Lesson Links from Irv Leskowitz - January 2004

TWO OPPORTUNITIES TO EXPAND YOUR STUDENT’S VOCABULARY

Opportunity 1: Sounds Good To Me

Have you and your student encountered a homonym or two in your work together? Homonyms, words that have the same sound – and often the same spelling – but differ in meaning, are practically guaranteed to confuse ESOL students and some BL students as well.

Be alert as you and your student read together for words that have homonyms. For example: raze and raise; sole and soul; fowl and foul. Each discovery of a homonym is an opportunity to increase your student’s vocabulary by one or more words.

Opportunity 2: Double-Duty Words

Many words have more than one meaning; in most cases it is the context in which such a word is used that determines which meaning and which pronunciation applies.

Examples: PROduce and proDUCE; PRESent and preSENT; FREquent and freQUENT; IMport and imPORT.

Again, every encounter with a word of that sort will help you expand your student’s vocabulary.

THE APOSTROPHE: A VERSATILE PUNCTUATION MARK

The apostrophe, small as it is, has two important uses: it shows ownership and it indicates contractions. The rules of its use are these:

1. To show ownership, add an apostrophe and s to a singular noun. (It was Jack’s book.)

2. If a singular noun ends in s, both of the following are correct:

a. Add an apostrophe and s. (He borrowed Thomas’s book.)

b. Add only an apostrophe. (It was Thomas’ book.)

3. Add only an apostrophe to a plural noun that ends in s. (The ladies’ jobs were at stake.)

4. Add an apostrophe and s to plural nouns that do not end in s. (The men’s jobs were at stake.)

The following example demonstrates one way your student can practice the application of these rules. Directions: Complete these sentences with the possessive form of the nouns in the column at the left.

Continue this list with a mix of singular and plural nouns, some ending in s and some ending in a letter other than s.

CLASSIFICATION

One of our natural tendencies is to classify, consciously or not, almost everything we encounter, to identify them as being one of some kind or another. Its importance is that it helps us to immediately know some feature characteristic of members of that group. Here’s an exercise in classifying. Ask your students to underline the word in the row that is the best classification for the highlighted word in the left column and explain their choice.

From Challenger 6, by Corea Murphy

COMPARATIVE AND SUPERLATIVE ENDINGS

The superlative ending –est is commonly used when the comparative –er is called for, and vice versa. Use this exercise to help your student learn the correct use of these endings.

Directions: Write the correct form of the highlighted word with –er or -est in the following groups of sentences below.

A. (tall) Jenny is 5’4”; Alex is 5’1”; Sam is 5’6

1. Sam is ____ than Jenny.
2. Jenny is ___ than Alex.
3. Sam is the ___ of the three.

B. (large) The amount of land in square miles in: Vermont, 9614; Connecticut, 5543;
Rhode Island, 1545; Maine, 35,385; New Hampshire, 9350; Massachusetts, 10,555.

1. Connecticut is ___ than Rhode Island.
2. Maine is the ___ of the New England states.
3. Vermont is ___ than Connecticut and Rhode Island combined.

This exercise lends itself to modification by creating many sentences devoted to a single adjective or by including several different adjectives.

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