Lesson Plan: Brainstorming Adjectives
Within this language arts unit, consisting of three smaller lessons, students will be encouraged to investigate and learn adjectives. After brainstorming lists of adjectives, students will be invited to close their eyes and attempt to envision a noun. They will determine whether they have compiled a sufficient variety of adjectives to accurately portray the scene. Following the students will be invited to add to the adjective list.
NFL Adjectives Lesson Plan -Free pdf
Content Area
Grade Level: Third grade
Lesson Topic: Parts of speech – adjectives
Lesson Name: Brainstorming Adjectives
Content Area Focus: Language Arts
Objectives
- Students will use adjectives to describe a common object.
- Students will use adjectives in a personal writing sample.
- Students will identify adjectives that precede nouns and use adjectives to correctly describe nouns.
Assessments
- Students will participate in a whole class brainstorming session, listing adjectives associated with the Denver Broncos.
- Students will participate in journaling to record adjectives associated with the Denver Broncos. This journal will continue to be used for students to develop a repertoire of their favorite descriptive words.
- Students will develop a visual of their personal writing sample including the visual representation of the adjectives used in their writing. The visual may be colored, computer generated or even a collage.
- Students will participate in storytelling opportunity where they may share their writing.
- This writing sample and visual will be displayed on the classroom wall for families to view during parent/teacher conference week.
Instructional Strategies
Lesson 1: The lesson will start with a whole class discussion playing twenty questions with the teacher and then ending with a definition of an adjective. After students have created a definition, they will be introduced to the formal definition of the term that adjectives are describing words which give additional details about nouns. Students will be asked to give the teacher a noun. The word will be displayed on the SmartBoard. Then, students will be asked to share some examples of adjectives which describe the same noun in a brainstorming session.
Lesson 2: A graphic organizer in the shape of a football will be passed out to students. Students will be instructed to write ‘Denver Broncos’ down the center and then create an adjective describing the team on each of the laces. As the students fill in the laces, they will be encouraged to share their adjectives with their classmates in a whole group discussion before they are introduced to their new journals.
Lesson 3: Adjective journals (The Adjective Play Book), in football shape, will be distributed to students. The journals will be empty. Students will be instructed to list the adjectives they can imagine associated with the Denver Broncos. Following this activity, students will share their lists with a partner and then with their group. As students are finished, they will be invited into a whole group activity. ‘Denver Broncos’ will be written on the SmartBoard. Students will share all of the adjectives they have written in their journals. If a word is shared which is not an adjective, the class will determine the correct part of speech to label the word.
Culminating activity: As the list is completed, students will be invited to return to a whole group discussion. The teacher will instruct the students to close their eyes before reading the adjectives. Students will attempt to envision the Broncos to determine if the picture in their mind is complete. At this point, the teacher will close his/her eyes and share verbally their thought processes to discover adjectives by systematically pontificating the five different senses and the associated adjectives. For example, with eyes closed, the teacher may say, “As I rub this football, I imagine it feels like the scales of an alligator.” The students will then be dismissed to see how many additional adjectives can be added to their Play Books.
KWL chart in football shape -free pdf
Students will also be introduced to a writing project using their Adjective Play Book. As students begin their writing project, they will be given a K-W-L chart. They will brainstorm what they already know about the Denver Broncos, what the want to know about the football team and they might have learned from the whole group session. Students will also develop a list of what they might be interested in learning. On the back of their K-W-L chart, students will be encouraged to think of all the places where they might find information about the Broncos to answer their questions. They will then share their K-W-L chart with a classroom partner.
Students will create a writing sample, either fiction or non-fiction about the Denver Broncos using their Adjectives Play Book. They will follow the 6 + 1 Traits of Writing model (Education Northwest, 2012), consisting of the qualities of strong writing, to helps students to both learn writing and to assess their writing samples. These characteristics include ideas for the theme of the main piece, the supporting details and ensuring the fluid consistency for a clear message. Organization is the second detail to help direct the students to put together the pattern and sequencing of the writing based on compare and contrast, deductive logic, pontificated analysis, chronological development or other definable organizational patterns. Third, the students will develop a voice through their writing. Fourth, word choice will be taught to enrich the piece with vivid descriptions to draw the reader into the writing, engaging the five senses. The fifth item will flow from word choice into sentence fluidity. Sixth, conventions relies on the mechanics of the piece including spelling, punctuation, grammar and capitalization. The last element is the visual presentation.
As the writing sample is completed, visual representations will be added. Students will develop a visual of their writing including a visual representation of the adjectives used in their writing. The visual may be created by hand, computer generated or even a collage. As completed, students will be invited to share their work with the class. They may choose to present their work themselves or have a representative help them share their work.
Throughout this unit, students will be organized into several different grouping options. Whole group will be used during introduction and debriefing as well as other vital times throughout the unit as deemed important by the teacher. Each student will also be assigned a partner. Each set of partners will be part of a group. Groups and partners will take into account the needs of the students based on their learning personalities including the solitary and cooperative learners (Thousand, Villa & Nevin, 2007).
Resources:
KWL chart- free pdf
- Adjective Playbook
- K-W-L chart in football shape
- Graphic Organizer
By Tracy Harrington-Atkinson
Tracy Harrington-Atkinson, mother of six, lives in the Midwest with her husband. She is a teacher, having taught elementary school to higher education, holding degrees in elementary education, a master’s in higher education and continued on to a PhD in curriculum design. She has published several titles, including Calais: The Annals of the Hidden, Lemosa: The Annals of the Hidden, Book Two, Rachel’s 8 and Securing Your Tent. She is currently working on a non-fiction text exploring the attributes of self-directed learners: The Five Characteristics of Self-directed Learners.
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