The Best Skills to Teach 'Describing Things': Part 2 - "Describing Quantity Things' in Form Two

The Best Skills to Teach 'Describing Things': Part 2 - "Describing Quantity Things' in Form Two

Welcome to UNIT 13.2


PREVIOUSLY: In Unit 13.1, we talked about "Talking about ownership or possession" in Form One.           

IN THIS UNIT 13.2, we will talk about "Describing things" in Form Two.

TOPIC’S INFORMATION
Main Topic: GIVING DESCRIPTIONS.
Sub Topic: Describing things.
Periods per sub topic: 10
Class: Form Two.

DESCRIPTION OF THE SUB TOPIC
Obviously, without descriptions, we could not get to know most of the things. Take an example of any you have never seen before not with a picture, and ask yourself how did you get to know it? Actually, you know it through descriptions. You may been told about the giant snake like Anaconda but only through descriptions, and when you really see you can prove that, 'Yes, this is what I was told about'. Most of the things are described but we have never seen them before.
In this sub topic, students will learn how to describe things in terms of quality and quantity by using appropriate expressions and vocabularies.

Part Two: Describing things in terms of quantity.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES OF THE LESSON
In this sub topic, the student should be able to describe things in terms of their quantity. The student will have the skills of using proper words, phrases, and expressions in expressing things according to their quantities.

  1. TEACHER’S PREPARATION STAGE
This stage is about the preparation of the teacher before undertaking the lessons of the particular sub topic. These are all activities, procedures, materials, teaching aids, and games prepared by the teacher for teaching a sub topic:

  1. Putting heads together: Introducing the topic/lesson properly. Organising how students will be able to get to know what is the topic/lesson about. It is where teacher makes sure that students are going to be in his/her train. It includes brainstorming and familiarisation of the topic/lesson with the students.
This makes students stay together with the teacher. It is at this stage students can understand what is going to be discussed in the particular topic.

In this sub topic/lesson; the teacher will introduce the sub topic/lesson by demonstrating the quantity things like sand, furniture, salt, sugar, oil, water, milk, and others. After introducing these things, a teacher can ask each students or pairs to express any of these in plural form. It is in this practice, students will realise that the quantities of these things are expressed in other ways.

  1. Preparation of Materials. A teacher has to decide on the teaching/learning materials he/she is going to use.

In this sub topic/lesson; teacher will apply various pictures, diagrams, and texts. Just as in the previous part of this sub topic/lesson, the teacher will be required to prepare various pictures, diagrams and texts with the statements that express quantity.

  1. Target Practice. At this point, teacher shows/guides students how to the practice of the functions of the sub topic. A teacher has to show or guide students to the target practice of the grammatical functions of the sub topic.

Under this sub topic/lesson; A teacher will prepare his/her teaching models and include target practice for students to learn various patterns and functions such as:
 ...much water...; ...a lot of sugar...; ....some bread...; ...any news...; ...enough...; ...less furniture...; ...has a lot of equipment; few/a few; little; many; plenty of.

Sentence Examples:
  • There is much water in the bucket.
  • Please pass me some bread.
  • Ouch! This tea has a lot of sugar!
  • Have you heard any news from him?
  • Please, you need to fetch enough water for the evening cooking.
  • This room is nice. It has less furniture.
  • The carpenter has a lot of equipment.
  • Our shamba has plenty of fruits.
  • Many students dislike failing exams.

Note: All words and phrases in bold letters express quantities.

  1. Context-Based Practice. A teacher leads students to the discussion on how the target grammatical functions practised earlier can be applied or integrated into the contexts and situations. The students are guided by the teacher to apply the learnt skills in relevant contexts and situations like homes, school, library and other literary settings.

In this sub topic/lesson; students should explore how to express things in terms of quantity in the contexts of school, home, town, and the market.

  1. Vocabulary Building Practice. At this time, teacher discusses with the students on the vocabularies and phrases to apply in the already mentioned contexts and situations.

In this sub topic/lesson; Vocabularies such as equipment, furniture, bread, loaf, money, milk, water, pork, mutton, paper, chalk, litre of, fleet of cars and others will be mostly used.


