Nominalisation and our Frayer Models

What better than to start the new year with learning how to write like an expert. Our Year 9s discovered that nominalisation is the process of changing verbs to nouns. This grammatical process helps to make writing more academic and develops more complex grammar structures. To make sure we understood this concept we used a template called “The Frayer Model that is used for word analysis and vocabulary building. This four-square model prompts students to think about and describe the meaning of a word or concept by . . .

Defining the term,

Explaining how you would know if it was being used/Draw it ,

Providing examples of the idea, and

Offering non-examples of the idea.

Here are two examples created by our very clever students.

After students completed their Frayer Model, they had a go at nominalising the following paragraph.

Original Paragraph

“The population is getting bigger each year so earth’s natural resources are feeling the pressure. Forests are being cut down really fast so that farmers can grow crops. In some other places trees are being cut down for timber that local people can use or send overseas to make money. Cutting down the forests means that there will be lots of problems for the environment as well as human and financial problems. The main problems are things like people not having enough to eat, changing how animals and plants relate to each other, and people having to move out of their homes. To fix these problems we have to protect the forests that are left”.

Bligh Wilson

The increasing population is pressuring earths’ natural resources. Deforestation is occurring rapidly, to accommodate the need for cropping and timber production. Environmental issues, along with financial problems can be the result of deforestation. The most substantial issues include lack of food, changes in relations between plants and animals, and eviction. Conservation is a must to resolve these problems.