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).

This post is going to give you a partial list of Conjunctive Adverbs and a comical set of sentences that one of my students wrote for her assignment when she had to “Write 15 sentences using conjunctive adverbs.” Plus, I have a Tricky Trick sheet for your students with the four ways that conjunctive adverbs are used/punctuated in sentences (and the aforementioned partial CA list). Lots of learning here!

When you’re done studying the list and the Tricky Trick sheet, try to solve our Punctuation Puzzle containing these interesting words.

* Also a preposition    ** Also a subordinator

Click or tap to download the two-page Tricky-Trick doc!

And a comical paragraph chocked full of these versatile words:

Alas, I have been assigned to write fifteen sentences with conjunctive adverbs in them. So, then I thought, fifteen? In fact, that’s crazy! In spite of this crazy assignment, I still have to do it. At the same time, I understand that it is beneficial for my English learning experience. Nonetheless, I still think fifteen is a bit much. Perhaps Mrs. Reish thinks I that I will be a “conjunctive adverbologist” some day. Then I have news for you! Eventually, I plan on becoming a photographer. On the other hand, I love working with animals, so maybe I’ll become a veterinarian. However, I hate needles,so maybe that is not best for me. Besides, I’m already taking a photography class. No matter how persuasive Mrs. Reish can be, nothing whatsoever can change my mind! Anyway, I don’t need to use conjunctive adverbs. Thus, there is no point in writing fifteen sentences about them. As a result….wait! What?! In spite of all my complaining, I’ve done it? On the contrary, I thought I was pretty bad at all this. As a result, I might become a “conjunctive adverbologist” after all!

Isn’t teaching so much fun? 😉

P.S. How can I help you become a stronger grammar teacher? Let me know, and I’ll see what I can do! Check out my Think Fast Grammar Quiz and Answer Key downloadable product for daily or weekly grammar practice!

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We’ve been studying prepositions a lot here at Character Ink Blog! I’m excited to teach parents and teachers how to teach prepositions in a way that allows students to be able to come up with 100 prepositions fairly quickly!

Prepositions must be reviewed over and over. They should be taught in a way that teaches their FUNCTION (not just in rhyme or song). Then we must practice them over and over and over again IN REAL SENTENCES. Below are three simple steps I follow….but before you read the steps, here are some other preposition helps for you!

1. Slideshow: 5 Tips for Prepositions From Language Lady

2. LIVE Preposition Teaching Video

3. Why Teach Prepositions (thorough explanation for teachers!)

4. Prepositional Phrases in Punctuation Puzzle

5. Slideshow: 5 MORE Tips for Prepositions From Language Lady

6. Great preposition practice download for elementary and middle school students (using Beauty and the Beast and the castle!)

7. Preposition Practice Packet download using little tissue tube and Preposition Practice Pal

AND…..We have a Tricky Trick download sheet for your young students to practice their prepositions with their little Preposition Practice Pal (click on the image below to download this two-page doc!)

1) I teach the part of speech known as prepositions with objects and Preposition-Check Sentences.

a. I start out with a Preposition Practice Pal (like in this week’s Tricky Tricks Download!).

b. Then I move to Preposition-Check Sentence.

I teach that there are over 200 of them (if you include two-word or more prepositions), and that students can learn more than half of them simply by using Preposition-Check Sentences:

a. Spatial– The angel flew ____ the clouds. (Or Piggly Wiggly flew _____ the tube….or whatever object you use.)

b. Time—The kids played ________ class.

OR use objects, such as a bathroom tissue tube and a little toy character—place the character all around the tube to practice prepositions.

Note: Songs and rhymes are fine–but in addition to that, I would use a method that teaches the ROLE prepositions play in sentences (such as the above check sentences). Songs and rhymes limit students to the 30 or so that they memorize and do nothing to help them branch out and learn dozens and dozens more through their PURPOSE.

2) I teach students to find prepositional phrases and isolate them with parentheses in their sentences.

