Compare with Adjectives

First Grade Reading, ESL

Which traits do your students share with their favorite characters? Find out as you introduce new adjectives!
This lesson can be used alone or with the lesson plan All About Me: Character Traits.

Objectives

Objectives

Academic

Students will be able to use verbs and adjectives to compare themselves to fictional characters.

Language

Students will use verbs and adjectives in conversation to compare themselves to fictional characters using
visuals, sentence frames, and partner support.

Materials and preparation Key terms

Variety of familiar fiction texts TIER 1

Chart paper
Class set of the Concept Web worksheet cheerful: happy, joyful
Class set of Vocabulary Cards
Class set of Glossary confident: feeling sure of yourself
Teacher copy of the Teach Background
Knowledge Template creative: able to create art or solve problems
Teacher copy of the Write Student-Facing
intelligent: smart
Language Objectives Reference
unique: one of a kind, different

TIER 2

character: a person or animal in a book

trait: quality that describes someone

Attachments

Teach Background Knowledge Template (PDF)

Write Student-Facing Language Objectives Reference (PDF)
Graphic Organizer Template: Concept Web (PDF)
Vocabulary Cards: Compare with Adjectives (PDF)
Glossary: Compare with Adjectives (PDF)

Introduction (5 minutes)

Display a familiar fictional book to the class.

Call on volunteers to identify the characters in the book.
Prompt students to describe one of the main characters. Ask questions such as, "What is this character

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 like?" and "What does this character do?" Record student responses on chart paper.

Building Academic Language

Word (10 minutes)

Remind students that a character is a person or animal in a fictional book. A character is who is in the
story. Display the vocabulary card.
Remind students that an adjective is a word that describes something. Today, they will learn words to
talk about what a character is like. Adjectives that describe what characters are like are called character
traits. Display the vocabulary card.
Refer to the list of adjectives that describe characters from the introduction. Try to build on student
suggestions as you introduce new vocabulary. For example, students may say that a character is
"happy." Explain that cheerful is another word for happy, and display the vocabulary card. Ask if
students know other words that mean happy, such as exuberant or content. Add additional character
traits to the list as students suggest them, and include a sketch if possible.
Explain that when someone knows that he or she can do something, that person is confident. Display
the vocabulary card. Give an example of a confident character, such as Superman.
Tell students that when someone makes art or music, or solves problems in new ways, that person is
creative. Display the vocabulary card, and give an example of someone creative, such as the school art
or music teacher.
Explain that when someone is smart, that person is intelligent. Display the vocabulary card. Smart and
intelligent are two ways of saying the same thing.
When someone is different or special, we call that person unique. Display the vocabulary card. Tell
students that both people and things can be unique. Point to a unique item in the classroom if possible.
For Spanish-speaking students point out cognates: traits/características, confident/confidente, creative/
creativo/a, intelligent/inteligente, unique/único.

Sentence (10 minutes)

Tell students that when readers make connections to a story, it helps them understand and remember
the story better.
Refer to the vocabulary cards and student-generated list of character traits. Tell students that today they
will make a connection with a story by thinking about how they are the same as or different from one of
their favorite characters.
Tell students that when you compare two things, you describe how they are the same.
Choose a familiar character and display the following sentence frame: "The character and I are both
____." Model completing the sentence frame: "The character and l are both unique."
Have students use the word bank to talk about how they are the same as the character with a partner.

Discourse (10 minutes)

Have students identify a favorite character.

Distribute a copy of the Concept Web worksheet to each student. Have students write the name of the
character in the middle circle and one trait that describes the character in each of the squares.
At the bottom of the paper, have the student use the following sentence frame to describe how he or she
is the same as the character: "The character and I are both ____."

Additional EL adaptations

BEGINNING

Have students work in a teacher-led small group to complete word webs and write sentences.
Call out a character trait from the list, such as confident, and have students act out the character trait as
a class.

ADVANCED

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 Have students form a small group and describe their favorite characters to one another. Have them
identify how they are the same as the characters.
Challenge students to describe how they are different from the character. Provide the sentence frame:
"The character is ____, but I am ____."

Formative Assessment of Academic Language (2 minutes)

Check that students are able to identify a character and write three or more character traits on the word
web.
Ask students to answer the following question using the sentence stem provided:
How are you the same as the character?
"The character and I are both ____."

Review and closing (3 minutes)

Choose volunteers to describe a character. Have students give a thumbs-up if their character shares the
same trait. Have students give a thumbs-down if their character does not share that trait.
Choose a volunteer to act out a character, and have the class guess which character the student chose.

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 Teach Background Knowledge
Lesson Topic:
Choose a topic from the main content
lesson that will help ELs understand the
main content lesson. Your non-ELs will
already have knowledge about this topic.

