Oxford Grammar Lesson Plan Year F Topic_1 Intro_Sample
Topic 1: Nouns and pronouns
Overview
There is no Student Book for Foundation because students at this stage often learn best when they are provided with learning experiences that allow them to imagine and explore ideas and discover concepts through physical experiences and interacting with others.
Identifying and using nouns, pronouns and proper nouns
Teaching and learning activities
Teacher preparation
• Choose objects, images and photographs to display examples of different objects that can be named (nouns) on a table or somewhere in the room.
• Prepare cardboard or paper strips.
• Have marker pens ready.
• Choose picture books to support teaching nouns.
• Identify a picture book such as Heads and Tails by John Canty to read aloud to the class and encourage understanding of nouns. Use sticky notes to mark pages and have questions prepared. For example, Who is this? What is this? What can you see?
• Identify a picture book such as Mr McGee by Pamela Allen that includes character names as well as pronouns.
• View teacher support video – Nouns.
• Prepare other materials.
SAMPLE
Materials
• A variety of objects, photos and images that students can name
• Images of nouns where there is one item and then another image where there are several of the same item
• Cardboard or paper for labels, extra paper
• Clipboards
• Collage materials
• Construction materials, such as blocks, LEGO, Mobilo blocks or Stickle Bricks
• Dress-up materials and outfits
• Finger puppets for EAL/D students
• Image and word flashcards for EAL/D students
• Marker pens and pencils
• Modelling clay
• Picture books for exploring nouns, such as Heads and Tails by John Canty or Mr McGee by Pamela Allen. If possible, include some with objects that are represented on the noun table (see the “Teacher preparation” section above)
• Camera or phone camera
• Posters with images of people, places, animals and things
• Teacher support video – Nouns
SAMPLE
Common errors
Common error – young students often use plural nouns incorrectly. For example, “There are four dog” instead of “There are four dogs”.
Tip – show students pictures of one noun, for example, a picture of a dog. Have students share what they see. Record and repeat “a dog”. Next, show students a picture of more than one noun (several dogs). Have students share what they see. Record and repeat “dogs”.
Common error – young students will often forget to capitalise proper nouns when writing.
Tip – model writing sentences that include a proper noun. Follow this by writing a sentence that includes a proper noun. Establish the learning intention and success criteria to show that the focus is on using capital letters for proper nouns. Use picture books and big books and have students identify some proper nouns.
Common error – young students, especially EAL/D students, often confuse pronouns. For example, “he” instead of “she”: “Look at the girl. He is running”.
Tip – use images and say a sentence that uses “girl” and “she” as well has “boy” and “he”. Have students do the same.
Common error – young students may confuse “brother”, “sister” and “cousin” when speaking and writing.
Tip – encourage students to share family photos. Use an appropriate example and label “brother” and “sister”.
SAMPLE
Vocabulary
Here is the vocabulary being introduced in this section, along with suggested definitions and examples you can use with students.
Noun – a word that names people, places and things.
– dog, ball, beach, forest, girl, boy
– The dog ran after the ball
Pronoun – a word that can take the place of people, places or things.
– he, she, I, it, they, we, us, me
– It is Sarah’s birthday. She is turning six.
Proper noun – a naming word for people, places and things.
– Cara, Uluru, Bali, Australia, Easter, Baker Street
– We went to Bali in the holidays.
Plural noun – more than one thing.
– dogs, balls, beaches, girls, boys
Differentiation
EAL/D and additional support
• Offer opportunities for EAL/D students to write in their own language. They could write the names of people, places and things in their own language and then be shown how to write them in English. When creating classroom displays, invite EAL/D students and their families to contribute vocabulary in their language.
• Plan small-group and pair activities that provide opportunities for EAL/D students to practise and consolidate their English learning. Use image and word flashcards for students to name and match, in their first language as well as in English. Objects around the room can also be used to name and label in small-group or pair activities.
• Create picture or word banks within the classroom that show images and their names. EAL/D students can contribute pictures and write labels in their first language.
• Create finger puppets of characters from familiar stories. EAL/D students can name puppets and practise retelling the story with the puppets. Provide pictures of objects and settings for students to name and use to retell stories.
• Use images of people that connect to the culture of EAL/D students for learning and consolidating the use of pronouns. EAL/D students can sometimes confuse pronouns. Using familiar images of people to learn “he” for a boy and “she” for a girl can support students.
SAMPLE
Extension
• Play a barrier game in pairs to reinforce the use of nouns in spoken language to support effective communication. Place a physical barrier between two students. Student A holds the information and Student B is going to seek the information. To extend students’ understanding and use of nouns, information can be given in the form of instructions. For example, Student A gives Student B some instructions on how to organise some concrete objects. Student B arranges the items in accordance with the instructions.
• Provide opportunities for students to create their own setting for a story or something that gives information about an object, animal or thing (this could be an image of an animal, an aeroplane or another topic or object of interest that the student creates). They may do this through construction, collage or creating dioramas, etc. Encourage students to think about setting, characters and other objects to support the story scene. If creating an information setting about an animal, the scene could connect to technical nouns about habitat and food. Once they have created their story or information scene, students then label the nouns in the scene and use them to write sentences, a short narrative or an information report.
• Create and play “Guess the noun” games. Students take turns to think of a person, animal, place or thing. They write sentences and give them to a partner (or group members) who uses the information to try and guess the noun. Students will probably use adjectives and nouns to create their sentences. For example, I have four legs. I have a tail. I am furry. I have whiskers. I purr when I am happy. I am a __?
• Label paper bags with the words “people”, “places”, “animals” and “things” to begin to build-up banks of nouns and, as the learning continues, adjectives, verbs and adverbs. Students write and illustrate the nouns they put in the noun banks and then pick nouns from the bags and use them to create either written or spoken sentences.
Invite students to use construction apparatus to create anything they wish, such as a toy, an object of interest, an animal or a place. This is a great way of getting to know your students and finding out what they are interested in, which can in turn guide you in your selection of classroom texts.
During this stage, you may identify some students who need extra support in a focus group. Continue to monitor this throughout the “Investigate” activities.
Move around the classroom and ask questions while the students are creating.
• Ask: What are you making? What made you think of creating this? This supports students’ use of vocabulary and encourages them to think about what and why.
• Ask: What did you use to create your __?
• Ask: What colours have you chosen? Why did you choose these colours?
• Ask: Did anyone help you with your creation? Who helped you?
These questions encourage students to think about what they are doing and to use vocabulary to name things.
SAMPLE
Set the learning intention: We are going to learn about the words that name people, places and things.
Construction materials such as blocks, LEGO, Mobilo blocks or Stickle Bricks
