Twiddle-Since and Twiddle-Sense

For grades 6-8

Total Estimated Time: Less than 30 min.

By: Tiffiny Hovatter

Purpose:

This mini-lesson is supposed to help students understand the difference between sense and since through creating an understanding of the words in relation to how they are spelled. In this lesson students will first listen to an explanation of when to use each word and how it is spelled, then they will get into groups to insure their understanding of the words, and then they will get to play a game to help them remember the difference and to reinforce their understanding of the words.

When should this lesson be conducted?/

How this lesson fits into the instructional plan:

Twiddle-Since and Twiddle-Sense should be used when it is noticeable that students are using the incorrect spelling of these words, sense and since. For example, this lesson should be used when students are using either since or sense every time in their writing or when they seem to have the words confused. Some students may even spell the words incorrectly (like spelling sinse or sence) and this lesson should help correct such errors.

Materials: a buzzer (or a way to tell who to call on first when playing a game)

A list of fill in the blank sentences for the words sense and since

(Optional) a handout describing the two words

Objectives:

¬ Students will learn the difference between the words since and sense

¬ Students will understand the spelling of the words in relation to their meaning

¬ Students will be able to tell which word to use in a sentence

¬ Students will learn how to spell the words correctly

State Standard Objective:

6.02 - students will develop an awareness of errors in everyday speech. For example, they will become aware of their incorrect usage of the words since and sense in a sentence, and correct their errors.

National Standards:

Standard 6 - students apply knowledge of language conventions (spelling) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences for a variety of purposes

Instructions:

Explain to students that you have noticed a lot of errors in the usage of since and sense (write these words on the board)

Tell the students because of this you feel special attention needs to be given to this misunderstanding.

Tell them that you are first going to explain what the difference is between these two words and how it is important for them to pay attention because they are going to play a game using these two words after you explain.

All this could be said like….

Lately I have noticed some confusion between the words since and sense (write on board) in your writing. Therefore, today we are going to learn the difference between these two words and the correct spelling of them. This will help you to effectively communicate with the readers of your work. Because, as we all know, the more the errors in a piece of work the less likely a reader will finish it; it is important for your work to contain as few errors as possible. And using since (point to the word) instead of sense (point to the word) is an error.

First I am going to explain to you the difference between these two words, and then you will get into groups of two to confer with each other your understanding of these words. Now this is important, listen very carefully to my explanation of these words because after you are finished conferencing with you partner, we will play a game.

To help them remember the words, in the future, you may want to give them a handout that explains/defines the words. (I have included a Sense and Since handout with this lesson that describes the two words.)

Explain to the students the difference between the two words.

For example….

The word since, spelled s-i-n-c-e, (point to the word on the board) can be used when you want to explain why something happened (usually “because” will fit in its place) for example “Since I didn’t clean my room, I am grounded” or it can be used to identify something taking place after something else happened. For example “I have been grounded since yesterday” or “I didn’t clean my room yesterday and have since been grounded.”

The word sense, spelled s-e-n-s-e, (point to the word on the board) can be used to describe intelligence, a feeling of something, or the meaning or point. For example “I have no sense of direction” or “what is the sense in learning these words?” or “Do you think she has any sense?

(MSN) Estimated time: 10 min.

Have students get in pairs and create their own sentence for each word to make sure they understand. In the groups they can explain the meaning of each word with an example, to their partners. Estimated time: 6 min.

Erase the board

Explain the rules of the game and play Estimated time: Uknown

The Game:

Game time: unknown. It depends on the amount of students in the class, but because a student will be exempt from the game after every question it shouldn’t take long for the game to be over. Because of this you may even want to play best out of 3.

Have students split up into two groups and have each group form a line close to the buzzer. One person from each group should stand close to the buzzer with their hands either on the table or behind their backs. Who ever buzzes the buzzer first gets to answer the question. If the person who answers the question gets the answer wrong they must sit down, and the person who did not answer the question should go to the back of the line. If the person who answered the question got the answer correct they should go to the back of their group’s line, and the person who did not answer will go sit down. The group left standing wins!

The Questions: The questions that will be used are fill-in-the-blank questions. The fill-in-the-blank answers will either be since or sense. Students will answer by spelling out the correct word to the fill in the blank answer.

Work Cited

MSN Encarta Dictionary

<http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/dictionaryhome.aspx>

Additional Resources

Guide to Grammar and Writing

http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/

This website contains a list of commonly confused words and the meaning between them and on-line quizzes for students to take. This website also contain descriptions/explanations of the different parts of sentences (like noun, prepositions, and adverbs), how to use different punctuation techniques and ext.