Teacher: Aaron D. Alder
Date of Presentation: November 21, 1996
Class: Linguistics 577
Location: Brigham Young University
Proficiency Level: High Intermediate/Advanced
Age Level: College/College Prep
Estimated Time of Lesson: 10 minutes

Teaching Point/Objectives:

• Students will learn about adjective clauses.
• Students will practice using subject and object pronouns in adjective clauses.
• Student will be able to identify the noun that the adjective clause is modifying.

Materials Needed:

• Overhead projector
• Transparencies
• Erasable marker

Learning/Teaching Activities

1. Pre-Assessment/Warm-Up: (1 minute)

a) clause: A clause is a group of words containing a subject and a verb. (transparency) Ask the students to define a clause and give examples. Explain that a simple sentence is a clause. Give examples.

b) independent clause: An independent clause is a complete sentence. It contains the main subject and verb of a sentence. (It is also called a main clause.) Ask the students to define an independent clause and give examples. Explain that an independent clause is any clause that can stand alone -- it makes sense all by itself.

c) dependent clause: A dependent clause is not a complete sentence. It must be connected to an independent clause. Ask the students to define a dependent clause and give examples. ⋅ Explain that a dependent clause cannot stand alone. Explain that there are many kinds of dependent clauses, but we want to specifically talk about one type of dependent clause, the adjective clause.

2. Introduction: (1 minute)

Adjective clause: An adjective clause is a dependent clause that modifies a noun. It describes, identifies, or gives further information about a noun. (An adjective clause is also a relative clause.) (transparency) Ask the students what an adjective is -- a word that modifies, or describes, a noun or pronoun. It limits or makes clearer the meaning of the noun or pronoun. Ask the students to define an adjective clause.

3. Presentation: (3 minutes)

a) Using Subject Pronouns: who, which, what (transparency)

i) I thanked the woman. She helped me.
Ask the students if they can guess how they might make one sentence out of two.

a) I thanked the woman who helped me.
What part is the adjective clause? What does it modify?

b) I thanked the woman that helped me.
What part is the adjective clause? What does it modify?

ii) The book is mine. It is on the table.
a) The book which is on the table is mine.
What part is the adjective clause? What does it modify?
b) The book that is on the table is mine.
What part is the adjective clause? What does it modify?

Note: A subject pronoun may not be omitted

b) Using Object Pronouns: who(m), which, that (transparency)
i) The man was Mr. Jones. I saw him.
a) The man who(m) I saw was Mr. Jones.
What part is the adjective clause? What does it modify?
b) The man that I saw was Mr. Jones.
What part is the adjective clause? What does it modify?
c) The man I saw was Mr. Jones.
What part is the adjective clause? What does it modify?

4. Practice/Evaluation: (3 minutes)

a) The House That Crack Built (transparency)
Have the students work in small groups, underlining each of the adjective clauses and showing which noun or pronoun they modify.

i) Model:
And these are the tears we cry in our sleep that fall for the baby with nothing to eat.

5. Contingency Plan:

a) If the students are having difficulty understand adjective clauses, do the following oral exercises:

i) GAME - Adjective Clause stretcher (Picture cards)

The instructor gives the first student a picture card who begins by saying perhaps e.g. The car is red. The second student has to attach an adjective clause, e.g. The car is red, that is parked on the beach. And so on through the class. Depending on the ability of the students, the instructor may wish to limit the game to one sentence with an adjective clause per card. The instructor can widely vary the game. For example, the classroom could be divided into two teams and score could be kept.

6. Assignment:

a) Write 10 sentences with adjective clauses using current issues. Underline all adjective clauses and indicate the noun which it modifies. Paragraph must have 10 adjective clauses.

i) Model:
a) The plane crashed that was hijacked in Italy.
b) The man was embarrassed who said the Utes would win.
c) The man was angry who lost the election.
d) IPO,s are the investment most people want to buy.

7. Self-Evaluation:

OVERHEAD #1

1. REVIEW

clause:
A clause is a group of words containing a subject and a verb

independent clause:
An independent clause is a complete sentence. It contains the main subject and verb of a sentence.

dependent clause:
A dependent clause is not a complete sentence. It must be connected to an independent clause.

2. INTRODUCTION

adjective clause:
An adjective clause is a dependent clause that modifies a noun. It describes, identifies, or gives further information about a noun.

Using Subject Pronouns: who, which, what

I thanked the woman. She helped me.
I thanked the woman who helped me.
I thanked the woman that helped me.
The book is mine. It is on the table
The book which is on the table is mine.
The book that is on the table is mine.

Using Object Pronouns: who(m), which, that

The man was Mr. Jones. I saw him.
The man who(m) I saw was Mr. Jones.
The man that I saw was Mr. Jones.
The man I saw was Mr. Jones

Note: A subject pronoun may not be omitted

OVERHEAD #2

And these are the Tears we cry in our sleep that fall for the Baby with nothing to eat, born of the Girl who's killing her brain, smoking the Crack that numbs the pain, bought from the Boy feeling the heat, chased by the Cop working his beat who battles the Gang, fleet and elite, that rules the Street of a town in pain that cries for the Drug known as cocaine, made from the Plants that people can't eat, raised by the Farmers who work in the heat and fear the Soldiers who guard the Man who lives in the House that crack built.

Taylor, C. (1992). "The House That Crack Built." San Francisco: Chronical Books.