  1. TEACHING AND LEARNING PROCEDURES, ACTIVITIES AND GAMES
Guide the students to the full sub topic/lesson procedures, activities and games for better understanding of the sub topic by following these activities:

Activity One: Introductory prompt. The teacher asks students how they measure things like water, soap, sugar and flour. This concept will make students think about other ways of giving various measurements of such things. This can be a good introduction to the expression of the things in terms of quantity.

Activity Two: In this activity, the teacher will describe familiar things in terms of quantity inside and outside the classroom. He/she will prepare students to listen carefully and pay attention to the expressions he/she uses because after his/her demonstration, the students will later be asked to express things in terms of quantity. As he/she demonstrates, he/she should ask students to note down any words that show quantity of something.

Teacher will demonstrate things in terms of quality as follows:
*Inside the classroom
  • Many students have attended school today
  • Few students have not attended today
  • There are few pieces of chalks in the box
  • Low attendance is not required
  • There is a lot of pictures on the wall
  • Teacher has given us a piece of advice
  • There is a piece of furniture in the class
  • Our class has no much dust


*Outside the classroom
  • There is a lot of trees outside the classroom
  • Many buildings at school are painted white
  • There is less pollution at our school
  • Some trees are fruit trees
  • Our teacher gave us a carton of juice during break time
  • Every student runs to the parade when the bell rings


After this teacher's model, students now are introduced to the vocabularies and patterns used when expressing things in terms of quantity. Some of these are:
Some
Any
A lot of...
A piece of advice
A bar of soap
Plenty of...
A bar of soap
Other words are: Less, many, enough, little/a little, few/a few, fewer, much, each, every, etc. Mastering these vocabularies will help students to construct their own sentences easily.

Discussion of the meanings of some other Quantity words: For more understanding of the quantity words, the teacher can guide students to the discussion of the following commonly used quantity words:

Much. This is used with collective and singular nouns. For example; much money, much water.
Many. This used with plural nouns. For example; Many teachers, many friends.
Few. This is used with negative quantity or it implies shortage of something. For example; Few teachers, few students.
A few. This deals with positive quantity and it is also used with countable nouns. For example; Joy has a few friends. A few teachers, a few students.
Little. This implies negative quantities, or a diminutive in size. For example; This cat is little, little person, little crowd.
A little. This means positive quantities, and it is used with non-countable nouns. For example; There is a little salt in soup, a little water, a little crowd.
Less. Less is used with non-countable nouns, collective nouns, volumes, and bulk amounts. For example; There is less pollution in this area, less sound, less erosion.
Fewer. This is used with countable nouns and individual items. For example; Fewer bottles, fewer, chairs, fewer people.
Each. It is used with individual or separate items. For example; The bananas are Tsh 200 each, each person, each one of us.
Every. This refers to a thing in a group, or it describes the frequency of actions. For example; Everyone, every day, every weekend.
Some: it is used in the affirmative sentences.
Any: it is used in negative and interrogative sentences.
Enough: it is used as both adverb and adjective. As an adjective, it is used before noun and as an adverb it is used after the noun.

Activity Three. The teacher will guide students to practice using the teacher's models above (Within the classroom and outside the classroom) to describe quantity of things/people.
Here the teacher gives students a chance to express things/people in terms of quantity. They should be encouraged to use the appropriate expressions as used by the teacher in his/her model.
The students may have a variety of responses. The other expected responses are like:
  • Yesterday I bought a bag of sugar.
  • I always drink much water.
  • She drinks some milk every morning.
  • A lot of students know to speak English.
  • Our school has many teachers.



Activity Four: Here, students will be guided by their teacher to read a variety of texts and note down description of things in terms of quantity. The following Teacher’s model can be used along with others to test students if they can identify the things that are described in terms of quantity.

Text: Teacher's Model
Karema High School is the school with plenty of blessings. First, the school has many trees; both normal and fruit trees. These trees give us a lot of benefits like fruits, soil stability, and refreshing shadows. The school is also surrounded by many paddy fields. They enjoy much water as well because the school is beside Lake Tanganyika. When you come at Karema you have to relax and wait for many fresh 'Mikebuka' and a bowl of rice!

Ask students to:
Identify any five words expressing quantity.

Note: Other questions may be formed out of this text.

