GRAMMAR: USING ARTICLES (A, AN, THE)

LESSON OVERVIEW

Lesson name: Use of articles (a, an, the)

Skill focus: Grammar

Teacher name: Rizki Fitriyani

Organisation/school name: Pradipta Elementary School

Target students: Class 4, ages 9-10

Materials used in class: Class set of Grammar Review (articles), whiteboard, marker, laptop, LCD, Exercise quiz.

LESSON OBJECTIVES

Articles are a simple yet critical part of speech. This lesson helps your four grades distinguish the three articles and understand how to use them in sentences. Students will be able to identify articles and use them correctly in a sentence.

LESSON PLAN

Lesson stages/activities timings:

Introduction (10 minutes)

• Ask students to define a noun (a person, place, object, or idea), and then ask them to define adjectives (words that describe nouns). Give a few examples such as small (adjective), cat (noun), and white (adjective), house (noun).

• Ask students to consider the words a, an, and the. Ask them what part of speech these words belong to, and listen to their responses.

• Tell students that these three little words are a type of adjective, called articles or determiners because they help us describe nouns. They tell us whether we are speaking of a specific noun or a noun in general.

• For a more interesting introduction and explanation, play an explanatory video about the articles from the laptop and share it via the LCD in the classroom, the video explanation is accompanied by an explanation from the teacher.

Explicit instruction/teacher modeling (5 minutes) 

• Show students the following sentences on the board: 

- Give me the book.

- Give me a book. 

• Ask students to turn to a partner and discuss the difference between the two sentences. Invite students to share their thinking. 

• Tell students that "the" is a definite article because it refers to a specific noun while "a" and "an" are indefinite articles because they refer to a more general sense of the noun. In the example, the first sentence asks for a specific book while the second sentence is requesting any book. 

• Inform students that the indefinite article "an" is used before words that start with a vowel sound (a, e, i o, u). Point out that words spelled with a consonant but are pronounced with a vowel sound must use "an"

• Tell students that nouns beginning in a vowel but pronounced with a consonant sound use the indefinite article "a"

Guided practice (10 minutes) 

• Share the exercise quiz with each student through the LCD in the classroom.

• Read the first couple of questions of the quiz and demonstrate how you identify the articles by typing them. 

• For each article you type or choose, explain to students why you choose a definite or indefinite article.

• Call on students to answer the next question and type the articles, while also explaining why the particular article makes sense in the sentence. 

Independent working time (10 minutes) 

• Hand out the Grammar Review: Articles worksheet to each student. 

• Instruct them to complete the worksheet and compare their answers to their chairmates/partner when they are finished.

• Circulate the room and offer help as needed. 

MATERIALS

1. EXERCISE QUIZ (ARTICLES: A, AN, THE)

https://learningapps.org/view25094279

2. CLASS SET OF GRAMMAR REVIEW: ARTICLES