We have decided to teach the lesson on nouns articles and determiners in four 90-minute lessons with two classes given to nouns and articles, one to determiners and quantifiers and one to lesson review and a quiz. The following charts briefly describe the outline of each class. 
 

Class Session	Topics covered in class	Methods used	Time (min.)
Class 1	1. Proper noun vs. common noun  2. articles with proper nouns 3. count noun vs. noncount noun 4. review	1. inductive 2 .deductive 3. inductive	1. 10  2. 15 3. 20 4. 5
Class 2	1. specific vs. Generic meaning of nouns 2. use of articles-a/an, the, and zero article Note: Since these two topics are closely related to each other, teaching one topic will be interwoven with the teaching of the other topic.	1. deductive + inductive  2. deductive +inductive	50
Class 3	1. determiners  2. quantifiers 3. review	1. deductive 2. inductive	1. 5 2. 30-35 3. 10-15
Class 4	Review  Quiz	N/A	1. 20 2. 30

 

In-depth Lesson Plan for Each Class
Class 1			Phrase one: grammatical types of the noun  Rationale for teaching nouns first: Articles are not separate entities. They have to be used in combination with nouns.  a. The teacher starts the class by dividing students into small groups of 3 and assigning a short paragraph to the students to read. Students are asked to find all nouns in the paragraph and underline those which indicate names of specific people, places, and things. The teacher models the exercise first. Students in each group do the exercise individually first and then compare their answers with each other. They will have 5 minutes for this activity. Example: the first paragraph of the article on page 245 (Origami: A Japanese Craft) in Applied English Grammar.  b. The teacher gives the right answer and uses this paragraph as an example to introduce the concepts of proper and common nouns. Phrase 2: Articles with proper nouns This topic is taught deductively.  a. The teacher prepares a handout for each student. The handout contains the table on p. 215 with specific rules of when to use the and when not to use the. Students scan the handouts in 5 min. With this table at hand, students, who remain in the same group, are asked to do exercise c on page 216. They are allowed to compare and discuss answers. One person in each group reads the answers to the whole class. Students are expected to offer reasons for their choice. The teacher gives explanation when necessary. This activity lasts about 10 mins.  b. The teacher assigns exercise b on page 216 as homework.  Phrase 3: Count vs. Noncount nouns  a. The students are paired up. Both of them have an index card, one with the first five categories listed on page 218, the other with examples words for the five categories respectively. The student who has the words read them aloud, while the other classifies the words into appropriate categories. The student who has the words can not reveal the right answer until his/her partner puts all words into corresponding categories. Then they exchange roles and do the same task for the remaining five categories on page 218-219. They discuss their answers with each other. If time permitting, students in each pair add other words that they know belong to each category. This activity lasts 5-10 mins.  Sample Index Cards Things that come in very small pieces: __, ___, ____ Wholes made up of similar parts: ___, ___, ____ Names of subjects of study: ___, ___, ___ Abstractions: ___, ___, ____ Liquids/fluids: ___, ___, ___   Rice, salt, sand, food, furniture, luggage, ESL, biology, mathematics, happiness,  justice, luck, blood, milk, water b. The teacher presents the definition of count/noncount nouns and use words of exercise a on page 219 as examples. This explanation may take 5 minutes.  c. Students then are given 5 mins to do exercise b on page 220 with partners.6 d. The teacher asks students to read "counting noncount nouns" from page 221-222 after class.  Phrase 4: review  The teacher leaves five minutes for the students to ask questions in regard to the content learned in this class. Some important concepts are reviewed to reinforce students' understanding.
Class 2			Phrase one: specific vs. Generic meaning of nouns  a. The teacher brings several issues of magazines, such as Times, Newsweek, Fortune, Life and etc.. Students get into groups of three. Each group chooses one magazine and an article with the topic that interests them. Then they are asked to read part of the article (one or two paragraphs) together. While reading, they need to underline all nouns with article a, an, the and also the nouns with no articles. They discuss with their group members why they think specific articles are used in specific sentences. The teacher writes down 3-4 sentences applied to each article on board and encourages the students to dig out the underlying rules for the use of articles. Whole class discussion follows. This activity may cost 15-20 minutes.  b. The teacher introduces the concepts of specific (definite and indefinite) and generic meanings of nouns by using the sentences which the students found out in their reading. This may take 15 minutes.  c. Two handouts are provided to each student. One contains · the definitions of definite, indefinite and generic nouns. (refer to Applied English grammar, p. 222) · Situations that are definite (refer to Applied English grammar, p. 223-224)  The other contains · the contrast between specific and generic meanings of nouns (refer to Applied English Grammar, p. 226) · four types of generic nouns (p. 228) These handouts are provided to the students for their after-class review and their future reference.  d. Students read the hands for 5 minutes. They are told to connect what they read in the articles with the rules listed in the handouts. The teacher goes around the classroom and offer help when needed. With the handouts to refer to, the students then do exercise a on page 226 individually. The teacher checks the answers with the whole class and provides explanation when confusion arises. This activity is expected to take 5 minutes.  Phrase two: Summary of the use of Articles  a. After phrase one of this class, the students have got a general idea of the situations that require or don't require the use of articles. At this stage, students are shown a picture of a house. They describe the picture one by one with each student saying 1-2 sentences. The description should be coherent and well knit. One student writes the sentences on board and circle all articles and nouns with no articles. Then the whole class will discuss the use of articles together. The students are expected to be able to provide reasons for use of articles in specific sentences. This activity may take 10 minutes.  b. At the end of the class, the teacher hands out a paper which summarizes the use of articles. (refer to p.230) Students are asked to read the handouts carefully after class and to do exercise d on page 244 as homework.
