Students’ Learning Outcomes
· Use alphabetical order to locate words in a dictionary for increase in vocabulary and aid in comprehension of texts.
·
Information for Teachers
· Alphabetical order is a method to sort (shape) a list. It makes it easier to catch a name or a title in the list. It is done by following the standard (usual) order of letters in an alphabet. Categorization things in English is done using the Roman alphabet
· Alphabetical order is important for dictionary skills and also for making sequential order in list/items as in attendance register or a telephone directory.
· The selection of words should be from students’ textbook or other familiar words used on daily basis.
· Students have studied alphabetical order and use of the dictionary in previous grades, so recap of knowledge must be done.
Material / Resources
Chalk/marker, board, dictionaries, list items.
Worm up activity
· Take a dictionary to the class. Ask the students what type of a book is it and what it is used for. Ask them if they have one at home.
· Open any page and ask them to look at the layout of the page.
· Recap alphabetical order and introduce the concept of guide words/head words on the top right or left corner of the page. Ask them why they think these words are called guide words.
Development
Activity 1
· Write the following nine words on the board and ask the students to arrange in abc order and write in one line.
· 1
· Or
· Two
· One
· Here
· Need
· Come
· Zebras
· Amjad
· Now tell them that they all can check their work on their own.
(Answer: Amjad come here I need one or two zebras)
· Now ask the students whose answer looks like a sentence. Ask some of the students to share their sentence.
· This is what they should write. Amjad, come here, I need one or two zebras.
· Write the above sentence on the board so that all the students check their own work.
Activity 2
· Divide the class into small groups depending on the number of dictionaries you have with you.
· Find the difficult/new words from the textbook.
· Explain the concept of alphabetical order. You must also ask questions about it as they have learnt this concept earlier.
· You can write some words with similar first and second letters but different third letter. For example: addition, admires, adapt, adopt, etc. and ask them to arrange the words to locate in the dictionary.
· Give them different words to locate in the dictionary.
· They must also tell the meanings of the words when they find them.
· Draw the following table on the board and ask the students to copy the table in their notebooks.
|
Sr. no
|
word
|
Meaning
|
|
1
|
||
|
2
|
||
|
3
|
||
|
4
|
· Ask them to fill this table for each word. Give them no more than 4 words each.
· All students must write the words in their notebooks in this table and copy the the meanings from the dictionary. They must learn the meanings at home. This will help them increase their vocabulary and aid in comprehension of text.
Activity 3
· Divide the students in pairs.
· Give every pair of students a list of words which all start with the same first three letters such as place, plant, play, plastic and planet.
· The pair has to put them in order before finding each word in the dictionary.
Activity 4
· Make the students do all the exercises given in the textbook related to this topic.
Sum up / Conclusion
· Ask them the use of alphabetical order in everyday life. Give them some examples like attendance sheet, glossary, etc.
Assessment
· Give the class 5 more words which have first and second letter but different third letter. Ask them to tell the correct alphabetical order.
Follow up
· Ask the students to underline the words which are new and write the meanings of the words according to their own understanding (with a pencil over the word).
· Now ask them to look up meaning of the word to see how closely it matches their meaning.
· Ask students to look up any word from the dictionary that they like and share it with the others.
· Students should make their own small dictionary by adding new words to it every day.
· Students must add words to their dictionary that they learn in other subjects also, not just English lesson.
