Before you teach — read this first
Grade 1 · Lesson 36 — The spot test — “I ___”
U1 · Level One — Parts of Speech · Verbs (2 of 8) · 10–15 minutes · 18 slides ·
Launch → I do → We do → You do → Closure
The grammar behind this lesson — read this before you teach it.VerbsWhat it is. A verb is the doing or the being of the sentence. Every complete sentence has one.
Why our test works. 'What is happening?' finds action verbs; 'is it just telling me that something IS?' finds being verbs. Both work because a verb is the only word that changes with time — ran, runs, will run — so if a word can be moved into yesterday or tomorrow, it is a verb.
Leans on. Knowing a sentence is a complete thought. The verb is what makes it complete.
Watch for. Being verbs feel like nothing is happening, so children skip them. *She is tall* has a verb, and the child needs it before linking verbs make sense.
What this lesson is
Lesson 2 of 8 on verbs. The single idea is: If I can say “I ___”, it is a verb. The tool the children are handed is the question “Can I put “I” in front of it?” — by the end of the topic that question, not the teacher, settles every case. Held constant today: Old words, new test. The worked example is built on They read every day., ringing read.
Why it matters — say this in your own words, about ten seconds.
“Knowing how words work makes reading easier, not harder.”
A different reason every lesson, on purpose. It is not on a slide and it
is not a script — if you have a better reason today, use yours. What should land is the
idea, not a sentence they can recite.
Recall — sixty seconds, before anything new
Retrieve: Nouns + Pronouns + Adjectives · Pronouns + Adjectives. Ask for it before you introduce anything, take the answers from boards rather than from hands so you see all thirty, and do not re-teach — note who has lost it and carry on. This is the middle of the launch: context, then this, then why it matters. Only what today leans on — a minute spent retrieving something unrelated costs the same and buys nothing, and the child who cannot recall the prerequisite is the one you will lose in the I-do.
How it goes
- Sixty seconds of retrieval opens it: “Yesterday: a verb tells what someone does. Quick — one together.” Same language as when it was taught, a new example. If the class cannot do this, that is today's real work — stop and reteach.
- Ten seconds on why it matters — “Knowing how words work makes reading easier, not harder.” Your words, not those; it is a different reason every lesson so what lands is the idea rather than a sentence they can recite.
- You name the one idea: If I can say “I ___”, it is a verb. Then the plan — what it is, the question we ask, and that we will find them together.
- Then you do one yourself, on screen, one click per move: They read every day. · the question · ring read · name it a verb. Do it exactly the way you want it done — this is the task they are about to do on their boards, not an easier one.
- You build the same thing on the board and leave it up for verbs. The four steps are identical in every lesson of this unit — sentence, question, test, answer — so the children read the method rather than the layout, and today's board shows They read every day. still marked when they start work.
- The We-do runs 4 items on whiteboards — The tired frog took a long nap., Emily She The spotted duck wrote poems., walk, sit. You are scanning for who applies the question and who is guessing from meaning; those look identical on a right answer and completely different on a wrong one.
- Exit directions in full, standing still, before anyone moves — Sheet and pencil · Ask the question on every item · Find the verb in each one. Then they work alone, with the same worked example printed at the head of their sheet.
- Close on See the two sides of this sentence? — an item they have not met, so it measures rather than reminds — then the line they leave with: “A verb tells what happens.”
- Watch for: Misses being-verbs — “there's no verb, nobody does anything” — We taught verbs as actions for seven lessons. This is the predictable cost, and it is why the spot test rather than 'action' is the rule. If you see it: “Can you say I AM? Then it is a verb. It is a quiet one.” (Remedial sheet 12.)