Summary Begin by investigating whether pupils are aware of apostrophes from their reading. Look at the piece of dialogue in Part 1. Can the pupils find examples of apostrophes and explain why they are there? Highlight the words with apostrophes and discuss the way in which the words have been shortened. Ask the pupils for other examples. If they give a shortened form, ask another pupil to "expand" it and vice versa. Use the whiteboard tools to write up the expanded version of each contraction and ring, highlight or underline the letters that have been missed out. Work through the activities with the class as they appear on screen. Discussion and collaboration are crucial, so choosing individuals or groups to operate the activity and justify their choices will enhance learning. Each of the activities can be used with the whole class when introducing the concept of contractions and may then be completed by groups and individuals for follow-up work. Suitable for Year 3/4 Using a non-interactive whiteboard The activities can be used in the same way and controlled from the desktop computer. Prior learning required This is a discrete set of activities so no prior knowledge of apostrophes is necessary. It is however useful to make links with other forms of punctuation such as the comma to avoid confusion. Aims and objectives - to recognise the apostrophe of contraction in reading
- to use the apostrophe of contraction appropriately in writing
Timings - Part 1 (10 minutes)
Whole class introductory session requiring pupils to identify apostrophes within a piece of dialogue and understand their relationship to omitted letter(s). - Part 2 (10 minutes)
Each time a pair is found ask pupils to say which letters were omitted in the shortened form. - Part 3 (10 minutes)
As each example is completed, discuss the fact that contracted forms are more appropriate to speech than writing. - Part 4 (10 minutes) to be undertaken as part of main lesson or as an extension following the activities below.
Suggestions for group activities - A selected group of pupils could operate the interactive activities independently.
- Away from the whiteboard, give pupils a selection of contractions and ask them to write sentences using each shortened form. This could take the form of a conversation using speech bubbles.
- If an internet link is available, the Grammar for Writing site www.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/marks/apostrophe.htm provides a brief PowerPoint presentation on the uses of the apostrophe.
- Contraction bingo: matching contractions to their extended forms. Pupils select six contractions and write them on a whiteboard. The extended version of each shortened form is read out and pupils match the pairs until their board is completed.
Suggestions for differentiation - Less able pupils may need support when tackling some of the activities. If an internet connection is available the Quia site offers a series of interactive games focusing on contractions, which can be set to differing ability levels. Pupils can work with as few as four words or as many as 30. www.quia.com/jg/66105.html
Other useful sites include: Further activities - Using the whiteboard software, flipcharts can be used to record a range of contractions building up a word bank for future use.
Curriculum links Language Oracy
1.1, 1.4 share ideas and opinions, make reasoned comments
3.3, 3.6 extend and enrich vocabulary and use an increasingly varied vocabulary Reading
2.1 develop grammatical knowledge, word recognition and contextual understanding
2.6 use ICT resources Writing
5.0 to use punctuation marks correctly in their writing, including full stops, question and exclamation marks, commas, inverted commas and apostrophes to mark possession and shortened forms of words. ICT Use ICT to generate, organise and communicate ideas. | 