What about You?

As if learning singular and plural weren't difficult enough with nouns that don't use the "+s Rule," along come you, your, and yours.

Personal Pronouns have received much attention in my Tiny Schoolhouse this summer.  For the Second Person Lesson, we also added in your favorite contraction and mine, "you're."

Full disclosure- when my husband and I first started dating, he swapped "your" for "you're" in an email.  We are both surprised we've lasted as long as we have.

So I am determined that this generation of students- as many as I am privileged to work with- will never, ever compromise an amazing relationship due to the misuse of a personal pronoun.

For this lesson, we began with a conversation, using "you are" in place of "you're" to get students used to what they are actually saying.

Often, younger students misunderstand contractions.  They can view contractions as new word forms that don't connect with their own speech and reading experiences.  In a way, contraction confusion mirrors math confusion when students don't understand the components of a contraction (2 independent words) and the function each word performs (for example, pronoun+verb).

To introduce and reinforce the contraction lesson and the case lesson, our conversation played with absurdity:

"That is you are cookie."

"Sally is inviting both of yous to her pool party."

On a speech level, all of the students were able to draw the syntactical distinction between "your" and "you're."  Success!

To take the lesson to the next level, we turned to the board:

Singular                                                    Plural

you                                                             you   

your                                                            your

yours                                                          yours

Students copied this carefully into their notebooks.  Next, we read each case out loud, in order.  Last, we closed notebooks and the class chanted "Singular: you, your, yours; Plural: you, your, yours" as I tapped each word on the board.

We wrapped up the participatory board lesson with

you're = you are

Students copied the "contraction equation" and drilled aloud.

To wrap it all together, students worked independently at home on a worksheet entitled "What about You?".

Looks like this group of kids will grow up to be lucky in love.... that is if they also have the good fortune of falling for grammarians.

There, They're, Their...

No worries, it's just another grammar lesson.  But this is one that, as I explained to my students, confuses some of the smartest adults I know.

Homophones can be tricky, especially for young students who struggle with Language Arts skills or have a weak foundation.  Most of these students rely on the "it doesn't sound right" method of determining word choice, structure and other basic grammatical elements of sentences. 

When it sounds the same but has a different definition and function, it's time to examine what each word means, how it is spelled and when and how it is used.

Enter our first lesson, that works in conjunction with Personal Pronouns: "There, They're, Their."

For this lesson we turn to some old school fundamentals:
Board Work
Worksheets
Drills
Memorization Exercises

Check back for samples of our "There, They're Their" activities and an update on how the class performs when test time arrives.

What are your tips for foundational grammar lessons?

Game Time! 
For a related topic (great for the older students in the class), check out this online Memory Game for common homonyms.