LESSON PLAN 9 - DETERMINERS/ARTICLES

 

Grade level: Grade Seven

Objectives: 

                At the end of the lesson, the learners are expected to:

                a.  define determiners/article and their purpose.

                b. identify determiners within sentences.

                c. use determiners accurately within sentences.

Subject Matter: Determiners/Articles

Reference/s:

Grammar Monster.(n.d.) What Is a Determiner?. Retrieved from https://www.grammar-monster.com/glossary/determiner.htm

Case A.(2012). Email- Determiners Pairwork. Retrieved from  https://www.usingenglish.com/files/pdf/email-determiners-pairwork.pdf

Worksheet and Puzzle Rerieved from: 

https://www.easyteacherworksheets.com/langarts/2/determiners.html

https://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/word-search/result

Materials:

• Laptop
• Projector
• PowerPoint Presentation

Procedure:

A.Activity

a.    Recall

Prayers and Greetings

Checking of Attendance

The teacher asks the students about the topic they last discussed in the subject and briefly discussed the relationship of this to the new subject matter.

b.    Motivation

                The teacher asks the students to list down the words they might find in the cross word puzzle. The first student to find all the words will get a price. 

B.Analysis

After the activity, the teacher will ask the students with the following questions:

1. What did you notice about our activity?

2. What do you think the words are?

3. What comes to your mind when you hear the word noun?

C.Abstraction

Determiner

A determiner is a word placed in front of a noun to specify quantity (e.g., "one dog," "many dogs") or to clarify what the noun refers to (e.g., "my dog," "that dog," "the dog"). All determiners can be classified as one of the following:

• An Article (a/an, the)
• A Demonstrative (this, that, these, those)
• A Possessive (my, your, his, her, its, our, their)
• A Quantifier (common examples include many, much, more, most, some)

Articles (Type of Determiner)

The articles are the words "a," "an," and "the." They define whether something is specific or unspecific. There are two types of article:

(1) The Definite Article (The)

"The" is called the definite article. It defines its noun as something specific (e.g., something previously mentioned or known, something unique, something being identified by the speaker).

• This is the lake.
(This is a previously specified lake, i.e., one already known to the readers.)

(2) The Indefinite Article (A, An)

"A" and "an" are called the indefinite articles. They define their noun as something unspecific (e.g., something generic, something mentioned for the first time).

• This is a lake.
(This is a previously unspecified lake.)

Examples of Articles

• I'm not a troublemaker. I'm the troublemaker!
(This means "I'm not any old troublemaker. I'm the one you've all heard of.")
• To the uneducated, an A is just three sticks. (Author AA Milne)
("The uneducated" is a specific group of people. "An A" means any letter A.)
• The poets are only the interpreters of the gods. (Philosopher Socrates)
("The poets" and "the interpreters" are being identified. "The gods" are something known.)

Why Should I Care about Articles?

We're great at choosing between "a/an" and "the," so we don't need to delve too deeply into the rules. That said though, we're not so great at choosing between "a" and "an," and using the wrong one is by far the most common mistake involving articles. There are four noteworthy issues related to articles.

(Issue 1) Using the wrong indefinite article.

Writers who dogmatically follow the rule that "an" precedes a vowel and "a" precedes a consonant often use the wrong indefinite article. That rule is not entirely accurate. "An" is used before a vowel sound, and "a" is used before a consonant sound. The word sound is important because consonants – typically in abbreviations – can create vowel sounds (e.g., MOT, NTU), and vowels can create consonant sounds (e.g., unicorn, united, Ouija, one-off).

• Buy a house in an hour.
(House and hour start with the same three letters, but house attracts a, and hour attracts an. House starts with a consonant sound. Hour starts with a vowel sound.)
• I had a unique opportunity to strike an unexpected blow.

Be mindful of the distinction between initialism abbreviations (spoken as individual letters) and acronyms (spoken as words):

• An MoD official and a MAFF official visited an NBC facility of a NATO country. 
(The M and the N of the initialisms MoD (Ministry of Defence) and NBC (Nuclear Biological and Chemical) are pronounced "en" and "em." The N and M of the acronyms NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and MAFF (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries) are pronounced "nuh" and "muh.")

The words historic, historical, historian, horrific, and hotel are worthy of special mention. These words start with a consonant sound, as soft as it might be. If you're drawn to "an historic" or "an horrific," give your aitches more "huh" until you're comfortable with using "a."

• The attraction of power can be a disease, a horrific disease.  (Actor Liam Cunningham)

(Issue 2) Writing a job title or an office name with a capital letter.

A job title (e.g., president, judge, director) or the name of office (parliament, court, accounts section) is given a capital letter when it refers to a specific person or office, i.e., when it's a proper noun. So, when the definite article (i.e., the) appears before such a title or name, there's a pretty good chance you'll need a capital letter.

Here's the guidance: If the job title or office name is being used for its dictionary definition, i.e., as a common noun, then don't use a capital letter. However, if the job title or office name nails it down to one specific person or office, then use a capital letter.

• The King was a king among kings. 
(The King specifies an individual, but a king and kings do not. The first one is a proper noun. The other two are common nouns.)
• The Prime Minister said: "Being a prime minister is a lonely job...you cannot lead from the crowd."  (Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher)
(The Prime Minister specifies an individual, but a prime minister does not.)

(Issue 3) Capitalizing "The" when it starts a name (e.g., The Beatles).

