How to practise the order of adjectives 🥇🥈🥉
The order of adjectives is something that the English language takes waaaay to seriously 🙊 Yes, I said it, it's out there ... waiting patiently now for those rules to be scrapped 🤪
But in all seriousness, the order of adjectives is something that I have never learnt as a student. I somehow winged it, just used my language intuition and it worked for me. But now that I'm a teacher, I need to ... well ... teach it. My students asked me if I could prepare something for them to help them with ordering the adjectives. So here I am right now sharing my idea with you.
In this material you'll get to have a sneak peak into my personal life because I've decided to use real photos of things around me to make this material. So you'll get to see my dog, some of my clothes and furniture, the things I pass by on my way to work 😅
What do you think about my nice long-sleeved pink woollen sweater and my gorgeous big new IKEA bed? 😅 I guess the picture pretty much explains how this material works, but just to make sure let me guide you through it.
There are 4 sets of 12 pictures and each picture needs to be described using the cut up little word cards. The word cards for each picture in a set are in a different colour so the students know which words to use and all they need to do is arrange them in the right order. To isolate the difficulty even more, I've put the L1 translation on the back of each of the word cards.
Sets 1-3 are pretty random when it comes to pictures being described. Set 4 has photos of people, which I got from @wayhomestudio on www.freepik.com.
Each set, of course, has its own error control card which looks like this:
This is why the pictures are numbered - for students to be able to self correct their work once they're done without the need of printing the pictures twice. You know ... saving the ink 😅
Now, the fun part of this activity comes when students start making their own sets! Students as material creators? YES, PLEASE! 🤩 Getting your students to create their own learning materials is one of the staples of autonomous langue learning. Don't take my word for it, just read the following quote from "Language Learner Autonomy" by Little, Dam, and Legenhausen:
„In the autonomy classroom proficiency in language learning and proficiency in language use are two sides of the same coin. (...)Clearly, at least as much learning takes place when producing the materials as when using them individually or with other learners.”
I've prepared empty templates for my students to create their own descriptions of various things around them. I'm going to ask them to take photos or create drawings of things or people they want to describe. They can choose whatever they want so they'll get to executer their autonomy here as well. Then, they'll get to print and cut their materials to later share with their mates. Watch this space to see their work 😁
So, if you like my idea for practising the order of adjectives feel free to let me know in the comments below. If you like it so much that you'd like to own the material, go to Monteshop and get your copy today!
Get The Order of Adjectives here!
Make sure to check the settings on your printer when printing the word cards. If you want to have the Polish meaning of the words on the back of each card you'll need to print double-sided and set your printer to print along the short edge.
