English Language Development

Vignette 4.2. Discussing “Doing” Verbs in Chrysanthemum

Designated ELD Instruction in Grade Two (cont.)

Verb Chart: Different types of verbs in books by Kevin Henkes

doing thinking/feeling being/having saying

giggled

wilted

walked (slowly)

loaded

thought

didn’t feel

was sighed

Mrs. Hernandez explains that there are still a lot of thinking/feeling and being/having verbs

in a story, and there are many saying verbs because there is a lot of dialogue in stories, but

that today, they are mostly focusing on the doing verbs that show what a character is feeling

or thinking. She tells them that they may also find examples of saying verbs that do this. For

example, an author may write “she sighed,” to show that a character is disappointed or sad.

She writes this on the chart as an example.

Mrs. Hernandez tells the children that their next task is to be language detectives. She has

the students work in groups of three to find other examples in books by Kevin Henkes where

he shows how a character is feeling or is thinking by using doing or saying verbs. She gives

the triads copies of several Kevin Henkes books, along with a graphic organizer like the one

she used to model the task. For each book, some examples have been written in the left-hand

column and a space in the right-hand column for students to write their translations.

She tells the students that their task is to find a sentence in the text that they think uses

doing verbs to to show what a character feels or what a character thinks. Next, the groups of

three try to agree on what they will write and record it on the graphic organizer, discussing

why the author used the doing verb instead of a being/having or thinking/feeling verb with an

adjective. As the students engage in the task, she observes their discussions and provides just-

in-time scaffolding when needed. Once the time for the task is up, she calls the students back

to the rug to discuss their findings. Mrs. Hernandez asks students to tell her where to place the

verbs on the Verb Chart, which she posts in the room along with the Using Verbs to Show and

Tell chart, so that children will have models for their own story writing.

Teacher Reflection and Next Steps

At their next collaborative planning meeting with her second-grade teacher colleagues,

Mrs. Hernandez shares how the lessons went. She says that although the task was challenging

at first, her students were excited about being language detectives, and the groups had

lively discussions about the language they discovered in their investigations. In addition, Mrs.

Hernandez was pleasantly surprised by how easily and meaningfully her students discussed the

ways different types of verbs are used in stories.

Resource

Henkes, Kevin. 2008. Chrysanthemum. New York: Greenwillow Books.

Source

Inspired by

Schleppegrell, Mary J. 2010. “Supporting a ‘Reading to Write’ Pedagogy with Functional Grammar.” In Language

Support in EAL Contexts. Why Systemic Functional Linguistics?, edited by Caroline Coffin (Special Issue of NALDIC

Quarterly), 26-31. NALDIC, Reading, UK.

Grade 2 Chapter 4 | 349