This is crucial because the sentence’s main subject and main verb are not found in prepositional phrases. (See the slideshow “5 MORE Tips for Prepositions From Language Lady”!) I teach them this by asking them aloud (for the oral practice sentences we do together during the Teach-Practice-Apply steps):

a. PREP Whom? (TO whom, FROM whom?)

b. PREP What? (OVER what, BESIDE what?)

3) We do this over and over again until finding prepositions and prepositional phrases is second nature to them.

Then, and only then, can they match their subjects and verbs, write properly with prepositional phrase openers, and more.

P.S. What would you like to see a slideshow about or a Tricky Trick download for your students? I’d love to prepare it for you!

Click or tap on the image below to download this three page “Tricky Trick”!

The post Preposition Practice Pal for Learning Prepositions! (Tricky Trick Download for Young Students Included!) appeared first on Character Ink.

So I did a Major Works and Minor Works Slideshow. I did a lesson in a video class about them. I gave parents and teachers a quiz! I’m going to end this subject with a Tricky Trick Download for students!

I’ve been putting together Tricky Trick Downloads for a few months now, and I love how they take complicated information and make that info succinct and understandable. Print them off and put them on your bulletin board–or in your student’s language arts binder. They will come in handy regardless of the curriculum you are using!

Here’s what this week’s Tricky Trick Download looks like:

Download and print it here!

Find past Tricky Trick Downloads here:

1) Be, a Helper, Link Verbs

2) Beginning Quotation Use

3) Sentence Combining With Semicolons

Note: What language arts or writing area would you like to have a Tricky Trick Download for? I can fix you up in the coming month!

The post Major Works and Minor Works – Tricky Tricks Download for Students! appeared first on Character Ink.

I love mnemonics–tricks, songs, jingles, rhymes….anything that helps students learn! I love them even more when they have something to do with the purpose for learning that topic or the topic itself. Like in the case of prepositions–songs can help you learn about three dozen of the over 200 prepositions–but Check Sentences can help you learn 150 or more because Check Sentence have to do with the function of prepositions. (Learn more here)

There are a number of reasons to memorize being, helping, and linking verbs:

(1) When one stands alone as a linking verb or is used before a base verb as a helping verb, it is the verb that you match with the subject: He IS happy…is must match with He; they ARE going (are must match with they.

(2) They tell WHEN something happened (present, past, etc.). You really need them!

(3) When one stands alone, it may have an adjective following it–which is going back to the noun or pronoun before it, describing that noun or pronoun. (You do not use an adverb with a single BHL verb.)

(4) When one stands alone, it should have the subjective form of a pronoun following it (if it has a pronoun following it), not the objective: This is SHE (not this is HER).

(5) When a base verb follows has, had, or have (and oftentimes was and were), it should be in its past participle tense:

a. has written
b. had gone
c. have done
d. had lain
e. has risen
f. have come

(6) You can spot them more easily in writing–and get rid of them in order to write more active/less passive sentences!

Some students learn being verbs by themselves. Then they learn a list of linking verbs. And, of course, they learn a list of verbs that can be used as helpers–helping verbs.

However, many of these verbs are interchangeable and on two or more of the lists. All of them are passive when used as true linking or being verbs. (More on this later–feel internally is a being/linking verb; feel something with your hand is an action verb.)

So…let’s put them all together, teach what they all do collectively, and memorize them. Students easily learn when to use the three kinds–you won’t find a student trying to use REMAIN in place of WAS in the phrase WAS GOING. They just naturally do that correctly.

So here’s a quick way to learn all 32 being, helping, and linking verbs in one day! 🙂 To the tune of the ABC Song or “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”

(Learn more about my Think Fast Grammar Quiz and how to teach many parts of speech quickly! )

For your kiddos—print off the Tricky Trick Sheet download given below and hang it on the bulletin board. Sing it every day–and your students will learn them in no time!

(ABCDEFG)
Be, a Helper, Link verbs,

( HIJKLMNOP)
Is, Are, Am, Was, & Were.

(QRSTUV)
Be, & Being, Been, Become,

(WXYZ)
Has, & Had, & Have are ones.

(Now I said my ABC’s)
Can, Could, Shall, Should—they are fun.

(Next time won’t you sing with me?)
Will, Would, Do, Did, Does, & Done.

