Name: Maria Franciosa

Date: 10/9/14

Subject: Language Arts

Topic: Antonyms

Grade Level: 5

Purpose: Students will have an in-depth look at antonyms, complementary and gradable and then will have
guided practice in creating antonym scales and will work in pairs to create their own scales and have a guided
discussion about their scales and process after.
Core Standard:
Language Arts:
L.5.5: Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
a. Interpret figurative language, including similes and metaphors, in context.
b. Recognize and explain the meaning of common idioms, adages, and proverbs.
c. Use the relationship between particular words (e.g., synonyms, antonyms, homographs) to better
understand each of the words.
Objective(s):
1.
2.

Given different pairs of words, students will be able to distinguish between complementary antonyms
and gradable antonyms.
Given a list of words, students will be able to order gradable antonyms as well as create their own
gradable antonym set.

Materials Needed for Learning Experience:

Teacher: Smart board, 6 word sets
Student: Paper, writing implement, writing notebooks.
Anticipated Length of Learning Experience: 40-50minutes
Student Grouping: Students do this activity seated at their desks, coming up to the board and working in their
seated desk groups. The students who are in pairs of two will turn around to work with the pair behind them. If
they become off task or disruptive they will turn around and work independently.
Prerequisite Knowledge:
Teacher: knowledge of antonyms in depth
Student: basic knowledge of opposites
Procedure:
1. Introduction:
Set expectations: Before we begin, we will be doing group work during the course of this lesson. I
ask that you are respectful to each other, stay on task, have accountable talk and come back
together as a group when I ask. This can very quickly turn into an independent activity, should
students start fooling around or getting off task.
Review the definition of antonym: opposite or nearly opposite in meaning, relate it to its
opposite the synonym
There are two types of antonyms:
o Complementary antonyms: pairs of words who express an either/or relationship (if one
exists the other cannot) ex. Off/on
o Gradable antonyms: pairs of words that work at opposite ends of a continual scale ex.
Hot/ cold
o Show example words for each on board- write off/on and hot/cold on their
respective sides. Have them separate the complementary antonyms from the gradable,
o Complementary: boy/girl, give/take, true/false, send/receive
o Gradable: wet/dry, dark/light, big/small, excellent/poor, early/late, happy/sad

2. Body of Learning Experience:

Guided Practice:
Now we are going to take an in-depth look at gradable antonyms. Gradable antonyms can be put
on a scale, with the extreme opposites at either end.
o Example scale: Excellent, good, fair, poor
o Where might the words: terrific, fantastic and okay fall on the scale?
o Gradable antonyms all have in-between terms that can be placed on the scale like this
Put up the temperature word scale in random order. Have the students take out the red cards
from the bag. Have the students work in their groups to order the scale, with the absolute hottest
at one end and the absolute coldest at the other.
o Red-hot, boiling, hot, warm, cool, cold, freezing, subzero
Put up the hideous-magnificent set and have the students take out the blue cards. Have the
students work in their groups to order the scale.
o Magnificent, gorgeous, beautiful, attractive, plain, ugly, repulsive, hideous
Independent Practice:
Look at the other gradable pairs we have already sorted (from the first part of the lesson). Chose
one of those pairs and work with a partner or in your group on creating a scale for those pairs.
Try to have at least 5 words in your scale (including your opposites, so creating 3 to go in the
middle)
As they are working, check in with each group to see which scale they are working on and give
tips when necessary.
Bring the group back together, ask them to share their pairs and justify why they made this order.
Have them talk through their process, working the extremes first? Filling in the middle and
working outwards?
How might we apply this in our writing?
Example sentence with an average adjective big
What word in this sentence is the adjective? What is it describing? Lets look at how we can apply
a gradable antonym scale to this word.
Show big example, chose new word
If time, have them take out their narrative pieces from their writing notebooks and look at their
body paragraphs. Pick a sentence with an average adjective and copy this sentence onto a new
sheet of paper. Create a scale for this adjective and then put thought into exactly how intense you
wish to make this adjective. If you need help finding words to scale please raise your hand.
When done with this task, either look for more sentences to improve or guided read.
3. Conclusion:
After the activity do a quick recap:
o What are the two types of antonyms? What is the difference between the two?
o How can we use these in our writing?
Transition to specials.
Resources Used:
Honig, B., Diamond, L., & Gutlohn, L. (2013). Word Consciousness. In Teaching Reading Sourcebook (Updated
second ed., pp. 588-561). California: Arena Press.