Lesson Plan Coversheet

Target learners – basic information:

 10th grade – 12th grade ESL students
 New immigrants to the U.S. in recent years
 First languages: Arabic, Spanish, French, Mandingo
 Home countries: Syrian Arab Republic, Guinea, Honduras, Haiti
 English proficiency levels: WIDA Level 1&2

Teaching context:
 School: Science Leadership Academy at Beeber, Public High School in Philadelphia
 Class: English Language Development, 65-minute in-person class, meets 4 times a week (Tuesday – Friday)
 Number of students in class: 9
 Resources in the classroom: a whiteboard, a screen, chairs and tables, sofa area in the back, a bookshelf, markers, posters, and
some other common study tools

Lesson rationale:
At the time the lesson was planned and delivered, the students were learning a big unit on writing personal narratives. Before
this lesson, they had written 2 personal narrative essays, one about the story of their names, and the other about a memorable event in
their life. For the second essay, the students chose a variety of topics: a day when they experienced strong emotions, the day when
they first arrived in the U.S., their migration journey, etc. My mentor teacher wanted to teach students ways to improve their personal
narratives, including focuses on structure, syntax, vocabulary, etc. Therefore, this lesson is designed to improve students’
understanding of English word classes by teaching them ways to use adjectives and nouns to enrich their descriptions of the stories.
Since all the students are immigrants and have experiences living in both their home countries and in the U.S., the final goal of the
lesson is to help students build a narrative on describing their living experiences in the two places. By teaching students language
forms to build personal narratives, we want to equip our students with the language to share their unique identities. This is will also
help when they begin to write their college application essays.
 Lesson Plan
CLASS: WIDA Level 1&2 ELD in person TOPIC: Nouns & Adjectives DATE: 09/27/2023

Lesson Objectives:
● SWBAT explain the difference between nouns and adjectives orally and identify nouns and adjectives by completing the noun
clown worksheet individually and meet at least 80% accuracy.
● SWBAT place adjective cards in the correct order (opinion > size > condition > color > origin) to describe a noun in small
groups.
● SWBAT describe where they live in at least 10 sentences using adjectives and sentence frames (e.g., My home country/city is
…; I live in … now) to extend the descriptive information in their written personal narratives.

Activity Activity Stages Key Language forms/ Resources/Materials Time

Focus functions

Strand
(Nation,
2007)

Activity 1-Learning Nouns (15 mins) Definition of a noun: White board and 9:25 am-9:40am
Step 1 (5 mins) A noun is a word for a markers
1. T introduces the focus of the lesson by person, a place, a
saying “If you are going to introduce where thing, or an idea. Screen and interactive
you live now and before you come to the Anything that we can pencil
U.S. to your peers, what will you say?” T see, touch, or think
writes down Ss’ ideas on the white board about. Canvas class site
and leads Ss to think about what word
classes will be used in their introduction. Definition of an
 After Ss identify the two focus word classes adjective: Noun Clown worksheet:
(nouns and adjectives), T says: “Today we An adjective is a word
Language- are going to explore nouns and adjectives to to describe a noun, to
focused build stronger personal narratives.” tell us more about a
learning 2. T asks Ss to think about what they know noun.
about nouns and adjectives, including a
definition of the terms “noun” and
“adjective”, and examples of each.
- Think-pair-share: have Ss reflect quietly
for 1 minute before sharing with a
partner. Then discuss ideas as a whole
class.
- T then summarizes Ss’ ideas and
provides a simple definition of noun and
adjective both orally and in written form
(on the white board).

