Realia: It’s Not Just For Vocabulary ▬ Intercambio

Realia: It’s Not Just For Vocabulary

Realia 

Intercambio: 12 06.2016 by Debbieg

Realia  (real objects) and visuals aren’t just for teaching vocabulary. They can even be great for illustrating grammatical patterns.  Here are ideas on how to use objects:

A variety of interesting objects (these can be things you grab out of the kitchen and bathroom and throw into a bag as you’re leaving the house to go to class!)

These can be used to teach there is/there are or teaching this/that/these/those.

Magazine pictures glued to construction paper These can be used to teach both structures and vocabulary.

A bag of assorted clothing, particularly if it is unusual or garish, can be used as props in dialogs, such as one on shopping; to teach clothing vocabulary; colors, etc.

A variety of application forms of different types are useful for teaching basic writing skills and for giving practice in filling out real applications.   READ MORE ➤➤

 

Automatic Readability Checker

Based on 7 readability formulas:

Grade Level: 8

Reading Level: standard / average.

Reader's Age: 12-14 yrs. old

(Seventh and Eighth graders)

5 Unofficial Rules Native English Speakers Don't Realize They Know @ Mental Floss

5 Unofficial Rules Native English Speakers Don't Realize They Know

Mental Floss: 9.12.2016 (updated 9.04.2020) by Arika Okrent

Woodward English

It can be shocking to realize that we are able to follow grammar rules that no one ever taught us explicitly. But that’s what most of language is—not the little things that textbooks tell us we’re getting wrong, but the solid ones we always get right. Non-native speakers, however, might get them wrong, and that gives us a good opportunity to get a peek at the rules we don’t otherwise notice.

WHY IT’S “GREAT GREEN DRAGONS” AND NOT “GREEN GREAT DRAGONS”

In 2016, the BBC’s Matthew Anderson tweeted about a rule that “English speakers know, but don’t know we know.” It was a screen grab of a passage from Mark Forsyth’s The Elements of Eloquence explaining that the reason “great green dragons” sounds better than “green great dragons” is that we unconsciously follow a rule that stipulates that the order of adjectives in English goes opinion-size-age-shape-color-origin-material-purpose. Size comes before color, so no “green great dragons.”

2. WHY WE SAY “MY BROTHER’S CAR” AND NOT “THE CAR OF MY BROTHER”

ARROW

3. WHY IT’S “ABSO-FREAKIN’-LUTELY” AND NOT “ABSOLUTE-FREAKIN’-LY”

READ MORE ➤➤

Automatic Readability Checker

Based on 7 readability formulas:

Grade Level: 11

Reading Level: standard / average.

Reader's Age: 15-17 yrs. old

(Tenth to Eleventh graders)

10 Picture Books to Teach Grammar in Secondary ELA via Secondary Sara

10 Picture Books to Teach Grammar in Secondary ELA

Secondary Sara: 10.20.2018

Many middle and high school English teachers are either reluctant to use picture books at all in their classrooms, OR they are interested but don’t know where to start.

Grammar in particular is a great opportunity to include picture books, which can add color, imagery, and rhyming to enhance memory of rules. One way to get started would be to put these books around the room and let students rotate to them, taking notes on grammar rules or observations they take from each one!

Chatting with me today is Christina Hanson, a picture book guru who blogs at Hanson Hallway (and who does the #ClassroomBookaDay routine with her middle schoolers)!

#1.  Twenty-Odd Ducks
Sara: I love Twenty-Odd Ducks as a memorable way to teach hyphens and other punctuation marks (which is SO helpful if you’re a middle school teacher in particular, since some of the “fun” punctuation marks are in our Common Core standards).

#2: Alfie the Apostrophe
Christina: In Alfie the Apostrophe, Alfie wants to enter the annual punctuation-mark talent show to show off his contraction and possessive-making skills, but he is very nervous.

#3: The Perfect Punctuation Book
Sara: The Perfect Punctuation Book is a pop-up book, and it's basically a premade Interactive Notebook for punctuation!

#4: Hairy, Scary, Ordinary: What is an Adjective?
Christina: Hairy, Scary, Ordinary is one of 27 books in the Words Are CATegorical series by Brian P. Cleary.  It starts out with the definition of adjective, and follows with many, many examples of adjectives.

#5: Eats, Shoots & Leaves

Sara: You might know the grown-up style guide of the same name, but the picture book version of Eats, Shoots & Leaves is similar to Twenty-Odd Ducks in that it shows the power of changing punctuation marks.  READ MORE >>