1 TRY OUT LANGUAGE
2 LEARN GRAMMAR
3 APPLY ON YOUR OWN
Tell About Your Favorite Animal
Give Information
Find a picture of your favorite animal. Use an encyclopedia book or an online encyclopedia to find information about the animal. Tell a partner about your animal.
To get started, draw pictures of your favorite animal. Show where it lives. Show what it eats. Show where it sleeps and how it behaves around people.
Use Specific Nouns
When you tell about your animal, use many details that give information. Use nouns that give your partner a clear, precise picture of the people, animals, places, things, or ideas that you tell about. Which words on the scale below are the most precise?
| NOT SPECIFIC | SPECIFIC | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| person | scientist | • frog scientist | • herpetologist |
| animal | amphibian | • frog | • North American bullfrog |
| place | North America | • United States | • eastern United States |
| thing | lots of things | • frog food | • snakes, worms, and insects |
| idea | time | • lifespan | • 7 to 9 years |
| Not precise: | The animal lives in water. Someone wrote about bullfrogs’ food. Bullfrogs are native to North America. |
| Precise: | The North American bullfrog lives in ponds. A herpetologist wrote that North American bullfrogs eat snakes, worms, and insects. North American bullfrogs are native to the eastern United States. |
Bullfrogs live in ponds.