Teaching sequence

Project: We are all different
Group: 2nd year  Secondary School
Topic:   people appearance and personality
Contents: Lexical:  physical appearance and comparison of people
               Grammar: comparative and suparlative form of short and long adjectives.

Sts have already seen description of people. It will be taken as previous knowledge for this teaching sequence. We´ll revise it and I´ll introduce comparison with short and long adjectives.


Pre task
Activity 1
Teacher will invite sts to solve two puzzles. When finish teacher will ask them about the characters (Simon de los guachiturros and Shakira) to activate their background knowledge and to encourage them to speak in english.


http://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=1ea0f54a274e
http://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=2c76c65035c3

Who are they? Where is he from? What´s her name? What´s his name? Is Shakira Argentinian? Has she got long hair? Has he got wavy hair?


Then in groups sts take notes and teacher monitors, corrects and provides essential information. Each group reads what they have written aloud.

Activity 2
Teacher tells sts that they are going to watch a video about a very special person (his name is Nick. he hasn´t  arms or legs but he is a very happy person)

After watching teacher discusses it with sts. Then they have to answer some questions:

How do you feel? In your opinion, Is he special? Why ? Does he feel different? Why?

(Teacher  writes some words and structures  on the blackboard: surprised, bad, happy / In my opinion/ I think he................because................. ) A volunteer per group will read the answers aloud.
I want to reflect on the importance of being oneself. It doesn´t matter how you are physically, the most important thing is what you want to do in your life and what kind of person you are.

Core task
Activity 1
-Teacher asks sts to read some comments people have done about Nick (using intra net)

"I can´t believe how Nick looks like. My husband John is younger than Nick and he  hasn´t any problem but he is more boring, fatter and more serious than Nick. Now I think John is the most boring man on earth"

"Life is better when you want to live it. I´m very ill and can´t walk any more. I don´t know how nick does to be so cheerful. He is the prettiest boy I have seen"

"I want a child like Nicck ! My son Peter is twenty five. He doesn´t work, he watches tv all the time, he hasn´t any friends, he doesn´t talk to me or helps in the house. Nick is more friendly, more helpfull. more hard working and prettier than Peter."

-Teacher asks sts :What are these persons doing in these comment?( they are comparing Nick to one person in their families)
For example: (teacher writes on the blackboard):


 John is younger than Nick                                                     
 Nick is more friendly than Peter


-Now teacher encourages sts to look for more examples in the text and they copy them in their netbooks.
                                                                                         
   He is the ..........est boy...                                                       
   Jhon is the most.............man

-Teacher will explain that we use the comparative and superlative form of adjectives to compare two or more persons (in this case) and provides sts  a chart.        
                                                                                   

Short adjective with Final -e	Comparative Form	Superlative Form
large	larger	largest
wise	wiser	wisest

Short adjective Ending with a Single Consonant with a Single Vowel before It	Comparative Form	Superlative Form
big	bigger	biggest
thin	thinner	thinnest
fat	fatter	fattest

Long adjective	Comparative Form	Superlative Form
peaceful	more peaceful	most peaceful
pleasant	more pleasant	most pleasant
careful	more careful	most careful
thoughtful	more thoughtful	most thoughtful

Short adjective Ending with -y	Comparative Form	Superlative Form
happy	happier	happiest
angry	angrier	angriest
busy	busier	busiest

Irregular Adjective	Comparative Form	Superlative Form
good	better	best
bad	worse	worst
far	farther	farthest
little	less	least
many	more	most

Activity 2

Sts have to look at the pictures and compare people. They can use adjectives from the boxes above. They have to choose two short adjectives and two long adjectives.

                                 

Final task: Teacher will ask sts to work in groups. Each group have to choose a category:

The most helpfuful person in my class/ The best singer in Argentina/ The prettiest girl in my country

The most handsome man in the world


. Sts can invent a new category. Then they have to do a poster (a paper version) about the person including a picture, personal information, description and they have to justify why they have chosen him or her. Finally each group will present the poster to the whole class. They can take photos and edit them using Power Point or Photovisi .