CEClang.54
TITLE: Horrid Homonyms
AUTHOR: Jerry Smith, Soroco Junior High School,
Oak Creek, CO
GRADE LEVEL: This activity is appropriate for any sixth to
eighth grade language arts class.
OVERVIEW: When writing, students at the junior high level
often confuse and misuse words that sound alike but have
different meanings. Words pairs such as your-you're, whose-
who's, there-their, and past-passed are examples of these
"horrid homonyms" where mistakes are not evident in speech
but are only too evident in writing! This activity is
designed to remind students of the specific meanings and
correct usage of some of these often confused words.
PURPOSE: This activity forces students to think about the
specific definitions of commonly misused words and to use
them correctly in sentences.
OBJECTIVE(s): Students will do the following:
1. Learn the correct definitions for a predetermined list
of commonly misused homonyms.
2. Use each of the words on the list correctly in a
sentence.
3. Recognize that writing words that sound alike requires
the writer to be careful and more specific than when
speaking.
RESOURCES: The teacher will need a list of words that have
homonyms and are often misused by students in their writing.
The following is a list of homonyms that might be used.
1. to, too, two
2. who's, whose
3. your, you're
4. there, their, they're
5. past, passed
6. close, clothes
7. blue, blew
8. aloud, allowed
9. acts, ax
10. guessed, guest
11. so, sew, sow
12. sight, cite, site
13. stationary, stationery
14. principal, principle
15. capital, capitol
16. its, it's
17. patience, patients
18. pair, pear, pare
19. sail, sale
20. sent, scent, cent
Dictionaries should also be available to the students for
the culminating activity.
Plenty of chalk and erasers will be needed.
Students will need paper and pencils.
ACTIVITIES: The teacher will divide the class into groups of
about ten students per group. One student from each group
will go to the chalkboard and the teacher will pronounce one
word that has a homonym. Each student at the board will
then write a sentence that contains both forms of the word
used correctly in the same sentence. For example, if the
teacher pronounced the word "threw" or "through," the
student might write a sentence such as the following: "I
threw the rock through the window." The teacher should act
as scorekeeper and give points to each team for each correct
sentence as the activity proceeds. The students at the
chalkboard should be replaced by new students after each
homonym pair is used until every student has had a chance to
write a sentence at the chalkboard. The team with the most
points is declared the winner.
CULMINATING ACTIVITIES: The teacher should end the game by
discussing with the students the ways that the writer has to
be more specific than the speaker. This discussion can
include the reasons for good spelling, punctuation, grammar,
etc.! The teacher might ask the students if they have
recently seen any examples of homonyms used incorrectly.
There are several things that the teacher can use as a
concluding assignment. The teacher might ask each group to
list as many homonyms as they can in a short period of time.
Also, each group might be given a list of words that have
homonyms and be asked to find the homonym for each.
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John Kurilecjmk@ofcn.org