High School - 16 - Comparatives & Superlatives

[jellomando]

This is another lesson taken from the JLP Resource book that was thrown together rather hastily when my planned lesson on food idioms (again from the Resource book, but found online at various places) backfired.  The paragraphs were too advance for my high school students.

Comparatives & Superlatives

• Native Speaker introduces the concept of adjectives, comparatives, and superlative. 5 minutes.
• Students perform Adjective Word Scramble worksheet.  10 minutes.
• Native speaker introduces the comparative and superlative formation rules.  5 minutes.
• Students perform the Adjective Table worksheet. 10 minutes.
• Native speaker introduces the difference between which and what. 5 minutes.
• Students perform the Which or What worksheet. 10 minutes.

Notes:

• The word scramble takes a lot of time.  There were always some students who wanted more time and other students who gave up immediately.  That activity is the main time consumer on this lesson.
• Half of the classes found this lesson very easier and others really struggled through the adjectives table.
• The classes that did find this lesson easy already knew the material, just not the words comparatives and superlatives.

More information about my lessons can be found here.

[capebretonbarbarian]

Love the powerpoint, I'll use in my lesson next time.  Something I used for superlatives and comparatives that was really fun was the superlative/comparative dice game.  I think it was mentioned here before by someone.  Pick a theme.  For example- countries.  Write the numbers 1-6 down the board.  Next to each number write a word. Japan, China, USA etc.  Divide the class into teams.  Have a member of each team roll the dice.  The number they roll corresponds to the words on the board.  For example.  If they roll 1 (USA) and 4 (Korea) they must make a comparative.  USA is bigger than Korea.  If they roll doubles, they can make a superlative.  Give the team the points on the dice.  I saved famous people for last and let the kids pick 6 famous people.  They loved it.     

[AlexMokpo]

Hey, Cape Breton, I lov eyour dice-game idea!  I'll be sure to use it in the new semester (seeming as how this one seems to be already over for me...)

[TeacherIsDie]

So during this last week of classes or so, i gave the opportunity to elect set Senior Superlative categories. That particular bit isn't here, but you might want to make your own categories anyway.

With that lesson is this lesson on Superlatives in general. It's alot of fun. Not terribly academic, i admit, but fun, particularly if you have no qualms letting the kids belt each other on the head with a plastic squeaky hammer.

Check it out. Run with it. Have a good time. Let me know how it goes, even if you don't get around to it til next semester.

[kindenglishteacher]

Can you post this as a .ppt file?  I cannot open .pptx.

[mistee]

I'm all for students belting each other on the heads with that ridiculous plastic squeaky hammer ~ that thing is AMAZING! 
Thanks for sharing, will definitely try this out!

[jgads]

Great lesson. Only adjustment that I made is that I am the one who belts the kids on the head. God that feels good.

Seriously though, great job on the lesson - students loved it

[nginsburg]

I used this lesson and it was alright.. it was kinda hard to keep the kids attention throughout but the kids are falling asleep and hard to get to pay attention always

[prycey]

I made a slightly modified version of the Senior Superlative game - just going through what is meant by superlative and the difference between superlative/adjective.

I also didnt have a hammer to hand so just got the losers to bow to the winners. Worked pretty well.

[kindenglishteacher]

The senior superlatives are great!  Thanks for posting.  I've been thinking to do a lesson where they learn something about the life of high school students in America.  That was the request of some students.  So using superlatives to learn and vote for their senior best will be a great cultural experience for them!

[acekoom]

this was an amazing and supportive lesson following my lp last week:)

[elveaho]

    Hi guys

    Here are some interesting materials about superlatives--nature. Hope you will like it