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Comparatives and Superlatives

24/4/2013

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Below, I present a lesson plan that you can use in your class to review comparatives and superlatives. Students should have at least a pre-intermediate level.

1. Review:

In the board, review with your students how to form comparatives and superlatives. You can do it by creating a chart that includes the rules to follow and have in mind when working with comparatives and superlatives.
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2. Worksheet: "Think of a word".

- Divide the class in small teams ( no more than three people) and turn in the worksheet "think of a word" to each team. 
- Then, write a noun on the board and ask students to suggest whatever the worksheet tells them. 
- It is a competition, so students need to fill in the worksheet as fast as possible but without spelling mistakes. 
- Misspellings will be penalised. The first team to complete all the sentences will win a point. Each team will get a point for each word that is correct. Should a spelling be wrong, no point will be awarded. The teacher will ask students to spell the written word is she/he thinks that it might be misspelled. If two groups write the same word in a sentence, they won't get the point. 
- Repeat the exercise with different words a couple of times and add up the points to select a winner.

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3. SONG: "Everything" by Alanis Morissette
- The teacher will introduce the song to students. He/she will explain ask students to fill in the blanks. The teacher will tell students that the words that are missing are adjectives, comparatives, superlatives and some parts of the verbs in the present perfect.
- Students will listen to the song and complete the gaps.
- If students find the song difficult, the teacher will give them a worksheet that includes the words missing. The teacher will read the words aloud to make easier their identification in the song.
- Repeat as many times as students need.
- Check answers by asking students to read the song aloud.
- Check new vocabulary.
- Identify the adjectives and complete a chart with them like the one at the review stage.


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4. The guessing game:
 This game can be carried out either writing or speaking:
- Describe an object/animal/person using comparatives until someone guesses what it is
e.g. "It is as yellow as a banana, "it is hotter than fire", "it is as round as a ball" (SUN)
- Wrong guesses should be replied to with another clue comparing the real object with that wrong guess, e.g. “No, this thing isn’t a candle. A candle is colder than it."
- Descriptions should include at least two compatives or superlatives
lesson_plan_attachments.pdf
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Learning English using your favorite songs

3/3/2013

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Several months ago I discovered a great website called Lyrics Training that can be use with ESL students to learn English. Lyrics Training is a web application that allows you to read and listen to the lyrics from music videos and can be used as a fun and interactive way for language teachers and trainers to introduce new vocabulary and grammar to their students in a classroom setting. Lyrics Training allow students to fill in the lyrics as they go along, and the difficulty level they choose decides how many words in a sentence are missing and they must fill in. This online language tool in particularly useful for students of foreign languages who want a fun and entertaining way to learn the correct pronunciation of words and it will improve their listening skills as students must identify words form a song.
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Before starting to play, players will need to select the game mode. The options are "beginner, intermediate, and expert". The difference among them is the number of blanks that have to be filled. Those students who are slow at typing or who have lower listening skills may choose the "beginner" level first, if they don't want to stop the song every 5 seconds. It is a good idea to repeat the song but at a higher level each time. Songs are also classified according to their difficulty in "easy, medium, and hard". 
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    My name is Beatriz Paternain. I am an ESL specialist who graduated in 2012 with a Master's of Education in TESOL and World Languages Education from the University of Georgia

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