Lesson Plan for Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Tuesday, March 18, 2014
1.  Read today's poem:
            "Counting on Flowers" by John Ciardi
             Discussion:  What is the double meaning in the phrase "counting on"?
                 (literally "counting" the petals and "counting on" or depending upon the hope of love)
2.  Lesson:
            Homophones and Confusing Word Pairs
                  Tell students:  Because you have used a word processing program with a spell check on your major papers, you sometimes have a false confidence that no spelling errors remain.  The result, however, is that your spell-check/grammar-check may have prompted you to select the wrong word.  In some cases, this is actually worse than a mere misspelling because having the wrong word may totally change your intended meaning.
            "Words that Sound Alike or Are Confused with Each Other" (handout)
                    Let's review this handout (read it aloud and discuss).  Then, put it in your binder for a reference when you work on the assignment I will give you.  Please note that there are many words of this type and this handout does not show all of them.  On the assignment, you may need to use a dictionary to look up ones not on the handout.
                    Another area of confusion is whether to write certain expressions as one word or two words.  Let's discuss the difference between all ready/already, alright/all right, all together/altogether, awhile/a while, anyone/any one, anyway/any way, maybe/may be.
3. Assignment:
           "The Right Word" (handout)
                      You may do the exercise on the handout by circling the correct choice in each set of parentheses.  Please notice that there is more than one item in each sentence.  You must get every item in that sentence right to get credit for that sentence.  Do not make wild guesses.  Remember that some of your previous habits may be wrong and based on misconceptions.  Use the handout or a dictionary when you are uncertain. It may be best to use a pencil, if you have one, so that corrections can be more easily made if you make a mistake.
                       We will correct this tomorrow in class.
4.  If you finish early, do silent sustained reading until the bell.