(ABCDEFG)
May, Might, Must—they are some as well,

(HIJKLMNOP)
Appear, Look, Seem, Remain, Taste, Feel, & Smell.

See all of my Tricky Trick Sheets here!

P.S. What was your favorite tricky trick when you were in school?

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The semicolon gets a bad rap. Either people despise it—saying that it is not needed in writing at all. (George Orwell was once quoted as saying “I had decided about this time that the semicolon is an unnecessary stop and that I would write my next book without one.”) OR….possibly even worse, people use it incorrectly over and over and over and over and over (you get the idea!). The worst misuse (in my humble opinion) is when people use it as a comma—joining two parts of a sentence, rather than two complete sentence. Just random semicolon insertion here and there—whenever they believe that one of the sentence parts is too lengthy to use a comma there. (Sigh…)

Me? I have a semicolon, and I’m not afraid to use it! ? I fall the camp with Abraham Lincoln; I think the semicolon is a “very useful little chap.”

And I teach my students to respect the semicolon in my books and classes. I also may or may not tell them that something like 90% plus of adults in the world do not know how to use a semicolon properly. Thus, if they heed my instructions, they will be in the top ten percent of people in semicolon use. (Hey, it’s something worth attaining!)

As a matter of fact, I don’t just teach my students and curriculum users how to use the semicolon. I include it in my classes and books as an expectation and application in writing.

I do this by including the “add a semicolon to your paper” task in my Checklist Challenge (a task list used by students in just about every project they write in my books).

(Learn how to use this amazing writing tool here  or here! Learn how to “grade” your student’s Checklist Challenge here.)

Here is what the “add a semicolon” task looks like in my Checklist Challenge:

So how DO we become part of my “very estimated” ten percent of adults who can use a semicolon to create a compound sentence?

(Later I will teach you how to become one of the “very estimated” one percent who can use a semicolon to combine series of three or more with internal commas—then you’ll really be “highfalutin”!)

And even more importantly (for my purposes with amazing kids all across the country—I REALLY love kids!), how do we teach our students the proper use of the semicolon?

Stay with me. First the rules—and then a Tricky Trick Sheet for you to use with your amazing learners!

While there are several uses for a semicolon, the one you will use the most is really simple. Semicolons are used to combine two independent clauses (or complete sentences) into a single sentence. That is, they are used to create what grammarians call “compound sentences.”

Example: She likes work; she loves vacation.

The most important thing to remember is that both sides of the semicolon must contain an independent clause (or complete sentence). That means each side must have a subject and a verb and be able to stand on its own.

In addition, be careful not to use a semicolon when you use a coordinating conjunction (such as the word and) to combine two complete sentences. As you already learned, you should use a comma with a cc, not a semicolon with a cc. She likes work, and she loves vacation. (Check out my recent “create a compound sentence with a comma-coordinating conjunction” article with its own Tricky Trick Sheet to use with your students!)

You should only use semicolons to combine two closely related independent clauses.

No: Bambi is a deer; I like casserole.

While this does contain a complete sentence on both sides of a semicolon, it shouldn’t be one sentence (and probably not even in the same paragraph).

The purpose of semicolons is to link ideas together.

Yes: Sue likes work; she loves vacation.

This could be two separate sentences. However, by linking them together with a semicolon, it makes the similarities more obvious.

Your writing will look even more “highfalutin” (can you tell I just looked that word up and found that it is one word, not two, which I think is super cool?) if you use a semicolon to combine two sentences into one sentence CORRECTLY—and with a strong link.

She worked a long day; she slept well. The first part of this sentence gives the cause while the second gives the result. This provides the link between the two clauses.

(Before I forget, you can download and print the Tricky Trick Sheet for this post here!)

There are many relationships you can use a semicolon to express, such as the following:

Before and After: He entered the room nervously; he left excitedly.

Contrasting: It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.

Cause and Effect: She worked a long day; she slept well.

