Parent Tip: Lesson 1.9

Lesson 1.9: Contractions covers forming contractions, formality, and writing dialogue. Contractions may seem like a simple skill to pick up, and they are compared to comma placement, but you might be surprised to discover how much reinforcement some kids need on apostrophe placement. Many kids are tempted to put the apostrophe in a contraction anywhere that more or less looks good. Voilá! They don’t know that the apostrophe replaces the missing letter(s) of the smooshed-together contraction, something we cover in our lesson video. If you see your child struggling with punctuating apostrophes, remind them that the apostrophe replaces the missing letter(s) (e.g., the o in don’t, which is a smoosh of do and not).

The other big aha! in this lesson is that there are varying levels of formality in writing. We wrote about this here. Lesson 1.9: Contractions teaches your child about formality by having them write dialogue to develop their fiction stories. We encourage students to write characters with varying levels of formality, which forces them to notice and be more intentional about voice. Consistently using a formal voice in academic writing is a work in progress for most kids, but this lesson gets them pointed in the right direction. Reinforce the concept at home by pointing out when your child uses an informal voice in a situation that calls for more formality.