Step 2 (10 mins)

1. T asks Ss to download the Noun Clown
Worksheet on Canvas.
2. T shows the worksheet on the classroom
screen and models how to do the first part of
the worksheet “Underline the noun or nouns
in each sentence” by demonstrating how to
do item #1:
(1) The zookeeper has a very busy schedule.
- T says: “I am going to underline
zookeeper because it is a word for a
person” and draw a line under
 “zookeeper” at the same time. Then T
reads the rest of the sentence and does
the same thing for “schedule”.
- T says: “Now you will underline the
nouns from number 2 to number 8 by
yourself.”
3. Ss start to work on the first part. T asks Ss
to give a thumbs up when finish.
4. T asks Ss to come up to the screen to
underline nouns in each sentence one by one
to check their answers. Then, Ss explain
why they underline the words.
- T facilitates Ss’ explanations when
needed by asking Ss to choose the type
of the noun: is it a person, a place, a
thing, or an idea?
- T encourages Ss with beginning level of
oral language proficiency to use body
language to facilitate explaining
5. T moves on to show the second part of the
worksheet on the screen. T puts Ss into 2
groups and the groups complete the Noun
Clown activity in turns on the screen. The
winner group (more correct answers) will
get a small prize.
6. T asks each group to explain the words they
highlight as they do this in turns.
Activity 2-Adjective order (25 mins) Adjective orders: Whiteboard and markers 9:40 am – 10:05
Step 1 (15 mins) opinion > size > am
 1. T says “Now we’ve learned about nouns, condition > color > Screen and interactive
you can use them to introduce your home. origin > NOUN pencil
You can introduce your house, the street,
and stores on the street, but what if your Sample personal
peers what to learn more about these places? narrative:
What other word classes can you use?”
After Ss say the correct answer “adjectives”,
T then shares a short personal narrative
talking about her own homes with visual
Meaning- support. (T shares the sample with visuals
focused on the screen and read it at the same time).
Car description visual:
input & 2. T highlights some expressions in the
Language- narrative “a beautiful urban city”
focused “traditional Chinese architectures”. T
learning indicates that there are more than one
adjective and they are put in certain order
before a noun and guides students by saying
“Let’s do some activities to figure out the
order of adjectives before a noun.” A set of adjective cards
3. T shows Ss a picture of a description of a for each group:
car on the screen. G1: big, black, car
4. T says “a car is also a common noun we see. G2: big, black, German,
These are the adjectives I want to use to car
describe this car, but there are too many G3: beautiful, big, new,
sentences. I need to put some of the black, German, car
adjectives together in one sentence like I did
in the narrative. Let’s have a guess on the Adjective order quiz:
order of adjectives”
5. T puts Ss into 3 groups (2-3 ppl) and give
 each group a set of cards with the adjectives
and the noun:
beautiful, big, new, black, German,
car

[Differentiation]:
Homogenous grouping (these are relative levels
within the class)
G1 – lower proficiency level – 2 adjectives
G2 – intermediate proficiency level – 3
adjectives
G3 – higher proficiency level – 5 adjectives

6. T checks if Ss understand the words. T asks

each group to discuss and put the words in
the right order (have a guess)
7. T checks the answers from the groups.
Then, T explains the correct adjective order:
opinion > size > condition > color > origin >
NOUN
- Explain what each word means by giving
some examples orally and drawing
demonstrations on the white board
8. Ss discuss and rearrange the adjectives into
the correct order, then each group reports
their ranking by orally read the complete
phrase to the whole class.

Step 2 (10 mins)

 1. Ask Ss to open the adjective order
worksheet and work on it independently (5
mins)

[Differentiation]:
Level 1 students: complete the quiz with the
reference of the adjective order.
Level 2 students: complete the quiz without
referencing the order.

2. Ss check the answers with Ss next to them

and discuss any difference (2 mins)
3. T discuss the answers with the whole class
(3 mins)
Meaning- Activity 3-Read & Write (20 mins) Adjectives: Canvas class site 10:05am-
focused Step 1 (10 mins) beautiful 10:25am
output 1. Ss download and read the passage “two pretty Two Homes worksheet:
home” on canvas and then identify the nice
nouns and adjectives in the passage by small
underlining the nouns and circle and old
adjectives individually. large
2. When Ss finish, T shows the passage on the modern
screen and asks Ss to read the sentences one fun
by one and highlight nouns and adjectives. boring Sentence frame and
… adjectives worksheet:
Step 2 (10 mins) Sentence frames:
1. T tells Ss what they are going to write I was born in …
about: where they live now & where they My home country/city
come from (two homes) is …
 2. T provides Ss with sentence frames and how It has …
they are used in the reading passage (show …
the passage on the screen and asks Ss to
look at the sentence frames on their own
computer)
3. T goes over the meaning sample adjectives
on the worksheet with Ss using oral
language and visuals (search on google if
needed)
4. Ss start to write at least ten sentences about Sample personal
their two homes. Each sentence will contain narrative:
1-3 adjectives to describe a noun.

