Tag Archives: punctuation

Its (Possessive Pronoun) and It’s (Contraction)

Here are five homophone worksheets on its and it’s. I guess, strictly speaking, these aren’t really homophones, since they both employ it, a neuter pronoun with a fixed meaning. These worksheets really address the punctuation of these words. Students, particularly English language learners in my experience, accustomed to forming the possessive case of nouns with an apostrophe find the punctuation of these two words counterintuitive. Thus,  these worksheets to provide some practical experience using this pronoun in these two forms in sentences.

The worksheets themselves have a somewhat lengthy excursus, in their definition of its, on pronoun-antecedent agreement when using this possessive pronoun. That material derives from my study, a few years back, of the Trivium and its possibilities for use in my classroom. The book I read went on at some length, as I recall, about the importance to logic and grammar of not using locutions like “the committee did their work” and favoring “the committee did its work”.  I suspect that in some cases that material would be better deployed on an entirely separate series of worksheets that contrast its and their in pronoun-antecedent grammar exercises.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

The Weekly Text, December 9, 2016: An Introductory Lesson Plan on Adjectives

This week’s Text, which I hasten to post so I can plan and execute some new global studies lessons, is an introductory lesson plan on adjectives. I begin this lesson with this context clues worksheet on the noun attribute; this word is a piece of prior knowledge that students can use when they encounter the term attributive adjectives. I have a more explicit lesson on attributive adjective that I’ll post in the not too distant future (I’m in the middle of revising it, for one thing). If this lesson stretches into a second day because of behavior that derails instruction, then here is an Everyday Edits worksheet titled “Sled Dogs Save Nome.” This proofreading worksheet that introduces the adjective is the mainstay of this lesson. Finally, you will probably find useful the teacher’s copy/answer key for the worksheet.

That’s it.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

The Weekly Text, August 5, 2016: A Learning Support on Using Semicolons

Most teachers, I imagine, already see and are starting to plan for the beginning of the school year, a month or less away for most of us. I’ve just returned from a week on the North Shore and Cape Ann; I too see the end of the summer break on the horizon, and I’m starting to work towards it. In the next couple of weeks I’ll post a couple of comprehensive lesson plans I’m working on that are both peculiar to my present posting and useful (I hope!) to social studies teachers everywhere.

For this week’s Text, however, I offer a learning support on using semicolons in declarative sentences. I hope you find it useful.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.