From primary school years, children are taught the difference between nouns and verbs, then adjectives and adverbs, possibly prepositions and articles.
Why then at secondary school, do we find many students still confused over identifying parts of speech?
And does it matter?
It matters because as students progress through the NZC, our aim is that they will be able to provide insightful analysis on author’s purpose. This means they can independently analyse entire texts (or extracts) and figure out what they writer is trying to say and why. The how they do this then becomes important. Tone and style (more concepts for senior students) are inextricably linked to diction and language features.
In NCEA examinations one of three externally assessed standards for English is Unfamiliar Text. Many students avoid it due to lack of confidence in the simple act of identifying and then explaining the effect of diction, language features and structural devices.
I suspect that although students are “taught” various writing devices over the years, it is the application of that skill that is the real challenge.
And thinking beyond the lines is certainly challenging if students are not hooked in to reading by this stage.
For revision, I’m going to use a triple app combo (selling it!) to bolster confidence at close reading texts in my Year 9 students. Using Office Lens, OneNote and Flipgrid, I’ve developed a lesson that aims to revise parts of speech identification and then, consider the effect of the writer’s choices working initially collectively and then independently.
- Via my phone, use OfficeLens, take a pic of a passage from a novel we studied in class.
- Send it to their shared ClassNotebook.
- Students log in and silently read the passage
- Instruct students to use the highlighter to highlight nouns purple, verbs red, adjectives green and adverbs yellow.
- Then instruct students to open the same passage in Immersive Reader (under view in OneNote)
- Go to Grammar Options icon top right. Turn the various parts of speech on.
- Students can then compare their selections to the correct answer. The colours I selected are the same as those used in Immersive Reader to help visual learners.
- On the whiteboard, make a list of all the nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs in the passage.
- In pairs, ask students to discuss the connotations of adverbs and adjectives.
- As a class discuss the following: How did the character feel at this point? How did you know? What was the effect on you – did you feel sorry for him? Excited? Happy? What words made you feel like that?
- Give students a starter sentence and instruct them to write a passage in their writing journals explaining the writer’s purpose.
- For homework, share a flipgrid code featuring a topic asking them to give examples of parts of speech that created a sad mood in the same passage.
- Discuss in class the following day.
This task could then lead on to revision of the novel itself – in particular we could use it as a springboard to an essay on character. Working smarter is the key at this end of the year, right?
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