Finding adjectives

Finding adjectives

Pencil and paperOnline interactive
Overview
Using this Resource
Connecting to the Curriculum
Marking Student Responses
Working with Students
Further Resources
This task is about identifying the adjectives used in a story.

Question Change answer

Adjectives are describing words. Adjectives describe nouns.
 
Highlight all the adjectives in the story below.
 
The first adjective has been circled for you.
  • adjective

eggs and toast.jpg

On Saturday morning I woke up early. It was a  day. All the grey clouds had gone and left a clear, blue sky. The sun was shining brightly. I decided to surprise Mum by making her breakfast in bed. I crept quietly down the stairs so she wouldn't hear me. I poured some cornflakes into a bowl. Mum doesn't like soggy cornflakes so I put the milk into a little jug. Then I got a big brown egg from the fridge and put it in a pot to boil. I put a piece of bread in the toaster. By the time the egg had cooked the toast was cold but I didn't think Mum would mind. I carried the tray carefully upstairs. "Surprise!" I said, as I walked in the door. My hardworking Mum was still asleep but she soon woke up. She said it was the best breakfast surprise she had ever had but next time she wants me to wait until eight o'clock before I wake her up.
Task administration: 
This task can be completed online or with pencil and paper.
If using pencil and paper students will need a highlighter pen.
Copyright: 
Photo by Krisztina Papp from Pexels  Public Domain
Level:
3
Curriculum info: 
English, Creating meaning, Writing
Key Competencies: 
Using language, symbols, and texts
Keywords: 
grammar, parts of speech, adjectives, grammar knowledge, vocabulary
Description of task: 
This resource assesses grammar knowledge. Students identify the adjectives in a short story about making breakfast.
Curriculum Links: 
This resource can be used to help to identify students’ ability to create texts to meet the writing demands of the New Zealand Curriculum.
 

Links to the Literacy Learning Progressions for Writing:
This resource helps to identify students’ ability to:
  • demonstrate knowledge of how language works

as described in the Literacy Learning Progressions for Writing at: http://www.literacyprogressions.tki.org.nz/The-Structure-of-the-Progressions.

Learning Progression Frameworks
This resource can provide evidence of learning associated with
Writing meaningful text: vocabulary knowledge, set 4
within the Writing Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Read more about the Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Answers/responses: 
  

Y6 (11/2002)

grey
clear
blue
soggy
little
big
brown
cold
hardworking
best

very easy
easy
very easy
very easy
moderate
easy
easy
moderate
moderate
difficult
Diagnostic and formative information: 
Common error Likely reason
75% of students incorrectly identified "shining" as an adjective. Students may have considered the word "shining" as a description of how the sun looked rather than what it was doing.
he following words were incorrectly identified as adjectives by a substantial number of students:
"brightly" (85%), "quietly" (62%), "carefully" (67%).		 These errors suggest that many students have difficulty distinguishing between adverbs and adjectives and/or interchange the meanings of these two terms.