjective rules they notice in
the video that may be helpful. After playing the video, ask: what were
some of the adjective rules you noticed in the video?
Assessment of Prior
Knowledge
Expectations for
Learning and Behavior

Advance
Organizer/Agenda

Transition to Body

Learning Activity #1

What adjective rules in the video did you see that we have talked about
already?
Adjectives describe nouns and pronouns; describe which one, what kind,
how many, ect.
Students should understand how to compare different nouns by using a
range of different degrees of adjectives positive, superlative, and
comparative forms. Students should begin moving away from resorting to
bad adjectives and using more descriptive adjectives. During the
instructional portion of the lesson, students are expected to be attentive
to the teacher and participate in the activity during the SMART board
lesson. If the structure of the room is such that students chairs are facing
away from you, move around to different parts of the classroom in order
to hold students attention.
Write agenda on the board for students:
1. Worksheet activity
2. Student superlative demonstration
3. Smart Board activity
4. Partner questionnaire
As a transition to superlatives/comparatives, show the Guinness book of
world records video https://www.youtube.com/v/IRXW7Ne1_88?ref=0
Body
Worksheet activity and student demonstration:

1 min

3 min
Time

1. Have a student help to hand out L.A. duotangs to the class. Students will
find the locating adjectives worksheet that we went over in a previous
class and turn to the back side of the worksheet.
2. Briefly review some of the rules outlined on the worksheet before
starting. A simple rule to remember with superlatives and comparatives is
that the modifier er has two letters and compares two things, and that
est has three letters and compares three or more things. Highlight the
note on the page that says that more and most apply to adverbs that end
in ly.
3. Give students 5-7 minutes to complete the worksheet. There are two
questions, namely 4 and 8, that will require some discussion afterwards.
4. Go over the answers as a class, and make note of some of the rules that
are used. Draw popsicle sticks, picking more green ones for the difficult
ones, and red ones for the easier ones. Have students fill in the answers
that they did not have time to complete.
5. Have students get up out of their chairs, and stretch. Explain that I need
them to sort themselves from youngest to oldest. Along two walls of the
room. Once they have successfully done that, challenge them to sort
themselves from shortest to tallest, without talking. Make comparisons
using comparatives and superlatives to give students a concrete idea of
how they apply to real life situations.

15 min

Assessments/ Differentiation:

Learning Activity #2

Differentiation: for J, can have her type the answers out if she would
prefer using her laptop.
Assessment: Observe students as they are writing their answers, giving
verbal feedback on ones they may be struggling on. Will observe students
responses as we go over the worksheet as a class, to ensure that they are
correctly distinguishing between superlative and comparative. (LO#1,3)
Superlatives and Comparatives SMART presentation:
1.

2.

3.

4.

Assessments/ Differentiation

Learning Activity #3:

Open the notebook document

AdjectivesComparativeandSuperlativeUS using the Smart
Notebook software. Go through the slides, elaborating on the
rules for superlatives and comparatives.
Define superlative and comparative forms of adjectives. It is
important that students know how to distinguish between the
two when they see them in writing. Than is an important
keyword for noticing comparative forms of adjectives, while
superlative forms are usually characterized by adjectives ending
in est, or having modifiers like most or least.
A few students will then have an opportunity to come to the
smart board and write example sentences using a positive
adjective and its superlative and comparative forms. (Use
popsicle sticks or have student pick another student to go next)
At the end of the notebook presentation, there is an activity for
students to drag positive, superlative and comparative forms of
adjectives onto a table. Ask one student to volunteer to place one
of the words in the correct column. Encourage feedback from the
rest of the students if the student is having trouble. That student
will then choose another student to take the next word, until all
words have been placed.

Questions/Observation: I will ask students to give examples of

superlatives and comparatives that apply to the different rules (LO#1,3).
Questionnaire: Students will pose some questions using different
superlatives and go around the classroom and find answers to them.
1.

2.

3.
4.

Students will write down five questions using superlatives, that

they may want to know about someone else in the room. The
questions must be appropriate (they cannot be TOO personal).
E.g. What is the most intense ride that you have ever been on?
Give the students about 5-7 minutes to come up with some
questions. The students may not use the same superlative
twice. Each question must have a different superlative form of an
adjective.
Students will then go around the room asking their questions to
their peers, writing down the answers to their questions. They
may not ask the same person more than one question.
If there is time at the end, have some students share their
answers with the class.

Sponge activity: Online adjectives quiz.

Assessments/Differentiation

10 min

Observations: will observe students as they write their questions and as

they interact around the room. I will ensure that their questions contain
superlatives, and that they are used correctly. (LO #1,2,3)

15 min

Assessment of Learning:
Feedback From Students:
Feedback To Students

Transition To Next
Lesson

Closure
Comparative forms of adjectives compare two different things, and are
often recognized by the word than, and superlative forms of adjectives
compare three or more things,
Pose a question to the students (using a superlative of course!): What was
the most fun activity today?
Acknowledge some of the creative questions that students came up with
during the activity, and tell them that if they are still struggling with
adjectives, to review their locating adjectives worksheet, or even give the
adjectives video another watch at home. Address any issues that the
students were having with either superlatives or comparatives during the
lesson.
Next lesson, we will move on to the next part of speech: the adverb. We
will begin by relating them to adjectives and looking at the similarities
between adjectives and adverbs.
The lesson went as planned, save for the questionnaire activity. I have
learned that in practice, it takes longer to complete activities than the time I have
allotted. It is better to be extra prepared with more activities, than to have short
activities, where students have nothing to do. As a whole, I thought the plan was
very strong, incorporating lots of different activity at an individual, small group,
and large group level. Because 6D is a much more kinesthetic class, the lesson
gave them more opportunities to demonstrate their learning through hands-on
activities. One thing I need to work on for future lessons is ensuring that I still
make time to include a closure, even if I am short for time.

Reflections from the

lesson

I began with the adjectives video, which the students found very engaging
in both classes. I could have more clearly outlined the objectives of watching the
video, writing down the answers to the questions on the board as a class after the
video, instead of simply discussing the video as a group. I need to allow students
to make their learning visible, and this means stepping back and allowing the
students to do more of the talking. The students then completed the worksheet,
which I found I could have put a time limit on, as it did not seem very challenging
for them. Next time, I may want to find a sheet that incorporates several levels of
Blooms taxonomy, giving students a chance to use the time to extend their
learning further. I then had the students stand up and sort themselves. I found
that this was a powerful representation of superlative and comparative adjectives,
as they were able to physically compare themselves with others in the room. With
the remaining time, I had the students come up one at a time to sort adverbs in a
Smart board activity. The challenge with having one student come up at a time
was that there were 26 other students who were not completely engaged. Next
time I could engage more students by turning the activity into a competitive game,
dividing the class into two teams.
Again, I realize the need to bring closure to this lesson, even though I had
to cut the last activity out. Even if I am running behind, I need to continue
checking my watch and budgeting my time so I have three minutes or so at the
end of class to consolidate the students learning.
With the amount of transitions in this lesson, it could have been very
difficult to manage the behavior of the students, but I found that it was actually
easier to hold their attention than in other lessons where they are bound to sitting
in their chairs for the entire class. I felt that I did a good job of ensuring that I had
the entire class undivided attention by having them face me, before

Time

5 min

communicating the next instructions.