Class 3			Phrase one: Determiners  This part will be taught deductively, because determiner is a very abstract concept. Without knowing its meaning and categorization first, students won't be able to construct a general picture of it. The teacher provides the definition of determiner and gives the students the words that are defined as determiners. The teacher can use the table to help he/she illustrate the concept. This phrase takes only 5 minutes  Phrase two: Quantifiers with count and noncount nouns e.g. many vs. much vs. a lot of  a. Students are given a number of pairs of sentences containing much, many, and a lot of. e.g. 1) How much money do you have for the computer? How many computers do you want? 2) There is much snow in N.Y. in January. There are many cities in the north of America, where there's a lot of rain during winter. 3) I do not spend much time watching TV. I do not have many plans for next semester. The students work in small groups of four and read these sentences together. They discuss the use of the quantifiers and generalize the underlying rules for the usage. Then one person in a group will report their findings to the whole class. The teacher writes the rules summarized by the students on the board. This activity takes 5-10 minutes.  b. The teacher then provides the rule of the usage of many, much and a lot of. (5 minutes)  c. Students do exercise g on page 237 individually and the whole Check the answers together with the teacher. (5 minutes)  d. The same pattern is used in teaching the difference between some & any, a few & a little, and little & few. (15 minutes)  Phrase three: Review  Students are divided into small groups of four. They read the passage on page 241 "The Acropolis" and fill in the chart on page 242-243. They have 10 minutes to finish this task. Homework: Read an article (500-800 words long) of your interest and complete the following two tasks. The homework is due by the next class.  1. Circle the nouns and articles. After reading, fill out the following charts.  Nouns Proper nouns          Common nouns  Count nouns              Noncount nouns 2. Find all articles and zero articles, put (d) in front of the sentences with definite nouns, put (i) in front of the sentences with indefinite nouns and (g) in front of the sentences with generic nouns.
Class 4			Use language lab to review nouns, articles, and determiners and end with a test covering the content of chapter 9.  Language Lab:  Students watch a 5-minute long TV series twice. For the first time, the teacher plays the video tape without stop to give the students a general idea of the plot. For the second time, the teacher will play the video tape slowly, pressing the stop button at every full sentence. With movie script at hand, the students are asked to simulate the actors/actress. Then they get into groups ( the number of students in each group depends on the roles in the movie). Each student is assigned a role. The students of each group then act out the whole play in front of the class. The audience stands up when they hear the article "a" or "an". They sit down at the word "the" and they clap their hands at the word "the". Considering the time needed for doing these tasks, the student actors/actresses are asked to read the script at a lower speed in their acting than in the real movie.  The whole class watch the movie again and discuss the specific and generic situations of sentences containing nouns. They also need to apply what they learned in the previous three classes to the explanation of the use of articles. They can use the handouts while discussing. This activity requires 20 mins. The teacher can cut it short when necessary so that there's enough time left for the test.  Test: (30 Mins) After role-play and discuss, all of the students would all be given a short written quiz on nouns articles and determiners.  I tried to synthesize the ideas of my group members in this lesson plan. Their suggestions helped me a lot. The passage below is from Mustafa. I find his idea of teaching articles and quantifiers very interesting. Although I did not include it in the lesson plan (because of the different order he uses in organizing the materials), I do think that those activities can be used as alternatives of or supplement the activities offered in this plan. That is why I decided to attach his suggestions at the end of this lesson plan.      How to Teach (a, an, some, and any)  I came up with a few ideas that I hope will fit in your plan. As for teaching the indefinite articles, I would give the students a list of examples containing a and an (on the board or the OHP) and ask them to read the sentences silently and try to figure out the rule behind the use of a or an.  After that you can show them pictures of different items and ask them to say what each item is using the appropriate indefinite article before it. (a variation of this is to give each pair of students a bunch of pictures and ask them to write down a list of the items in the pictures using the right article with each item)  After that maybe you can tell them that a and an express indefiniteness with singular nouns only and that there are other articles (quantifiers) that we use to express indefiniteness with plural nouns, which are some and any. You can have them look at the chart on page 234 (or you can even provide more examples, especially if you want to teach them how to use any in questions as well) and ask them to read the sentences silently and try to figure out the rule behind using some or any.  After that you can ask the students to work in pairs (or small groups) trying to come up with five examples of sentences with some and five with any. You can add some pleasurable tension by setting a time limit or assigning a reward for the group/pair that will finish first.  As a practice activity you may present them (on a handout) with a three column table. In the first column you can write a phrase like, I want, please give me, ...... anything like that, and another phrase like, Thanks, I don't want/need...... In the second column you write a, an, some, and any. In the third column you can write a list of nouns of different types, singular plural, and noncount. Then you ask the students to work in pairs/groups (up to you) trying to form as many sentences as possible within a time limit provided that they use all the items in the first and the second column. The group/pair with the largest number of examples wins the competition (and hopefully get a prize) You may follow the same techniques to present much, many, and a lot of.