by Donna | Mar 28, 2018
Conjunctive Adverbs (CA’s) are one of the most confusing parts of speech to teach because they are not used that often. However, we need to teach students what they are and how to write with them because they carry so much meaning! They are amazing for transitions–and they show so many relationships between words and between parts of a sentence. (Check out the Tricky Trick student download in this post for the four places to use Conjunctive Adverbs in a Sentence!) They also have several punctuation options (depending on whether the CA is in between two sentences, at the beginning of a sentence, at the end of a sentence, or splitting on complete sentence).
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by Donna | Sep 21, 2017
“[A]lways get to the dialogue as soon as possible. I always feel the thing to go for is speed. Nothing puts the reader off more than a big slab of prose at the start,” nineteenth-century writer P.G. Wodehouse commented. He is not alone among authors in emphasizing dialogue in writing, but teaching students how to use quotations can be so difficult.
So, I’d like to give you some tips on teaching basic quotation use and punctuation to your students. Also, check out the Tricky Tricks Sheet at the end of this post. It gives a concise summary of basic quotation rules. Additionally, Character Ink Press’s Meaningful Composition 5 I includes more info on using quotes, along with a number of other writing lessons.
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by Donna | Apr 24, 2013
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| The Only use for the word capitOl with an O is when referring to the capitOl building/buildings! |
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Yep, you read that caption correctly! Contrary to what many people believe, capitOl does not refer to the head city, a good idea, or money invested. CapitOl Only refers to the capitOl building.
Here is the rundown:
1. Capitol
a. Only has one use that we widely implement.
b. Means the building or group of buildings in which the functions of government are carried out.
c. Think. CapitOl Only means Office buildings for gOvernment–that is the Only meaning.
2. Capital
a. All other uses of capital are the a one—capital is for all other uses.
b. ALL other uses of capitol/capital are the word capitAL.
c. Adjectives
1) Upper case letter: capital letter
2) Chief or primary: capital idea or the capital (most important) thing for us to remember
3) Die by the court: capital punishment
4) Primary city: the capital city
d. Nouns
1) Stock of goods or income: to have capital in the bank
2) Capital used by itself for the city: go to the capital of the state (i.e. the city that is the capital–not the building–the capitol building).
Watch the blog and Facebook page tomorrow for a quiz over this Wacky Word pair–and over last week‘s vane, vein, and vain! Better start studying!
by Donna | Jun 9, 2011
So what can you do if you have difficulty spelling Wednesday? Try any of the methods above.
Or try our combination syllabication/tricky trick of syllabicating it AND pronouncing each syllable (including the “silent letters” of the word) as you write it:
Wed/nes/day
Be sure to pronounce it like the following sounds as you spell it (not the way it really sounds):
- Wed
- Nes (short e like ness)
- Day
Happy Wednesday!
by Donna | Jun 9, 2011
So many of my students have trouble spelling today’s day of the week! Wednesday is definitely not phonetic, so students (and adults!) get stuck on the spelling of it. Most people say Wednesday without the sound of the d at all.
We teach our students to spell difficult words in many ways, giving them as many tools as we possibly can.
1. Syllable by syllable—longer words that are phonetic in nature can often be syllabicated and spelled syllable by syllable by a student who is fairly phonetically-savvy: con/se/quence.
2. Tricks and mnemonics—we call these “Tricky Tricks to Help It Stick” and use them often with our “Wacky Words”—words that have a wacky counterpart that can be confusing, such as the homophones their, there, and they’re. I had an elementary student this year who told the class that they could easily spell Nebuchadnezzar if they just divided it up and pronounced the ch as choo (not kuh): Neb/U/Chad/Nez/Zar! Of course, any tricks that help a person are handy tools to have (though the trick must help that person in order to be effective).
3. Visual tricks—many visual people spell by “seeing” the word—its shape, its sequence of letters (and the shapes those letters make), etc.
4. Memorization—some people are just naturally good spellers (it is now thought to be a specific skill set separate from intelligence) and can memorize a word’s spelling once it is seen.
More on “Wednesday” in the next post!
