Comparative and Superlative Lesson
Beginner level
Materials
Main Aims
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To provide fluency speaking practice in a presentation in the context of compering
Subsidiary Aims
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To make students learn and use the target language based on a task
Procedure (51-65 minutes)
I will start the lesson with a question: "Who is the tallest in the classroom?" (we previously saw adjectives) After I elicit students everybody will stand up to find out who is the tallest. This way the meaning of the question will be clarified.
I will present a short text, comparing myself with my sister: "I have a sister her name is Ana. My sister is older than me, but she is not more intelligent. I am a bit taller. She is the strongest in the family because she exercises a lot. Since I'm the youngest in the family I'm also the favorite. "
I will ask questions like: - What is the text about? The text compares two family members. - Who is stronger? The sister. - What is the difference between: "My sister is stronger than me" and "My sister is the strongest in the family"? Here students will understand the difference between comparatives and superlatives. Then we will go back to the first example: "Alan is the tallest in the classroom" and I will ask them to write a comparative sentence with taller instead of tallest. Who is taller than you? "Diego is taller than me"
I will elicit adjectives: expensive, cheap, good... I will elicit the comparative and superlative forms of those adjectives. I will ask them to compare 3 restaurants: casa toño, toks and vips. They will need to use the target language and I will write on the board the well-produced sentences: Casa toño is the cheapest, Toks is cheaper than vips...
After they compare the 3 restaurants, I will explain the task. Choose 3 things to compare (Anything) restaurants, cars, phones, airlines, sodas, movies, etc. And structure a presentation: - Introduction: What will you compare? - Compare: in terms of price, beauty, velocity (depending on the products) -Conclusion: Answer this question: based on compassion tell me "What is the best? and Why?" I will explain details like: the presentation has to be 5 minutes long. I will ask ICQs: What do you have to compare? How long is the presentation? Is it in pairs or individually? I will give a quick demo. Since they are marketing students I will explain the presentation as a way of selling a product based on the comparison.
Students will work individually and will ask as many questions as they want in order to have their presentations ready. I will be asking: What are you going to compare? In what terms? I will brainstorm with the students: for example, if the student mentions that he/she will compare cars, I will ask: Which is the fastest? Which is the most comfortable? etc.
I will sit like any student, and I will elicit students to come to the board and do their presentations. One by one until everybody is done. In order to engage I will ask students to ask questions and to vote for "the best" presentation. I will ask questions myself if I feel something is missing or to help the student.
I will ask the students "who was the best?" I will give a prize to the best presentation and I will ask them to report their thoughts on the task.