Title: In the cabinet of noun peculiarities

Lesson plan elaborated by: Magdalena Trysińska

Topic:

In the cabinet of noun curiosities. Polish and English nouns.

Target group

6th‑grade students of an eight‑year elementary school.

Core curriculum

II. Language skills.

1. Polish grammar. Student:

1) identifies in statements main parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective, adverb, quantifier, pronoun, preposition, conjunction) and explain their function in the text;

4) recognises forms of grammatical cases, numbers, person, tense, mode and grammatical gender of: nouns, adjectives, quantifiers, verbs and pronouns and describes their function in the statement; separates stem from the suffix.

6) uses the correct form of declinable words.

IV. Self‑education. Student:

2) perfects different forms of writing down the gained information;

3) uses information from different sources, gathers and selects information;

5) uses Polish language dictionaries, both general and specific and the dictionary of literary terms;

6) pays attention to the type of dictionary definitions and determines their specificity;

9) develops the ability to effectively use the informational technology and the Internet resources and uses these skills to present his own interests.

The general aim of education

Student recognises nouns

Key competences

• communication in the mother tongue;

• communication in foreign languages;

• ability to learn.

Operational objectives

Student:

• recognises nouns and tells what features do they have;

• lists nouns ending with -um;

• gives the declination pattern for nouns ending with -um;

• lists declinable and indeclinable nouns;

• distinguishes nouns that have only singular form or only plural form;

• uses the Polish language dictionary, English language dictionary and comprehensive Polish language dictionary.

Methods/techniques

• problematic: guided conversation;

• programmed: using computer, using e‑textbook;

• practical: exercises on subject.

Forms of work

• uniform individual activity;

• uniform group activity.

Lesson plan overview (Process)

Introduction

1. The teacher determines the purpose of the class: students will expand their knowledge on nouns. The teacher gives students the criteria of success.

2. The teacher asks students to remind themselves the information about nouns and compare the features of Polish and English nouns. The students do the exercise number 1 in the abstract.

Realization

While doing exercises student should have the possibility of using dictionaries (traditional or electronic): Polish language dictionary, English language dictionary and comprehensive Polish language dictionary.

1. The students do the exercise number 2 in the abstract – they identify Polish declinable and indeclinable nouns, then they read the fun fact, look at the pictures of animals which names and indeclinable and do the exercise number 3 in the abstract – they check in the dictionary which Polish names of the animals from the gallery are the same in English.

2. Word fun. The teacher asks students to come up with three examples of Polish fantasy names for (non‑existent) animals and try to inflect them. Students read their examples, the teacher discusses patterns of declination for new words given by students (neologisms).

3. The students do the exercise number 4 in the abstract – they add the plural forms to the given Polish and English nouns. The teacher points out that the plural irregular forms have to be memorised as there is no rule for creating them.

4. The students do the exercise number 5 in the abstract – they check in a dictionary which of the nouns ending with -um listed in the exercise have the same ending in English. Then the students read the information about how the European languages were influenced by Latin.

5. The students inflect the noun: “lyceum” and pay attention to the singular and plural forms. The teacher emphasises that the Polish nouns ending with -um are declinable also in singular form, but in all cases they have the same form. The students give examples of other nouns ending with -um and in their notebooks they write the conclusion about the declination of such nouns.

6. The teacher informs students that some nouns have only singular or only plural form and asks students to do the exercises number 8 and 9. Then he/she asks students to look around the classroom and try to find examples of nouns that have only a singular number or only plural (eg pants, scissors, etc.).

Summary

Performing ex. 11 in the abstract, which is to encourage students to evaluate their own work and the level of material understanding.

Homework

Basing on today’s lesson create the mind map that will summarise the peculiarities in nouns declination.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

In the cabinet of noun peculiarities

Latin is the native language of Romans. It had a great influence on all the European languages including Polish and English. Up to the 18th century Latin was commonly used in Europe for international communication, and also in science, culture and art. Nowadays Latin is still used, however in a limited version, in many fields of science. Scientific and technical terminology is usually based on Latin. Latin is also used in media and mass culture. Nouns that end with –um originate from Latin.