N/A Wrap-up (5 mins) 10:25am-

1. T asks if Ss have any questions about 10:30am
nouns, adjectives, and adjective orders
2. T announces the homework for today’s
lesson and its due time and hand-in
methods.

Homework: Finish writing the personal narrative on Two Homes, submit the written essay on Canvas by the end of the day
(23:59pm).

Anticipated Problems & Suggested Solutions:

 - Problem: since this is our first class at the school, we are not very familiar with the students (their preference, interests,
abilities and skill, etc.), thus the students might get through activities faster or slower than we expected. As a result, we may
not be able to finish all of our planned activities, or we may finish the lesson earlier than expected.
- Solution: adjust the amount of time and complexity of each activity based on students’ participation and reactions flexibly.
Contingency Plans:
- If students have difficulty completing the tasks, provide more individual and small group scaffolds. If they finish the activities
early, ask them to proofread their narratives or peer review their narratives and provide feedback to each other.

Noun Clown Worksheet

A noun is a word that names a person, place or thing.

Part 1. Underline the noun or nouns in each sentence.

1. The zookeeper has a very busy schedule.
2. I went to work in the library on summer vacation.
3. Lisa and Tim went to the museum.
4. My Dad likes to hike the Grand Canyon.
5. New York is a very big city.
6. My grandma lives on a farm.
7. My little brother likes to go to the movies.
8. I'd like you to meet Noun Clown. He wants to wear only nouns on his clothes.

Part 2. Cross off all the words on his clothes that are not nouns.
 Sample Personal Narrative

My Homes

I was born in Nanjing. My home city is a beautiful urban city in the southeast part of China. The modern city has

lots of tall buildings and very convenient transportation. However, it also contains many traditional Chinese

architectures. I really love the fusion of the modern and the classical. I moved to the U.S. when I started to attend

college. I lived in Nashville for four years. Nashville is a lovely city. It is the origin of country music. Now I live in

Philadelphia. Compared to Nashville, it is a larger and more diverse city. My living experience in these three

places are all very different but joyful.

Nanjing Nashville Philadelphia

 Adjective Order Quiz

Name: ______________________ Date: ________________

Directions: Circle the correct answer.

1. I bought a pair of _____ shoes. 4. It's ____ village.

1. black new 1. an old lovely
2. new black 2. a lovely old

2. It was a ____ car. 5. It's a ____ house.

1. red German 1. nice new
2. German red 2. new nice

3. It's ____ film. 6. It's ____ airline.

1. a beautiful old 1. a popular American
2. an old beautiful 2. an American popular

7. It's a ____ restaurant.

1. cheap good
2. good cheap

Two Homes
Underline the nouns and circle the adjectives in the following personal narrative. There are at least 10 nouns
and 10 adjectives.

I was born in the United States. It is my home country. When I was a

young woman, I moved to another country. This country was Spain. In

Spain, I was very happy. I had a lot of friends and my life was very fun. I

loved my new home country. However, I missed my large family. After

five fun years, I returned to the United States. In the United States, I was

very happy. I had my loving family. I was home. However, I missed my

friends. Sometimes I visit my friends in Spain. When I am with them, I

feel at home. I am lucky because the United States and Spain are both my

homes.
 Sample List of Adjectives to Describe Where Students Live or Where Students Are From

Directions: Use this list of adjectives to help you describe where you live or where you are from. Use the sentence frames to help
build your sentences.

Adjectives to describe where I live: Sentence frames:

beautiful I was born in …

pretty
My home country/city is …
nice
small It has …
old I moved to … when …
large I live in … now
modern The city is …
fun I feel …
boring
crowded
not crowded
exciting
awesome
fantastic
huge
fascinating
interesting
popular
quiet
busy