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Topic: Verb

Verbs are a very important word class, including words for actions (he walked home) and states (she is at home). They can be marked for present or past tense (walks, walked).

Nouning verbs

A quick activity looking at how some words can be both nouns and verbs

This is a simple starter activity that will help your students see how some words can function as both nouns and verbs. The activity is designed to be carried out in pairs around the class. One student be the noun and the other will be the verb. Each will need the same word list (which you can download and print below) or you can just use the word list on the screen.

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Politeness and directness

This task is about using verbs and modal verbs in different ways. We all know that people can be direct or indirect in the ways they phrase things. We often use commands to give instructions, but sometimes these might be seen as too direct and blunt. We sometimes soften them with modal verbs, among other tools.

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Politeness and directness: Activity

Try to make the following expressions less direct. Compose alternative sentences for each one.

  1. Shut the window.
  2. Tell me your name.
  3. Stop talking.

What changes did you make to render the expressions less direct? 

Now, make the following expressions more direct. Compose an alternative sentence for each example.

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03: Verbs

Year 2 Guided Grammar Lessons #3

This is Lesson #3 of a unit of 10.

Go to the Start

Teacher Slide

Objective: grammar

To understand what verbs are, how they are formed, and their grammatical characteristics.

Objective: writing

To explore what role verbs play in writing, and to apply this to the pupils' own writing.

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05: Present tense

Year 2 Guided Grammar Lessons #5

This is Lesson #5 of a unit of 10.

Go to the Start

Teacher Slide

Objective: grammar

To understand, identify and apply the present tense, including the present progressive form of the verb.

Objective: writing

To explore when the present tense is used in writing and apply this to the pupils’ own writing.

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06: Past tense

Year 2 Guided Grammar Lessons #6

This is Lesson #6 of a unit of 10.

Go to the Start

Teacher Slide

Objective: grammar

To understand, identify and apply the past tense, including the past progressive form of the verb.

Objective: writing

To explore when the past tense is used in writing and apply this to the pupils’ own writing.

Terminology for pupils:

tense, past tense

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Analysing representation in romantic fiction

Lesson plan for Mills and Boon exercise

Goal

  • Use linguistic tools to analyse representation in romantic fiction

    Lesson plan

    Gathering the noun phrases and verbs relating to particular topics in a text can be a good first step in analysing the representation of those topics. This lesson uses blurbs from the Mills & Boon website to discuss how those texts represent gender and how that might suit its readers.

    Give students the blurbs and have them read out.

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    Derived nouns and composition

    In this activity we will look at suffixes that can change adjectives and verbs into nouns.

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    Derived nouns and composition: Activity 1

    Complete the examples with nouns which are derived from the highlighted adjectives. The first answer is provided for you.

    Anna was late. It annoyed me. → Anna's lateness annoyed me.

    Jeff is shy. I didn’t notice this until the party. → I didn’t notice Jeff’s ___ until the party. I didn’t notice Jeff’s shyness until the party.

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    Derived nouns and composition: Activity 2

    Complete the examples with nouns which are derived from the highlighted adjectives. The first answer is provided.

    The peacekeeping forces withdrew. It led to civil war. → The withdrawal of the peacekeeping forces led to civil war.

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    Genre of Argument and Discussion 2

    Lesson Plan

    Goals:

    • Identify and analsye how nominalisations are used in essays
    • Identify and analsye how the passiv voice is used in essays
    • Apply these features in a writing task

    Lesson Plan

    This is Part 2 of the lesson on Argument and Discussion. 

    Make sure you have the handout from Part 1. 

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    Genre of Argument and Discussion 2

    Activities

    This is Part 2 of the lesson on Argument and Discussion. 

    Make sure you have the handout from Part 1. 

    In the first lesson, you looked at how information is organised through discourse structure. In this lesson, you will examine choices of language and register.  

    Activity 1

    Re-read paragraph 3. Can you find an example of the same word being used in different grammatical roles?

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    Genre of Encyclopaedia Entries

    Lesson Plan

    Goals:

    • Identify the purpose and tone of encyclopaedia entries
    • Analyse the discourse structure and register features
    • Produce an encyclopaedia entry using the same techniques

    Lesson Plan

    Before this lesson, you may want to complete the lesson An Introduction to Genre, so that learners are familiar with the key terms discourse structure and register

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    Genre of Encyclopaedia Entries

    Activities

    Warm up

    What kind of text is an encyclopaedia?

    What is its purpose?

    What makes it different from other texts?

    Activity 1

    Read the Tiger encyclopaedia entry.

    1. What are three facts you learn about tigers?
    2. How is this text written? What is the tone? Why is it written in this way?

    What three words best describe the tone and style of this text?

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    Genre of Narratives and Recounts

    Lesson Plan

    Goals:

    • Distinguish recounts from narratives
    • Identify the discourse structure and features of register used in narratives
    • Re-order a narrative by following the appropriate features

    Lesson Plan

    Before this lesson, you may want to complete the lesson An Introduction to Genre, so that learners are familiar with the key terms discourse structure and register

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    Genre of Narratives and Recounts

    Activities

    Activity 1

    Today, we're looking at the genre of storytelling. Narratives and recounts are two ways of describing events.

    What do you think is the difference between narratives and recounts?

    Narratives and recounts both relate events that took place in the past and which occur in a logical order.

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    Genre of Newspaper Articles

    Lesson Plan

    Goals:

    • Identify and analsye the discourse features of newspaper articles
    • Identify and analsye the register features of newspaper articles
    • Apply these features in writing 

    Lesson Plan

    Before this lesson, you may want to complete the lesson An Introduction to Genre, so that learners are familiar with the key terms discourse structure and register

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    Genre of Newspaper Articles

    Activities

    Warmer 

    Discuss with a partner: 

    • What was the last newspaper article you read? What was it about? 
    • Why do people read newspapers and news websites?  
    • What features do we expect to see in a newspaper article? Why are they used? 

    Activity 1

    Read Article A. Discuss the following questions: 

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    Noun endings

    Exploring suffixes and how they affect word class

    In this activity we will look at suffixes which change verbs and adjectives into nouns. This process is a part of derivational morphology. 

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    Subject-Verb Agreement

    In this lesson, students select the correct verb to compose an acceptable sentence.

    Goals

    • Practise composing sentences with appropriate Subject-Verb agreement.
    • Identify acceptable patterns in Standard English.

    Lesson Plan

    The teacher explains that today, we will select the correct verb on the smart board, to construct acceptable sentences.

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    Subject-Verb Agreement: 'Be' verbs

    Telephones
    are
    is
    am
    really weird.

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    Tense and aspect in fiction

    Exploring the use of tense and aspect in a range of literary texts

    In this activity we will examine some short extracts from novels. The idea is to look at the tense and aspect forms used, and think about how they are used to unfold the action of the story.

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