Activity Five: A teacher may ask students to write short texts describing quantity of things of their choice. The teacher should allow students to choose their own things to describe, but under his/her guidance so that to keep students in the track. For example, a teacher may help students to choose things like; school, farm, garden, village, town, and others, then ask them to describe them in terms of quantity. For example, a student who has chosen describe the garden, he/she may have following descriptions of it:

I take care of my garden every day. It has a lot of vegetables. I water some water every day to make it evergreen and more productive. It gets plenty of sunlight.

Students should be urged to apply the appropriate expressions when expressing things in terms of quantity. It doesn’t matter how small practice is, but it is good if it is effective to students.


GRAMMAR PRACTICE:
Adjectives of Quantity
Adjective of Quantity is the kind of adjective that shows the quantity of nouns or pronouns.
These are adjectives that are used to describe nouns and distinguish nouns from other nouns. These adjectives do not provide the exact number of nouns or amount. It just indicates ‘how much’ noun is there in the sentence.
Here are some examples:
  • He has many books in his house.
  • He is so handsome.
  • Matatizo is very poor.
  • He has completed most of the tasks.
  • He has enough money to buy a car.


In the above sentences, the words, many, so, very, most, and enough are adjectives of quantity because they show the amount of noun. Adjectives of number or numerical adjectives also specify the amount of noun in the sentence.
Other examples are:
  • Most of the boys like to listen to music.
  • My bucket is empty.
  • We have no enough time for practice.
  • There is little water in the jar.
  • Is there any fruit in the basket?
  • She ate a whole apple daily.
  • We need abundant amount of water.
  • She has numerous pens.
  • I have little interest in dancing.
  • My glass is half full.


REFLECTION
Ask students how they describe things to other people at home, neighborhood, church, Town Street, or at school. For example, what expressions do they use when they describe something to someone else.

Also ask them how they describe various objects. For example, what expressions do they use when they are describing a certain object to someone else who does not know how the object looks like.

ASSESSMENT
The teacher should use relevant assessment tools like oral questions, drills, games, exercises, pair works, group works, and assignments so that to check if a student is able to describe things in terms of their quantity?

Also the teacher can assess his/her students by using the following ways:

Assessment 01: Oral Questions with answers
Ask students if they can describe things in terms of quantity. Give them various questions and check their responses in oral and in written forms.

Assessment 02: Choose one best alternative from the brackets
Choose the correct words in the brackets:
  • I like ......(few/a few) friends
  • She gave me .......(a piece/peace) of advice
  • John drinks ......(many/much) water everyday
  • The government insists ......(fewer/less) use of charcoal
  • ........(Each/Every) one of us should speak
  • Give me ......(a bar/piece) of soap.


Assessment 03: Matching items.

LIST  A
LIST  B
  1. A slice of ………
  2. A roll of ……….
  3. A grain of …….
  4. A bar of ……..
  5. A piece of…..
  6. A drop of……
  7. A carton of….
  1. Wheat
  2. Juice
  3. Blood
  4. Furniture
  5. Bread
  6. Toilet paper
  7. chocolate

Assessment 04: Pick the correct answer from the box.


Sufficient, few, some, couple, all
  • She spent _____ her money on picnics.
  • He gave me _______ chocolates.
  • We have _____________ books at our school.
  • Only ______ birds are flying in the sky.
  • In a ______ of days our results will appear.


SUMMARY/CONCLUSION
Give them the advantages of descriptive language and how it plays a great role in our life. Show them how important it is to have the ability of describing something to others in terms of quantity.

NOTE: These stages explained above are not necessarily covered in a single lesson of single or double period. Remember that this is the guide for teaching the whole sub topic which has periods ranging from 6 to 20. So, the teacher's task is to divide these stages according to the total number of periods for a particular sub topic.


WHAT IS YOUR OPINION?
This article is about how to study and teach "Talking about possession or ownership" in Form One. As a student or teacher, what is your opinion on how to study and teach this sub topic/lesson?
Your opinion is worth and I believe that it can make these materials better for our own consumption.
You are Welcome!

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Emmanuel Kachele is a founder and Blogger of KACHELE ONLINE Blog, an educational blog where 'O' Level English - 'OLE', 'A' Level English (ALE) and other related teaching and life skills are shared extensively. This is an online center for all Tanzanian Secondary School English Language students and teachers (Forms I-VI) and all interested English Language learners and teachers worldwide.

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