If you were reading here yesterday, the motivation for that post was because of the cartoon that was posted on my Facebook Wall by one of my former students, Marcy.
Be sure to check out the comments on that post. The assignments will give you a giggle.
In keeping with the theme of cartoons and classrooms, here are a few more:
This cartoon caught my attention years ago and was the reason for one of the assignments given to my students.
It has always irked me to see advertistments, especially on billboards, with incorrectly spelled words.
One in particular here in Grand Junction was at a preschool . . . a preschool of all places. The sign that those children walked by every day was spelled, "skool." So, by the time those children were in school and had a spelling test, it's fairly certain they spelled school: skool.
The assignment was in the form of a scavenger hunt, and for a week my students were to locate signs around town that had misspelled words. It was amazing how many they found.
The next part of the assignment was to write a business letter to those establishments letting them know about the assignment and asking why the signs and billboards had misspelled words on them.
Most every student received a reply praising them for calling attention to their signs. The number one reason for the signs was that when the business was purchased, the sign was already up and it would cost too much money to change all the signs and business forms. Another was that it was an attention getting technique.
Well, you bet it attracts attention !
Our project probably didn't change much in the way of correcting the 'mistakes,' but my students had fun with it and learned the correct way to compose a business letter.
This is a cartoon I used when teaching the importance of commas and placing them correctly.
Another sentence used was, "Let's eat, Grandpa."
As opposed to, "Let's eat Grandpa."
In order to reduce the number of times the word "LIKE" was used, we played a game.
Anytime someone used the word "like" as above, all the students would slap their desks.
It was amazing how many students, especially the girls, could not speak without using that word in almost every sentence that rolled out of their mouths.
To this day, it drives me straight up the wall to hear, "And she was like, and he was like, and ok, like you know . . ."
The next time you are in conversation or watching an interview, listen for that word and start counting.
You'll probably be amazed at how many times it is used in this way.
And just for fun, here's a card I found in one of those pockets on an airplane.
I whited-out the name of the airlines, but it wasn't Delta or American or Southwest or Lufthansa . . .
It was Youknighted.