Writing a thesis statement is an extremely difficult skill for some students. This post provides step-by-step instructions. Student-friendly language helps students understand the concepts. To learn the rules, students watch a Google Slide presentation. While watching, they complete organizers. The printable organizers may be placed in an interactive notebook. Digital organizers are also provided. They may be housed on Google Drive. Students may use these organizers as reference tools any time they write essays.
Are you looking for some activities for teaching suffixes? Check out these free materials including activities for Google Slides, videos, anchor charts and PowerPoints.
Teaching students some common suffixes can increase their vocabularies tremendously. The suffixes -s/-es, -ed, -ing, -ly, -er/-or, -ion/-tion/-ation/-tion, and -ible/-able account for 72 percent of suffixed words. Teaching these 7 suffixes is a must. This first activity goes over the rules for using variations of -ible/-able and -ion.Continue Reading
English is a mix of several languages including French, Italian, Greek and Latin, Vietnamese and so on. This makes the number of words linguists estimate the English language to have extremely large…approximately one million words. About 170,000 of these words are in current use. The average adult English speaker has a vocabulary between 20,000 to 35,000 words. Ninety-five percent of everyday writing and speech in newspapers, most books, movies, etc. use only about 3,000 words. So…how do we prepare our students for college entrance exams when everyday life exposes them to such a narrow list of vocabulary words? —- We teach students prefixes, suffixes, and Greek and Latin roots. Continue Reading
An understatement is a figure of speech when a speaker makes the situation seem less important or severe than what it is. The remark makes something seem smaller. An understatement adds humor to serious situations. When verbal, the speaker delivers the statement without expression for effect.
Think of an understatement as the opposite of hyperbole.Continue Reading
Effect vs Affect – How many times have students struggled with this troublesome pair? How many papers have you graded that confused these words? Before Common Core State Standards, our state standards gave a long list of troublesome word pairs students had to learn. Teaching this skill was monotonous for both students and teachers. Because of this, I experimented with different teaching methods. This skill hasn’t gone away with Common Core. Instead, it has become more general.
Sarcasm is a difference or contrast between expectations and realities in a circumstance. Irony is often only recognized well after an original statement or occurrence since it often takes current events to realize the previous remark was completely wrong.
Sarcasm is a remark that people use to say the opposite of what’s true with a purpose to amuse or hurt someone by making them feel foolish.Continue Reading
