Before you teach — read this first
Grade 1 · Lesson 46 — Adverbs can move
U1 · Level One — Parts of Speech · Adverbs (6 of 7) · 10–15 minutes · 18 slides ·
Launch → I do → We do → You do → Closure
The grammar behind this lesson — read this before you teach it.AdverbsWhat it is. An adverb tells more about a verb — how, when, or where.
Why our test works. 'How, when, or where?' works because those are exactly the questions a verb leaves open. The adverb is the answer the verb invites.
Leans on. Verbs. The adverb has nothing to modify until the verb is found.
Watch for. Adverbs also modify adjectives and other adverbs — very quickly. Hold that back until the verb case is secure.
What this lesson is
Lesson 6 of 7 on adverbs. The single idea is: Slowly, he walked. He walked slowly. Both work. The tool the children are handed is the question “How? When? Where?” — by the end of the topic that question, not the teacher, settles every case. Held constant today: Same sentence, moved word — position is the only variable. The worked example is built on He ran outside., ringing outside.
Why it matters — say this in your own words, about ten seconds.
“Grammar is not rules to obey — it is how meaning is made.”
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: Verbs · Nouns + 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: not every adverb ends in -ly. 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 — “Grammar is not rules to obey — it is how meaning is made.” 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: Slowly, he walked. He walked slowly. Both work. 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: He ran outside. · the question · ring outside · name it an adverb. 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 adverbs. 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 He ran outside. still marked when they start work.
- The We-do runs 4 items on whiteboards — When I go by, you say wiggly! (p.61), Sidney streaked away; she was soon blue. (p.67), everywhere, always. 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 adverb in each one. Then they work alone, with the same worked example printed at the head of their sheet.
- Close on Did I not use a good noun? — an item they have not met, so it measures rather than reminds — then the line they leave with: “An adverb tells more about a verb.”
- Watch for: Calls an adjective an adverb because it sounds descriptive — Both describe; only the target differs. If you see it: “Is it telling you about a THING or about a DOING?” Two hands: flat palm for the thing, rolling hands for the doing. (Remedial sheet 11.)