Spotting Parts of Speech With a Reading Lesson

Reading can be used to help students practice their recognition skills of the eight parts of speech in English, as well as different types of important structure such as titles, headings, bolding, and italics. Another important skill that students should develop while reading is the ability to spot synonyms and antonyms. This beginning to lower-intermediate lesson provides a short reading selection from which students should extract examples of parts of speech and writing structures as well as finding synonyms and antonyms.

• Aim: Learning to recognize specific parts of speech, increasing vocabulary through the use of synonyms and antonyms
• Activity: Short reading selection from which students extract examples
• Level: Beginner to lower-intermediate

Outline

• Check understanding of parts of speech, as well as structural elements as a class. Use an exercise book, or other reading materials as available.
• Ask students use the short reading selection to spot the various parts of speech, as well as synonyms and antonyms suggested.
• Correct in class.
• Expand the exercise by asking students to provide more synonyms and antonyms.

Spot the Words and Phrases

Fill in the worksheet below spotting the requested word, phrase or larger structure. Here's a quick review to help you complete the task:

• Noun - objects, things, and people
• Verbs - what objects, things and people DO
• Adjective - words that describe objects, things, and people
• Adverb - words that describe how, where or when something is done
• Prepositions - words that show relationships between things
• Synonyms - words that mean the same
• Antonyms - words that mean the opposite
• Title - name of a book, article or story

My Friend Mark

by Kenneth Beare

Mark’s Childhood

My friend Mark was born in a small town in the north of Canada called Dooly. Mark grew up a happy and interested boy. He was a good student in school who studied carefully for all his exams and got very good grades. When it came time to go to university, Mark decided to move to the United States in order to attend the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon.

Mark at University

Mark enjoyed his time at university. In fact, he enjoyed his time immensely, but he didn’t really spend the time studying for his courses. He preferred to travel around Oregon, to visit all the sites. He even climbed Mt. Hood twice! Mark became very strong, but his grades suffered because he was lazy. During his third year at university, Mark changed his major to agricultural studies. This turned out to be a very good choice, and Mark slowly began to get good grades again. In the end, Mark graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in agricultural sciences.

Mark Gets Married

Two years after Mark graduated, he met a wonderful, hardworking woman named Angela. Angela and Mark fell in love immediately. After three years of dating, Mark and Angela married in a beautiful church on the coast of Oregon. They’ve been married for two years and now have three lovely children. All in all, life has been very good to Mark. He’s a happy man and I’m happy for him.

Please find examples of:

• the author’s name
• a title
• a sentence
• a paragraph
• three nouns
• four verbs
• two adjectives
• two adverbs
• three prepositions
• an exclamation
• a synonym for “too relaxed”
• an antonym for “to leave school”
• an adjective which is a synonym for “powerful”
• an adverb which is an antonym of “slowly”
• a verb which is a synonym for “go to school”
• a noun which is a synonym for “test”
• a verb which is an antonym for “go down”
• a noun which is a synonym for “diploma”
• an antonym for the adjective “awful”
• an antonym for the adjective “sad”
• a synonym for the verb “to go out with a girlfriend or boyfriend”