Using Strega Nona to Teach Noun Clauses

(TESOL Materials--Noun Clauses)

Some quick explanation: I was recently scheduled to teach noun clauses out of a course book which did not provide any context for the noun clauses.  (This was one of those textbooks which simply had the grammar rules in a little box, followed by controlled practice.)   Because I always like to teach the grammar point in some sort of context, I went through my archives to see if I could find any sort of story that used a lot of noun clauses, and settled on Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola.

Strega Nona is filled with complex noun phrases, so it seemed perfect.

Although, as I started designing material for this book, it turned out I had some confusion over exactly what a noun clause is.  (This is a grammar point that I haven't taught much in the past.  I believe it was Dave Willis who said that ESL textbooks focus almost exclusively on verb tenses, and tend to ignore complex noun phrases.)

I designed a noticing worksheet around Strega Nona that gapped out any noun phrases that contained verbs--HERE.  But I later decided that a lot of these noun phrases (e.g. "food to eat") were noun phrases with subordinate infinitive clauses, but not noun clauses.

I then revised my definition of noun clauses to mean any noun phrase that contained a subject and a verb, and prepared the feedback slideshow for that--HERE.  When I designed this slideshow, I was thinking that relative clauses were a sub-category of noun clauses.   

But... then I rethought it, and I decided that relative clauses were something different.  (The terminology gets confusing here, but I think that relative clauses are "noun phrases that contain a clause", but they are not "noun clauses".  Is that right?)

In the end, I decided that the actual noun clauses in Strega Nona were actually fewer in number than I had thought.  Possibly only 6

1. The one thing you must never do is touch the pasta pot. (subject of the sentence)

2. he didn’t see Strega Nona blow three kisses to the magic pasta pot  (functioning as the direct object of "see")

3. And this is what happened. ("what happened" functioning as the noun predicate after the copular verb)

4. That day came sooner than even Big Anthony would have thought, (object of comparison)

5. he didn’t notice the pasta pot was still bubbling and boiling (direct object of "notice")

6. She didn’t have to look twice to know what had happened. (direct object of "know")

...or possibly fewer.  There are still a couple sentences here I'm not entirely sure about.   

Is number 1 a noun clause or a relative clause with an omitted "that"?  (ie. perhaps the main noun phrase is "the one thing" and "[that] you must never do" modifies "the one thing")

Is number 4 an object of comparison?  Or is it just a subordinate clause?

Maybe I should add this whole thing to my "grammar questions I couldn't answer" project.  What are the real noun clauses here?  (Comments are welcome from anyone out there who thinks they know.)

Anyway, here are my materials:

Strega Nona Slideshow (originally from this post HERE): slides, pub

Gapfill: docs, pub

Slideshow for feedback--first version including relative clauses: slides, pub

Second version with [what I think are] only 6 noun clauses (see caveats above): slides, pub

Video on Youtube: HERE 

Lesson Plan (for sharing with my co-teacher): docs, pub

General comprehension questions (these were made by my co-teacher): docs, pub

Update: scrambled sentences (an alternative to the gapfill worksheets): docs, pub

Activity	Notes
Strega Nona Listening for general comprehension: slides, comprehension questions	Start the slides from 153. I’m going to use the slides for the first listening just because I enjoy telling the story, but you could also use the video for the first listening
2nd Listening: gapfill and listen and check with video Feedback with answer sheet And slideshow on noun clauses	I’ve included any noun phrases with subordinate verb phrases in the gapfill, just to increase the difficulty and raise awareness.  For the feedback on the slideshow, however, I’ve only included what I think are definitely noun clauses (subject and verb).  Hopefully I’m getting the grammar right here. Let  me know if you have any feedback
Kahoot embedded noun clauses	Time allowing.