What changed since Lesson 1
In Lesson 1 you described a stranger from a photograph and used six adjectives. Say, in one sentence, what you would do differently today.
One question before the assessment.
1. The A2 can-do for this unit is: describe people physically and characterologically, express simple preferences, and compare two people. Which part are you least sure of?
Read your own draft as a reader
Take your Lesson 7 draft. Underline every adjective. Then draw a line from each one to the evidence that follows it.
Any adjective with no line coming off it is a label. In the final version it either gets evidence or it goes.
Then look at your reader's three guesses. Whichever one they could not make is the paragraph that needs the most work.
Six sentences from typical drafts. Match each to what it is doing.
The proofreading pass
Four checks, in this order
| Check | Look for | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| 1 · Evidence | Adjectives with nothing after them | Add one concrete fact, or cut the adjective |
| 2 · Comparatives | Every more and every -er | Short takes -er; irregulars are irregular |
| 3 · than | Every joining word after a comparative | Spelled with an n |
| 4 · Adjective order | Every adjective and its noun | In front, opinion → size → age → colour |
One pass each, in that order. Proofreading for four things at once finds none of them. Four passes of thirty seconds beats one pass of two minutes.
Six sentences from real A2 drafts. One error each, all from the four checks. Rewrite each in full.
1. She is more kind than her sister.
2. He is a man very quiet.
3. She is taller that me.
4. He is more good with children than I am.
5. She has eyes green big.
6. He is as patient than his father.
The two pieces
Task card · Assessment · Portfolio
A spoken comparison of two people you know, then the final 140-word portrait.
The written portrait is the unit's portfolio piece. The spoken comparison is assessed live and is unprepared.
- Part 1 (8 min). Three minutes comparing two people you know well. Six comparatives minimum, one as … as, one not as … as, every criticism hedged.
- Part 2 (12 min). Write the final 140 words, fixing what your reader could not guess in Lesson 7.
- Then (2 min). Run the four proofreading checks. Count your words and write the number at the bottom.
Answer after the spoken comparison, before you write.
1. How many comparatives did you use in three minutes?
2. Did you hedge every criticism?
Against the can-do statements
A2 can-do — CEFR 2020 Companion Volume, adapted
| I can… | Not yet | With effort | Comfortably |
|---|---|---|---|
| describe what someone looks like | □ | □ | □ |
| describe what someone is like, with evidence | □ | □ | □ |
| compare two people using -er, more and as … as | □ | □ | □ |
| say something critical without sounding blunt | □ | □ | □ |
| put adjectives in front of the noun, in the right order | □ | □ | □ |
| write a 140-word portrait somebody could picture | □ | □ | □ |
Mark yourself, then compare with your teacher. The rows where you disagree are the interesting ones.
1. Comparatives —
2. Saying something critical without sounding blunt —
3. The most useful thing in this unit was —
Into the portfolio. The final 140-word portrait, with the word count at the bottom. Label it Unit 5 and date it.
Term 2 ends after Unit 8, with a six-minute speaking interview covering personal, professional and plan-talk. This is the first of its four written pieces.
Into Unit 6
Eight lessons, four rules. Match each to the lesson that taught it.
Unit 6 — What I Do. The present continuous arrives, and with it the difference between what you do and what you are doing. Work vocabulary, and the third-person -s comes back for its second treatment.
Before Lesson 1 of Unit 6: listen to any workplace podcast for ten minutes and note five things people say about their jobs. Copy them exactly.