Stephen Stephen

Upper Intermediate level


In this lessons, students will learn about graded and ungraded adjectives through guided discovery based on a reading text about villains in movies. The lesson starts with a student centred review of a film, which leads in to the use of target language within a controlled and free environment. It ends with a writing exercise


Abc Alien picture
Abc HO2

Main Aims

  • To provide clarification of graded and ungraded adjectives in the context of movie villains

Subsidiary Aims

  • To provide process writing practice of a review in the context of movie villains


Lead In (3-4 minutes) • To set lesson context and engage students

T puts the picture of the alien on the WB and asks for some adjectives to describe it. T writes the idea in a bubble next to the alien T asks for an adverb to precede the alien T writes that adverb in red and in front of the adjective if a correct one is hear T does this a few times so that there are a couple of graded and ungraded adjectives up on the board.

Exposure (9-10 minutes) • To provide context for the target language through phrases

T instructs that the Ss must work in pairs They will receive a HO T tells them that there are 4 incorrect phrases in italics and that they have 2 minutes to do the task T demonstrates the first one T says a couple of ICQs - Are they all wrong? [No] How many phrases are wrong? [4] T gives them the HO Afterwards, WC gives FB and T elicits the two groups of adjectives (graded and ungraded) on the white board.

Highlight (5-6 minutes) • To draw Students' attention to the target language

T instucts Ss they will form pairs again and receive a HO They must put the correct adjectives in to each column

Clarify (5-6 minutes) • To concept check and provide students wıth more meaningful practice

T divides the class in to 2 groups The groups must both stand in a line facing forward 10 phrases will be projected It's a competition. Each member must go to the WB and fill in a blank with a relevant modifying adverb. Once they've finished, they go to the back of their group's line and the next member does the same for the next phrase The first group to do all 10 correctly wins

Controlled Practice (4-5 minutes) • To provide students with controlled practice of the target language

T instructs that the Ss will work in groups of 4 and will have 2 minutes to write 2 sentences about with a gradable adjective and one with and ungradeable. T demo's T asks ICQs (Who are you writing phrases about? [T] How long do you have? [2 minutes] This leads in to the writing activity Once they've finished, Ss go to T who writes it as part of a fake review of the lesson (demo.)

Free Practice (7-10 minutes) • To provide students wıth some free practice of the target language

Ss say/show/give their phrases to T as T is writing a facetious review of the lesson on the WB T writes them on the WB as a review of themselves T instructs Ss to write a similar review about their favourite movie. They must write the review with at least 2 gradable and 2 ungradable adjectives.

Error Correction (3-4 minutes) • Flexi-stage to provide peer to peer learning

Ss must stick their review to a wall, then walk round and read the other reviews, If their is a mistake with the modifying verbs, then they need to correct it on a post-it and stick it on to the review. They must also choose the best film to watch each, based on the review!

Web site designed by: Nikue