Centipedes Make Peculiar Pets

Learning intention

I am learning to examine the use of modal verbs to express opinion.

Success criteria

I can:

• analyse the persuasiveness of modal verbs
• identify an author’s opinion
• examine vocabulary that express an opinion
• compose a poem that expresses an opinion
• use appropriate modal verbs in my poem

Essential knowledge

View the video Argumentungroup from the English Textual Concepts.

Introduction

Display the following two statements:

• I think it might be a good idea to try to keep the classroom tidy, if you have time.
• You need to keep your classroom tidy, and it is important that everyone makes the time to do this.

Ask students which of these statements they are most likely to follow. Students should conclude that the second example is more persuasive. Identify the following vocabulary from each of the statements:

• I think
• Might
• If
• Need
• Important
• Must 

Discuss how to sort the vocabulary into two categories; more and less persuasive. Sample responses include:

More persuasive

• Need
• Important
• Must

Less persuasive

• I think
• Might
• If

Sort modal verbs into persuasiveness using a word cline. Sketch a ladder on the board and discuss how the verbs might be sorted, from less to more persuasiveness. A sample response is:

• Must
• Need
• Important
• Might
• I think
• If

Teacher modelling – 10 minutes

Read Centipedes Make Peculiar Pets or listen to the audio file. Display the first two lines:

A centipede, you must concede, is not a perfect pet.

Indeed, it needs a habitat that’s dreary, dark and wet.

Use the think-aloud strategy to consider whether the author believes centipedes make good pets. Model searching for evidence and draw students' attention to vocabulary such as:

• is not a perfect pet
• habitat that’s dreary, dark and wet

Emphasise that the author is clearly stating that centipedes do not make a perfect pet. Ensure students understand the meaning of the word ‘dreary’ and emphasise that this choice of descriptive vocabulary projects the opinion that the centipede’s habitat is unpleasant. Identify modal verbs in the two lines displayed (is, not).

Begin a list of modal verbs on the board for students to refer to later. Inform students that often when author’s hold a particular opinion, they aim to encourage others to agree with them in the texts they compose. Therefore, they will often use modal verbs to express their opinion in the most persuasive manner.

Adapt the extract so that the author’s opinion expressed is positive instead. For example:

• A centipede, you must concede, is a most perfect pet.
• Indeed, it needs a habitat that’s cosy, dimly lit and wet.

Emphasise how changing a few key words (the modal verbs and the descriptive vocabulary) alters the opinion expressed by the author. View Modellingungroup from the NSW Department of Education for further information.

Guided practice – 10 minutes

Place students in groups of four. Provide access to a shared slide deck and allocate one slide to each group. Display the next two lines from the poem:

A centipede’s nocturnal and will only play at night.

More bothersome, it’s venomous and packs a painful bite

Instruct students to note vocabulary, and in particular modal verbs and descriptive vocabulary, that allows them to identify the author’s viewpoint on their slide. 

Review students’ slides as they are working and discuss misconceptions with individual groups. Alternatively, this activity can be completed on Butcher’s Paper.

Discuss responses. Sample responses include:

• Will only
• Bothersome
• Painful bite

Emphasise that the choice of subject matter also expresses the author’s opinion, and that by focusing on elements that make the centipede seem undesirable, such as the fact they only play at night and that their bite is painful, encourages readers to support the author’s opinion. Identify the modal verb used (will) and add this to the list on the board. Allocate each group one of the remaining pairs of lines (couplets).

These can be pasted directly onto the slide from a digital copy of the magazine. If working on butcher’s paper, allocate each couplet a number and instruct students to note the number of the lines they have been allocated on their paper, to avoid them needing to copy out the lines. Tell students to search for vocabulary that reveals the author’s viewpoint, paying close attention to modal verbs, descriptive vocabulary and the choices of subject matter.

Allow time for students to identify vocabulary before discussing responses. Again, flick between the slides to assess students’ understanding while they are completing the task.

Discuss responses. Sample responses include:

• may have problems
• feasts on foods like worms and beetle meat
• It’s doubtful you could train it to roll over, sit or stay.
• a centipede would love to snuggle in your bed
• I wonder if you might prefer

Identify the modal verbs (may, doubtful, would, might) and add these to the board. Discuss further modal verbs and include these on the list. Sample responses include:

• Should
• Can
• Shall

Independent activity – 15 minutes

Inform students that they will be composing a poem about the merits of a particular pet, and that they should use modal verbs to express clear author opinion. Tell students that first you will be planning an example together first.

Discuss pets’ students might consider owning. Inform them that they can be as creative as they wish with their ideas, and that they shouldn’t be bound by reality. Suggest ideas such as keeping a dolphin in the bath, or a zebra in the garden.

Select one of these animals and discuss whether students think it would make a good pet or not. Use whatever opinion the majority of students identify as the angle to write the poem from. Discuss students’ reasons why the animal would make a good pet or not. A sample response, that focuses on a dolphin as a pet is:

• For: musical, kind, scares away sharks, fun to swim with
• Against: noisy, you’d need a huge pond/lake in your garden, they eat too many fish

Jointly compose two or three couplets using the idea. Refer to the list of modal verbs on the board to identify vocabulary that expresses the author’s opinion in the most persuasive way. Remind students that they should use high modality verbs. A sample response is:

A dolphin makes a most fun pet, you need one in your garden,

They’re kind, friendly and protective, they even learn to say pardon.

Place students in pairs and instruct them to complete the following steps to compose a poem:

• Select an animal
• Decide if it would make a good pet or not
• Plan reasons to support your opinion
• Identify modality verbs (aim to include mostly high modality verbs)
• Compose a poem using the ideas

Inform students that they can choose whether to make the poems rhyme or not. Allow time for students to compose their poems.

Differentiation

Provide the following scaffold from students to complete:

• The pet I have chosen is:
• The type of pet it would be is:
• The reason I have chosen this pet is:

Display the following instruction: include as many of the following modality verbs in your sentences as you can:

• Must, need, most, worst, best, should, could, may, might, will

Instruct students who require extension to compose a version of their poem using only low modality verbs. Students can use words for the word cline to support them with this task.

Once complete, instruct students to read both versions of another pair’s poem. Students should reflect on how changing the modality verbs impacts the persuasiveness of the poem by responding to the following questions in their workbooks:

• How do authors express their opinions?
• How do modality verbs impact the persuasiveness of a text?
• Which of the two poems are you most likely to agree with, the one that uses mostly high modality verbs or the one that uses mainly low modality verbs?

Assessment

Match pairs together to form groups of four. Instruct students to read their poems to each other. Tell students that they should provide feedback to each other. Discuss criteria students might use when assessing the poems. For example:

• The poem includes an animal
• The author’s opinion about the pet is clear
• The poem includes reasons that support the author’s opinion
• High modality verbs have been included 

Instruct students to use the criteria to provide each other with feedback. Tell students that their feedback should be mostly positive, with one or two suggestions for how to improve.

Students should use the traffic light system to self-reflect on the following statement:

• I understand the importance modality verbs play in expressing opinion.

Instruct students to undertake the following:

• Mark a green dot in their workbooks if they fully agree with this statement
• Mark an orange dot in their workbooks if they mostly understand the importance of modality verbs but they are still unclear on some areas
• Mark a red dot if they are unclear about modality verbs and would like additional support in this area.

Encourage students who made a red or an orange dot in their workbooks to note their questions or concerns in their workbook, for you to address. Provide examples such as:

• I am still unclear about what a modality verb is.
• I understand what modality verbs are, but I am unclear about the difference between low and high modality.
• I understand what modality verbs are, but I am unclear when/how to use them.