Some names (particularly band names) start with "The" (e.g., The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Sex Pistols). When such names appear in running text, you have a choice whether to write "The" (with a capital letter) or "the." There's no consensus among the leading style guides on this point, so go with your preference.

• Did you download the The Clash album? 
(Logically, this is correct, but it's far too unwieldy. No one would write it. Most people would write "Did you download the Clash album?".)

Bear in mind that you might stumble across this issue with foreign names.

• Gina Vitale: The restaurant is called "The La Trattoria".
  Michael Felgate: "The La Trattoria" means The The Trattoria.
  Gina Vitale: I know.
(This is an extract from the 1999 Hugh Grant film Mickey Blue Eyes. With more clarity of thought, the owner might have called the restaurant "La Trattoria.")
• Does it disturb anyone else that "The Los Angeles Angels" baseball team translates directly as "The The Angels Angels"? (Anon)
(There's no fix for this one. Just go with it.)

D.Application

c.    Individual Guided Activity

The teacher asks the students to get a 1/4 sheet of paper and answer the exercise given.

Choose the right determiner/article for every sentences.

1. Give me ____ money I owe you.

(which, the, a, an)

2. I want ____ boat which would take me to the island.

(the, an, those, a)

3. ____ pen is not working properly.

(Mne, Their, My, Our)

4. I love ____ book.

(these, this, those, what)

5. ____ qualifications do you have?

(What, Which, Any, Those)

d.    Group Differentiated

The teacher asks the students to get a pair and do the given activity.

Email Determiners Pairwork Practice Student A

Choose one of the determiners below and read out examples, starting with the most

difficult, until your partner guesses which one (a/ the/ some/ any/ my/ your/ his/ our/ -)

should be in the gaps. They can only guess once per example and you get one point for

each one they get wrong. If you run out of examples before they guess the determiner,

make up your own examples or give hints.

A

I’m writing to request ______ copy of your latest catalogue.

This is just _________ quick/ short note to say…

Sorry I haven’t been in touch for _______ while.

Any

If you need _______ further information about this matter, please feel free to contact me.

If you need ______ further details, please feel free to contact me at ______ time.

I am available for interview at ______ time.

We apologise for ______ inconvenience that this may have caused.

My

Give _______ regards to John.

Send _________ love to Steve.

It will be ____________ pleasure to attend.

I’ll ask _______ boss about this and get back to you as soon as I can.

Thank you for bringing this to ______ attention.

The

I’m writing to you about our meeting ________ week after next.

Is ________ meeting going ahead as planned?

It was great nice to meet you at _________ conference last week.

Can you get back to me about that by ________ end of ________ week?

Please see _______ attachment for further details.

______ attached document explains…

Here is ______ document that you asked for.

_____ first/ second/ last thing that you asked about was…

Here’s ______ info that you asked for:

-

How are ________ things?

I am interested in the course you advertised in the Mail _________ last month

I’m writing to you about our meeting the week after _______ next

See you on _______ Monday

Thank you in ________ advance

The bulkier documents will arrive by ________ snail mail soon.

We’ll send you the original documents by ________ courier.

Well, I must get back to __________ work

Email Determiners Pairwork Practice Student B

Choose one of the determiners below and read out examples, starting with the most

difficult, until your partner guesses which one (a/ the/ some/ any/ my/ your/ his/ our/ -)

should be in the gaps. They can only guess once per example and you get one point for

each one they get wrong. If you run out of examples before they guess the determiner,

make up your own examples or give hints.

Our

I’m writing to you in connection with ______ conversation last week.

Please accept ____ sincerest apologies.

Some

Could you give me ___________ more details?

I am writing to ask for __________ information on….

The

I am free on ________ fifteenth, if that is convenient with you.

I am writing to apply for ________ job of assistant manager which I saw in yesterday’s

Guardian.

I will be free on ________ following Monday/I will be free ________ Monday after that.

I’m busy all morning but I’m free in _______ afternoon.

I’ve attached _________ latest figures.

In _______ meantime, if you have any questions please feel free to contact us.

It was great to meet you at ______ conference last week.

To: _____ sales team

We would like to apologise for __________ delay in your order.

Thanks for ________ invitation, but I’m flying abroad on that day.

Sorry to write to you out of _________ blue, but…

All _______ best

As you can see from _____ attached document/ CV,…

Your

___________ attendance would be very much appreciated at this event.

For __________ reference, please find the accounts attached.

Give my regards to _______ family.

I hope you and ___________ family are well.

I would like to draw ___________ attention to…

In reply to ______ questions,…

Please reply at _________ earliest convenience.*

Re: _________ fax (ref no. TH 2987), …

Thank you for ______ cooperation.*

Thanks again for all ______ help.

Thanks for _____ quick reply.

Thanks for _______ letter/ email/ fax/ phone call last week.

With reference to _______ letter of 3 June.

*These expressions are rare and have very specific meanings, so please be careful when

using them.

E.Evaluation

Independent worksheets will be handed out and completed by students to the best of their ability for the remainder of the lesson. The teacher will walk around to check understanding and correct worksheets.

F.Assignment

 For the assignment, the teacher asks the students to make an essay with any topics they desire. The essay should indicate the right use of Determiner/Articles and must have a minimum of 250 words.

Criterion	Description	Point	Score
Quality of Writing	Very informative and well-organized	10
Grammar, Usage & Mechanics	Virtually no spelling, punctuation or grammatical errors and used Determiner/Articles correctly.	10