Total Lesson Time:

(20 - 30 minutes)

Student-Facing Language
Objective:
Example: I can learn new vocabulary
using pictures and sentence frames.

Student ELP Level(s):

Consider each student’s ELP level and
their academic strengths when choosing
scaffolds for the lesson.

Groupings (pairs, small-groups, a teacher-led group)

Potential Scaffolds:
Choose some of these material supports
and instructional scaffolds based on each
EL’s individual strengths and needs.
Word banks, word wall, and bilingual glossaries
Sentence frames, sentence stems, and paragraph frames
Home language materials
Reduced linguistic load, repetition, rephrasing and modeling
Practice new academic skills with familiar topics

Materials & Resources List

List the materials you’ll use in the lesson.

Key Vocabulary Words (5-8 words)

List the words with student-friendly
definitions in English. Provide
definitions in student’s home language
when appropriate.

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Introduction
Access EL’s prior knowledge about the
lesson topic with a brief comprehension
check.

Potential activities:
Creating captions for images
Opinionnaires
Carousel brainstorming
Conversations with sentence starters
Time estimate for Introduction
(3 - 5 minutes)

Explicit Instruction of
Background Knowledge
Model a learning activity that embeds
the teaching of academic language and
background knowledge.

Potential activities:
Lunch brunch discussion
Teacher-created, adjusted text and
questions
Brief videos or visuals
Text-based instruction
Home-language connections
Pre-teach a small number of
vocabulary words
Show real-world objects
Complete word family or bilingual
glossaries
Word walls or word bank creation

Time Estimate for Explicit Instruction

(4 - 6 minutes)

Guided Practice
Provide an opportunity for students (in
pairs or small groups) to practice the skill
or information taught during Explicit
Instruction, offering appropriate
scaffolds as needed.

Time Estimate for Guided Practice

(5 - 7 minutes)

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 Formative Assessment
Ask students to show comprehension of
new background knowledge and
associated skills through an oral or
written task. Provide appropriate
scaffolds dependent on their ELP level.

Potential assessments:
Act out concepts
Hands on tasks
Drawings, models, or graphs
Graphic organizer completion
Captions of images
Reading response or content
area logs
Retellings
Role plays
Audio or video recordings
Oral interviews

Time estimate for Assessment

(5 - 7 minutes)

Review and Closing

Refer to the student objective and relate
information to future lessons. Allow
students to share thoughts about
whether they reached their objective
and/or mention lingering questions.
Provide sentence stems or frames for their
discussion.

Time estimate for Review and Closing

(3 - 5 minutes)

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 Write Student-Facing Language Objectives
A student-facing language objective: A teacher-facing language objective:
begins with “I can...” begins with “Students will be able to...”
is designed to raise students' self-awareness of and is designed to raise students' self-awareness of and
promote their language development. promote their language development.
incorporates a language function, grammar structure, and incorporates a language function, grammar structure, and
supports or scaffolds. supports or scaffolds.
is easy to understand for students at all levels of is intended to guide the teacher’s lesson planning
English proficiency. and instruction.

Steps to convert a teacher-facing objective to a student-facing objective:

1. Replace “Students will be able to” with “I can.”
2. Simplify challenging words but maintain key vocabulary words you’ll address in the lesson.

Students will be able to describe a character with adjectives using graphic organizers.
Language Grammar Support/
Function Structure Scaffold

I can talk about a character with adjectives using graphic organizers.

Language Grammar Support/
Function Structure Scaffold

Language Functions Grammar Structures Supports/Scaffolds

locate create identify nouns adverbs graphic organizers sentence starters

show describe infer modals academic vocabulary teacher modeling strategic grouping
sort ask questions interpret verb forms adjectives word banks/walls home language supports
tell brainstorm collect conjunctions phrases
contrast classify compare sentence structure prepositions
pronouns complex sentences
comparatives

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Name___________________________ Date ____________________

Concept Web
Vocabulary Cards
EL Support Lesson Plan: compare with adjectives

cheerful confident

(adj) happy, joyful (adj) feeling sure of yourself

creative intelligent

(adj) ability to create art or (adj) smart

solve problems

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Vocabulary Cards
EL Support Lesson Plan: compare with adjectives

unique character

(adj) one of a kind, different (n) a person or animal

in a book

trait

(n) qualities to describe

someone

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 Glossary for EL Support Lesson PLAN:
compare with adjectives

Word Definition Visual

(adj) happy, joyful

cheerful

confident (adj) feeling sure of yourself

(adj) ability to create art

creative or solve problems

intelligent (adj) smart

unique (adj) one of a kind, different

(n) a person or animal

character in a book

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© 2007 - 2019 Education.com
Glossary for EL Support Lesson PLAN:
compare with adjectives

Word Definition Visual

trait (n) qualities to describe

someone

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© 2007 - 2019 Education.com