Contractions Sentence Sort
Purpose: Writers use contractions to shape how characters speak, think, and feel. Some contractions are modern and casual like gonna, wanna, or lemme. Others are historical or regional like ’tis, ne’er, or y’all’d’ve. These choices help readers understand a character’s background, mood, or time period.
In today’s activity, students explore how contractions give voice to characters. They’ll sort contractions by when and how they’re used - some are old-fashioned, some are conversational, and some reflect regional dialects.
Drag each contraction to the character who would most likely say the sentence that includes it. Think about how each character speaks, and match the contraction to their style.
Use character cards to anchor the activity in storytelling. Students can match contractions to fictional voices like a pirate, a Victorian lady, or a modern teen and build short dialogues that reflect each character’s speech style.
To boost engagement, encourage students to narrate their reasoning aloud as they sort each sentence. This not only reinforces vocabulary meaning but also helps classmates hear different interpretations. This is especially useful when contractions could fit more than one category.
“Never thought of using contractions to teach character's voice before this. Great sorting activity!”
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