Transcript Unit 2: What Does That Mean?

Chapter 2: How Do you Spell
That?
Words Skills: Language and Activities
for Talking About Words
Last Class
• We looked at two classroom interactions and
talked about the importance of choosing the
right collocation:
Last Class
(1) The first classroom interaction we looked at was
talking about the letters in a word:
Courage has seven letters.
Courage is a seven-letter word.
Courage begins with C.
Courage ends in E.
Courage has an R in it.
Last Class
• (2) The second classroom interaction we looked
at was giving hints, asking for hints, and
indicating you are stumped.
Would you like a hint
Do you need a hint?
Can I have a hint?
Could you give me a hint?
I’m stumped.
I give up.
Guess My Word Activity
• We did a word riddle activity to practice these
interactions:
What begins with T, ends with T, and is
filled with T?
Answer:
TEAPOT
Today’s Class
• Today we are going to continue looking at
classroom English again.
• Specifically we are going to look at language
used to negotiate the spelling and meaning of
a word and some activities we can use to
teach our students this skill.
CI 3: The Spelling of a Word
Students are constantly wanting to know how
words are spelled. Here are some ways they
can approach that:
How do you spell whale/that/it?
How is whale/that/it spelled?
Collocation with Spell
Note that HOW collocates strongly with SPELL.
Also:
You spell a word.
A word is spelled.
Here you is the general you, meaning people.
Whale is spelled W-H-A-L-E.
It's spelled W-H-A-L-E.
You spell it W-H-A-L-E.
As a teacher you will have to indicate when
your students have spelled something
correctly or misspelled something:
You spelled (word) correctly.
(Word) is spelled correctly.
You misspelled (word).
(Word) is misspelled.
You spelled (word) incorrectly.
(Word) is spelled incorrectly.
Correcting Spelling
We can combine our letter skills with ‘not’ to
correct our student’s misspelled words.
KAT:
CAT begins with a C not a K.
LITE:
LIGHT ends in G-H-T not T-E
SLIPER:
SLIPPER has two Ps.
SLIPPER is spelled with two Ps
There are two Ps in SLIPPER.
In Class Task 1
• Look at practice 2-1:
• How would you correct your students if they
misspelled:
knife, ocean, battle, and lamb
as
nife, osean, batle, and lamb
Clarifying a Letter
• Another interaction that teacher will have is
clarifying a letter.
For example, A student might ask:
Was that D or T?
• A good way to clarify a letter is to attach it to a
common noun that has a well-known spelling.
That’s T as in TIGER.
It’s important to choose a noun that will not
lead to more confusion:
Did you say B or P?
I said B. B as in BEAR.
Can you see any problems arising here?
In Class Task 2
Practice 2-2
How would you clarify the following letters?
L, R, F, P, D, A, E
In Class Activity
Each of you will be given a card with some writing on
it.
There are three spelling mistakes on that card.
Show that card to a partner. Your partner will
“correct” your spelling.
If your partner can’t correct the spelling then give
them some hints (like last class).
Record the misspelled words on your activity sheet.
Chapter 3: What Does that
Mean?
Words Skills: Language and Activities
for Talking About Words
Meaning of a Word
• Another common interactions language
students and teachers have is asking or saying
what words mean.
What does blustery mean?
What does that mean?
What's blustery?
What's that?
Using Synonyms to Define Words
One way to define a word is to use a synonym:
Blustery is another word for windy.
It's another word for windy.
It means windy.
It's a synonym for/of windy.
In Class Task 3
Define the following words using a synonym:
thin
weary
locate
depart
cautious
persuade
Using Antonyms to Define Words
Blustery is the opposite of calm.
It's the opposite of calm.
In Class Task 4
Define the following words using a antonym:
best
shy
true
destitute
spicy
cooked
Appositive
An appositive is a noun or a noun phrase that
defines, describes or renames a noun next to
it. Here are some examples.
Sue, my neighbor, was injured in car accident.
Ammonites, some of the most common
fossils, went extinct millions of years ago.
Appositives are used to clarify nouns all the
time.
In spoken English, ‘you know’ is often inserted
between the noun and the appositive or
before the noun to indicate that a definition
or clarification is coming up:
Jack, you know, the guy we met last week, is
coming over today.
You use appositive when you think the
listener does know the noun, but they are just
having troubles remembering it.
You use them to help jog your listeners
memory so to speak.
In Class Task 5
How would you use an appositive to clarify
these words?
castle
sheep
dragon
Mars
ammonite
Edison
medusa