Comparative Words Lesson Plan

Use these guidelines to prepare a lesson plan to teach students of any age how to use comparative words and comparative clauses to express the concepts of more or less and greater or lesser.

Objectives and Goals

• Instruct/review adjectives as a part of speech
• Introduce students to words that end in -er and/or -est
• Offer students the chance to practice finding similar items and comparing them through the proper use of language

Anticipatory Set​

Ask students what they know about -er and -est words, as well as the word "than". Explain that -er adjectives are for comparing two things, while -est words are used to compare three or more things. For older students, introduce and use the terms "comparative" and "superlative" repeatedly and hold students accountable for knowing these terms.

Direct Instruction

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• Model turning common root adjectives into comparative and superlative adjectives (examples: funny, hot, happy, big, good, etc.)
• Brainstorm additional adjectives and practice (as a group) putting them into sentences (example: The sun is hotter than the moon. A baby is smaller than a teenager.)

Guided Practice

Depending on the age and abilities of your students, you can ask the students to write their own comparative and superlative sentences from scratch. Or, for younger students, you can design and copy a worksheet with cloze sentences and they can fill in the blanks or circle the correct suffix. For example:

• Fill in the Blanks: The ___________ is bigger than the ___________.
• Circle one: The big (er or est) animal in the zoo is an elephant.

Another option is to have students look through the pages of their independent reading books and search for comparative and superlative adjectives. ​

Closure

Offer sharing time for the students to read aloud the sentences they completed or composed. Reinforce the core concepts with discussion and question/answer time. ​

Independent Practice

For homework, have students write a given number of comparative and/or superlative sentences based on things they find in their homes, books, neighborhood, or imaginations. ​

Required Materials and Equipment

Worksheets if needed, paper, pencils, student reading books if needed. ​

Assessment and Follow-Up

Check completed homework assignments for correct sentence structure and grammar. Re-teach as needed. Point our comparative and superlative words as they come up in class discussion and whole group reading.