sábado, 26 de mayo de 2012

Comparative and Superlatives: Monsters competition

Monsters, Inc.
For my classes of 2nd of ESO, I ask my students to draw a monster, each of them, at home and to write a small description of how they are; not only physically, but also how they behave and so on, using adjectives of all sorts, such as soft, aggressive, tall, thin, shy, brave...


We start by making sure that they know when we need a comparative (we compare two items or two sets) or a superlative (we compare an item or set with a group of items or sets). Then, we divide adjectives into short (one syllable -strong-  or two syllable ending in -y -pretty) and long adjectives (two syllables -narrow- or more - interesting) and explain them that short adjectives take a suffix to make comparatives and superlatives; whereas long adjectives use a periphrasis. To say the set that we are comparing with, we use the preposition in (in the class, in the school...).


short
 long
 comparative
adjective +er than (taller than)
 more adjective than (more difficult than)
superlative
 the adjective +est (the tallest)
 the most adjective (the most difficult)

 Finally, we point out the irregular form of the adjectives good, bad, far and old (for families use mainly):


 comparative form
 superlative form
 good
 better than
the best 
 bad
 worse than
the worst 
 far
 farther than/ further than
the farthest/ the furthest 
 old
 elder than
the eldest 

 To end up, we make lots of exercises comparing the pictures the students have made. We may also use activities from the net such as the ones in English-zone.com1 and English-zone.com2, or we may play with the IWB this fantastic game by marks-english-school.com or this one by Kids ESL Games.


We can start comparing the monsters in the image above. Do you remember their names?
Leave your comparisons in the form of comments!!!

4 comentarios:

  1. have you tried putting on the blog it the questionnaire?

    Jose Manuel 1ºC

    ResponderEliminar
  2. Not yet, José Manuel, let's see if I can during this week. Regards ;)

    ResponderEliminar
  3. Good work!

    I find your blog very interesting, may be the best blog to improve English. Good explanations, illustrations... better than Isabel Perez.

    Congratulations from your favourite publishers.

    Bigmartos.

    ResponderEliminar
    Respuestas
    1. Thank you very much Bigmartos, I appreciate your words, even though I know they're not completely true ;)
      Thanks for leaving a comment! Regards!!

      Eliminar

Ever Never Just For Since Still Already Yet

Helpdesk2den My first of bachillerato students have asked me for a chart to have a clear view of the time expressions used with the present ...