Let’s start with the main aim of the lesson and how we’ll know if this has been achieved:
Main aim
To enable students to compare two or more things using comparative and superlative forms of adjectives.
We’ll know if this has been achieved if, during the less restricted practice stage, students use comparative and superlative forms of adjectives during the quiz.
What do I need to know?
This is a standard teacher-centred situational presentation. You can compare almost anything in your presentation. In this lesson you compare yourself with famous people. Using yourself in the presentation makes it more engaging and motivating for your students.
Materials
Here’s what we’ll need:
- Some pictures of famous people and one of yourself
- Some cards with adjectives written on them
- A Venn diagram template
- A handout with the written form of the target language
- Several dice
- Laptops or phones
Download the lesson plan and materials
The lesson
Okay, on to the lesson itself. Here are the different stages with the aim of each stage, the approximate timing, and what to do:
Lead in
To set the context and generate interest (8-10 minutes)
To set the context for the lesson, divide your students into small groups and hand out some photos of famous people. The people you choose should be relevant to the ages and interests of your students. Ask students to discuss what they know or think about these people. Conduct feedback as a class.
Vocabulary
To introduce/review adjectives and opposites (6-8 minutes)
Next, hand out some cards to each group with different adjectives written on them, one adjective per card, and ask the groups to match the adjectives with their opposites. Some of these adjectives should be the ones that you use in your presentation in the next stage of the lesson. You should also include some that can be used to describe countries and buildings, as you will come back to these in the restricted practice activity. Here’s an example list:
- rich – poor
- old – young – new
- popular – unpopular
- successful – unsuccessful
- happy – unhappy
- tall – short
- big – small
- wet – dry
Once they have matched the adjectives and their opposites, ask the students to put the cards on to the Venn diagram, according to whether they can be used to describe people, countries, buildings, or two or all three of the categories. Conduct feedback as a class and see if all the groups agree.
Presentation
To present the target language (8-10 minutes)
Now choose one of the pictures of famous people you used in the lead-in and stick it on the board. Ask the class these questions:
- Who is it? (Elon Musk)
- Is he rich? (Yes)
Add three dollar signs ($$$) under the picture of your famous person to signify that they are rich. Now add a picture of yourself to the board, next to the picture of the famous person, and ask the same questions:
- Who it is? (You!)
- Is he rich? (No)
Add just one dollar sign ($) under this picture to signify that you are not rich. Now it’s time to present the target language:
- Elon Musk is richer than [your name].
Next, drill the target language, focusing on the weak form of “than” (/ðən/).
You can now repeat the questions with some other adjectives, both for the famous person and yourself, depending on the person you have chosen and what is appropriate for your students. For example:
- Is he old / poor / happy?
You can add corresponding symbols under the pictures too (for example a smiley face for happy).
Now it’s time to add the picture of a third person to the board. Choose one who is clearly richer than you, but not as rich as your first person. You can then ask these questions:
- Who is this? (Donald Trump)
- Is he rich? (Yes)
Add two dollar signs ($$) under his name and then ask:
- Is Elon Musk richer than [you]? (Yes)
- Is Elon Musk richer than Donald Trump? (Yes)
This allows you to present the target language for the superlative form:
- Elon Musk is the richest of all.
Restricted practice
To provide restricted practice in using the target language (8-10 minutes)
Drill this target language before introducing some other adjectives. Try to include some that have two and three syllables (popular, successful, famous, honest…) so that you can introduce “more/less [popular] than” and “the most/least [popular]”.
Next, hand out a worksheet where students have to work out the rules for different adjectives to complete the table. You could follow this with a “fill in the blanks” exercise, with some sentences which they must complete with a suitable comparative or superlative form of an adjective. Here’s an example of the table you would ask them to complete:
| Adjective | Comparative | Superlative |
|---|---|---|
| Adjectives with one syllable
old rich |
Add _____
older _____ |
Add _____
_____ richest |
| Adjectives with one syllable ending with consonant + vowel + consonant
hot _____ |
Double the last consonant and add “er”
hot_____ thinner |
Double the last consonant and add “est”
_____ _____ |
| Adjectives ending in _____
happy funny |
Change the _____ to _____
_____ funnier |
Change the _____ to _____
happiest _____ |
| Adjectives with _____ or more syllables
popular successful |
Add _____ or less
_____ more _____ |
Add _____ or least
_____ popular least successful |
| Irregular adjectives
good _____ |
_____ worse |
best _____ |
You can make this more or less challenging by leaving more or fewer gaps to fill.
Restricted practice (2)
To provide further restricted practice in using the target language (8-10 minutes)
For further restricted oral practice, put the names of six countries, six buildings and six people on the board, numbered one to six. (You can brainstorm these with your students if you like). Divide your students into groups and ask them to find the Venn diagrams from earlier. Students take it in turns to roll a die twice and make a sentence comparing the two countries (or people or buildings) corresponding to the numbers on the board, using adjectives from the Venn diagram.
If appropriate for your group, you could make it a point-scoring game, or set a timer for them to come up with a sentence, or allow the other students in the group to challenge their answer. Conduct feedback on this activity, asking a few students to give you a sentence that they came up with.
Less restricted practice
To provide less restricted practice in using the target language (15 minutes)
Now divide your students into two groups and tell them that they are going to make up a quiz for the other group. Their quiz should contain ten questions. Each question must include the comparative or superlative form of an adjective. You can give them categories that they must restrict their questions to, or give them free rein, whichever you prefer.
Allow the groups 10 or 15 minutes to research some questions online. Monitor during this stage to ensure they are coming up with questions that the other group will at least have a chance of knowing the answer to. Then the groups should take it in turns to ask one of their questions to the other group, who should have a short discussion and give their answer.
If you have more than two groups, you could do each group’s quiz individually in a “pub quiz” style, with the groups not asking the questions competing against each other.
Variations
In the Presentation stage you can include the form “as [hot] as” to show equality and “not as [hot] as” to show inequality.
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That’s it. Feel free to download a printable version of the whole lesson plan and all the materials.
Any comments, or suggestions of other ways to teach comparative and superlative forms of adjectives are welcome below…
