When Should I Use A or
An?
Melinda Kennedy
Purpose:
The purpose of this mini lesson is to help students to
distinguish when they should use the articles a or an.
This mini lesson should be taught when you notice the two articles are being
used incorrectly.
Materials Needed:
Overhead projector
Pens
Sentence Worksheet
Time Required:
15-20 minutes
Objectives:
NCTE
5 Students
employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing
process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for
a variety of purposes.
NCSCS
Competency Goal 6- The
learner will apply conventions of application of grammar and language usage.
6.01 Demonstrate an understanding of conventional written
and spoken expression by:
Script:
“As I was reading your papers, I noticed several students
were using the articles a and an
incorrectly. Let’s take this time to review the usage of a
and an. A and An are
considered indefinite articles. There is only one way to determine the use of a and an and that is by pronunciation. When
you are using these articles, you must think about the word that will follow
the article. When you are writing, use the article a before words
beginning with a consonant sound. Use the article an before words
beginning with a vowel sound. I want you to listen as I say the vowel sounds. (aeiou) Now I want everyone to
repeat the vowel sounds back to me. (aeiou)
There are some exceptions to that rule. If the word used after the article has
a silent h sound then you will use an. In addition, if the word
following the article has a consonant y sound like in union then used a.
The only way you will be successful at using articles is by listening to the
sound of words and not by the letters they begin with. Now let’s look on the
overhead projector at these examples. (The following is listed an egg, an upper
deck, an envelope, an hour (h silent), and a union (consonant y sound.) You’re
going to have to train your ears to listen for the sounds. Now let’s look at
these sentences that contain articles in them. (The students will have their
own copy of these sentences. I will write them on the overhead also.)
Ÿ
Mary saw a
bear while she was at the zoo.
Ÿ
Today Ricky had an
egg and juice for breakfast.
Ÿ
Ann went to see a
movie with her friends.
Ÿ
I saw John at the
park playing with a basketball.
Ÿ
A pizza would be delicious for supper tonight.
Ÿ
Maria has a
brother name Joe.
Ÿ
A lot of people showed up at the party.
As I call the following words
out I want the class to tell me which article should be used.”
Uncle
Apple
Hair
Door
Opera
Book
Pencil
Unicorn
Icicle
Hair
Egg
Idea
Computer
Desk
Animal
Airplane
Owl
Honest
Open