Grammar
Simile or Metaphor – Concept Attainment
Can your students puzzle out the differences in these types of figurative language - without any instruction!?
“Its Big Day” – A Children’s Story About Its and It’s
Let's spice up a typically dull lesson about the difference between "its" and "it's" by asking students to write a children's story about the adventures of a critter named It.
Run On or Not? – Concept Attainment
Can your students puzzle out the differences in these sentences - without any instruction!?
Unclear Pronouns: Too Many Antecedents
What happens when a pronoun could refer to more than one noun? Big problems!
Changing Coordinating Conjunctions
What happens when we switch out a "but" with a "so"? An "and" with a "for"? How can such tiny words make such big differences?
Plurals: An Inductive Spelling Lesson
Plural nouns in English are deliciously fascinating. Yet most plural lessons are so dull! In this experience, students are given a pile of plurals and then inductively create groups and pull out rules and patterns.
Simple or Compound Sentences – Concept Attainment
Can your students puzzle out the differences in these two types of sentences - without any instruction!?
Parts of Speech Party: Introduction (Check)
Part 1 of Parts of Speech Party
How many ways can we use "check" in a paragraph? And can your students spot when it's a verb, or a noun, or an adjective?
Analyze Suffixes: -ly, -less, and -ful
What exactly does adding -less do to a word?
Complex or Compound – Concept Attainment
Can your students puzzle out the difference between these two types of sentences without any instruction!?
Parts of Speech Tournament
Which part of speech is most useful? Interesting? Strange?
Parts of Speech Party – Gift
Part 2 of Parts of Speech Party
How many different ways can we use the word "gift" in a single paragraph? Let's find out in this Parts of Speech Party!
Parts of Speech Party – Well
Part 6 of Parts of Speech Party
How many different ways can we use the word "well"? Let's find out in this Parts of Speech Party!
Prefixes and Suffixes in Other Languages
Let's go beyond merely memorizing word parts and instead analyze across languages. How do other languages make a word the opposite?
Parts of Speech Party – Limit
Part 8 of Parts of Speech Party
How many different ways can we use the word "limit"? Let's find out in this Parts of Speech Party!
Parts of Speech Party – Thanks
Part 7 of Parts of Speech Party
How many different ways can we use the word "thanks"? Let's find out in this Parts of Speech Party!
Past Progressive or Simple Past Tenses – Concept Attainment
Can students figure out the differences between sentences with past progressive and simple past tenses using the concept attainment model?
Concept Attainment: Transitive or Intransitive Verbs
Can the concept attainment model make transitive and intransitive verbs interesting? In my experience, it sure can!
Progressive or Simple Tenses – Concept Attainment
Can your students puzzle out the differences between these two tenses - without any instruction!?
Analyze Suffixes: -en
Students will note the effects of adding a suffix to a word and then look for counter-examples to those patterns.
Parts of Speech Party – Change
Part 5 of Parts of Speech Party
How many different ways can we use the word "change"? Let's find out in this Parts of Speech Party!
Parts of Speech Party – Fruit
Part 4 of Parts of Speech Party
How many different ways can we use the word "fruit"? Let's find out in this Parts of Speech Party!
Parts of Speech Party – Care
Part 3 of Parts of Speech Party
How many different ways can we use the word "care"? Let's find out in this Parts of Speech Party!