Key Skills for ELA Success

Words, Words, Words…what are they all for?  I’d like to invite you to reflect on your early learning years as a young child and remember what it might have been like before you knew about sentences, paragraphs, or reports.  If you find this to be challenging, then catch a glimpse of very young children (PreK or younger) and consider how they communicate.  You will probably notice that words are the primary means for communication.  A broad vocabulary is essential to good writing and will directly affect a student’s word choice and voice in their writing.

Learning new vocabulary words, understanding analogies, delving into a word’s etymology, making vocabulary cards & notebooks, taking the time to do vocabulary enrichment, mastering spelling rules, and playing with Power Words are all strategies within the Shurley English curriculum that assist your students in building and expanding their “word bank” in order to begin to own their language.  Owning one's language opens the door to fully understanding how words work together in sentences, how sentences are organized and developed into paragraphs, and how being able to write for all purposes sets you up to connect with the world differently.

The path to ultimately owning one’s language is making sure you as the teacher provide your students the knowledge, skill, and practice in these key skill areas:

• Alphabet
• Phonics
• Rhyming Words
• Spelling
• Reference Skills
• Figurative Lanugae
• Sound Devices
• Word Study: syllabication, etymology, analogies, synonyms/antonyms
• Comprehension: context clues, inferences, drawing conclusions

Set your students up for success by giving them the opportunity to own their language and become confident, competent communicators.

Understanding Degrees of Comparison

At first glance, teaching the Degrees of Adjectives and Adverbs may seem trite, but after personally hearing numerous adults use this concept incorrectly, I feel it’s worth addressing to ensure the communication success of our young learners. Here is a great reference for you to use during your lesson:

I have to admit that I cringe when I hear people use double comparisons such as, “more better” or “most wealthiest,” especially when it’s uttered from a schooled adult.  Here’s another Shurley Reference to save the day!

When teaching Degrees of Comparison, pay close attention to irregular adjectives and adverbs, along with these valuable References and Student Tips found in your Teacher’s Manual.  After teaching these concepts to your students or refreshing your own memory, remember to apply them in your own verbal and written communication...never forget that YOU are always a model for your students!

This concept has been taught to students in the Shurley English Curriculum since Level 3, which is consistent with my experience teaching from other publisher’s Language Arts curricula in 3rd-5th grade…so why is such a simple concept still being used incorrectly among adults?  I’m not claiming to know the answer, but I believe it might have something to do with teacher instruction, modeling, and application & accountability.   Allow me to show you how Shurley English can help clean up this mess.

You’ve probably used various comparison activities using physical objects to illustrate this concept.  If so, EXCELLENT! If not, here’s a simple activity to consider.  Others can also be found in your Teacher’s Manual.

For example:  Show students a golf ball and other larger sized sports balls and have students repeat after you.

One.  Simple.  The golf ball is small.

Two.  Comparative. The golf ball is smaller than the baseball.

Three or more.  Superlative. The golf ball is the smallest ball here.