Semicolons can be a great tool to show off your (and your student’s!) advanced writing skills. You probably shouldn’t use more than one or two of this style of sentence in the one essay, but definitely use it. Just be sure both clauses are related in some way and they are both independent clauses. And like I always tell my students…if you don’t know how to do it correctly, don’t do it at all. It is super obvious that someone doesn’t know what they’re doing when they use an advanced punctuation mark incorrectly. It shouts out to readers who do know how to write with them correctly.

(For a complete Compound Sentence Quiz, check out this blog post!)

P.S. What sentence structures do you have trouble teaching your kids (or using yourself)? Let me know, and I’ll write a post about it—and make you a Tricky Trick Sheet! ?

The post Using a Semicolon to Combine Two Sentences Into One (With Tricky Trick Sheet!) appeared first on Character Ink.

“[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.

Tip #1 – Teach quotes as they are needed for assignments

Oftentimes, the easiest way to teach quotations is in conjunction with essay and report writing. Most students do not learn quotation rules well unless they have a chance to use them. So, they benefit immensely when they can apply a quotation rule to the assignment they are working on.

This also ensures that your students will know the skills they need for their assignments. Obviously, it’s easier for them to use a skill correctly when they have just learned it.

Tip #2 – Use good examples and have students interact with examples

Everyone learns better when they have an example that clearly demonstrates what they have just learned. For example, let’s say you have just taught your students about quotes with speech tags at the beginning. After going through the rules, you would want to use an example like this:

Charlie Brown sighed and said, “Oh brother, this always happens to me.”

This sentence shows the two rules for punctuating this type of quote: comma in between the speech tag and quote and if there is a period, a period inside the quotation marks. This is a fantastic beginning; however, to help your students analyze the example, it is extremely helpful to let them interact with it.

What do I mean by interacting with the examples? Highlighting, underlining, boxing, circling. Whenever possible, you want your students to mark the example’s important aspects—capital letters, punctuation, quotation marks.

Tip #3 – Go SLOWLY through examples

Quotations are some of the trickiest elements in writing. Students will not catch all the rules unless you take the time to carefully work through the examples with them. Highlighting, underlining, etc. is part of this. The other part is mentioning how each part of the example matches the rules you just taught. For example,

“It was a dark and stormy night,” Snoopy wrote.

Start with the first letter and explain how a quote starts with a capital letter. Then move on to the comma and mention how it comes before the quotation marks and between the quote and speech tag. End with discussing how a speech tag ends in a period when it follows the quote. This, of course, can be done in conjunction with marking:

Download Beginning Quotes Tricky Tricks Sheet by clicking or tapping below, or clicking here:

Tip #4 – Give time for students to practice

Seeing is one thing, but doing is another. Students need time to practice with unpunctuated sentences. Give them sentences that make them decide where to put the punctuation. Have them come up to the board and punctuate a sentence. For example, you might write this sentence up on the board:

What should I do Lucy Charlie Brown asked despairingly

Then, have your student do their best to punctuate the sentence. If they know the rules perfectly, the sentence will look like this:

“What should I do, Lucy?” Charlie Brown asked despairingly.

Most students will not get it right the first time or the first few times. But, even if they mess up, they are getting practice using quotes by themselves. Of course, it also allows you to see which quotation rules they have or have not learned. You can then focus your examples and efforts on helping them learn that rule.

Tip #5 – FIX students’ quotes in their papers for them and EXPLAIN the errors to them

Correcting students’ quotes in their papers is crucial. It allows you to discuss rules with them in the context of an actual paper. This will help them see how the quotation rules apply in their actual writing.

Of course, it doesn’t help students learn if you just fix their errors. You have to explain what was wrong and why you corrected it the way you did. For example,

Charlie Brown sadly stated, “the Kite-Eating Tree ate my kite again.”

If they wrote something like this, you would capitalize the in their paper.

Charlie Brown sadly state, “The Kite-Eating Tree ate my kite again.”

Then you would explain that a quote always starts with a capital letter.

I hope these five tips gave you some help in teaching basic quotations. As I mentioned at the beginning, check out the following Tricky Tricks sheet on basic quotations.

Love and hope,

P.S. What questions does this post leave you with? I will be expanding on this article later, so let me know how I can help you!

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