Exciting

We have been writing short stories lately, and we had discussed adverbs and adjectives (as well as similes, powerful verbs, and "show don't tell" when describing how someone is feeling). We had done some exercises to help students learn what adverbs and adjectives were, but more importantly, to know when to use them. (Adverbs describe how you do an action. Adjectives describe a person/place/thing.) In one game, I would say, "Point to a tall person!" or "Walk slowly!" and they would point to a tall person or walk slowly, then I would ask, "Adverb or adjective?" And they would look at their list of adverbs/adjectives to see what it was, then tell me.

One of my students went up to help the other teacher today by erasing the board. However, he began to walk VERY slowly back to the desk. One of my students that tries hard but struggles came over to me and whispered, "John is walking dramatically," then walked back to his desk. He was demonstrating his knowledge to me, and I thought it was hilarious. I walked over to him and asked, "Adverb or adjective?" and he looked at the list, thought about it a second, and said, "Adverb." I high-fived him.