By – J.D. Meyer

Primary Subject – Language Arts

Grade Level – 4th – College

Introduction:

This chapter section is from my newly copyrighted textbook:


Developmental English/Writing: With an Introduction to the

North Tyler Texas Cyberlibrary.

The Big Four Clusters of Commonly Confused Words:

The Big Four Clusters of Commonly Confused Words (CCW’s) or

homonyms

, refer to common misspelling problems that can last a lifetime. My teaching method for the Big Four CCW’s reduces the likelihood of these errors. First, I do not group the words according to sound — the traditional method. An example of the usual method is to give definitions for “they’re, their, and there.”

I prefer to group the words according to shared grammatical features. For example, the possessive words among the Big
Four Clusters of CCW’s are “their, your, and its.”

Another way I group the Big Four Clusters of CCW’s is through “One Spelling – Two Meanings.” The word “too” can be “also” or “more or less than what is desired.” As a teacher who has spent his career in urban Texas, generally I add that “also” means “tambien” in Spanish, while “more or less than what is desired” is “demasiado” in Spanish.

1	Contractions	it’s	you’re	they’re
2	Possessive	its	your	their
3	One Spelling - Two Meanings	too (also)(tambien)	too (more or less than desired)(demasiado)
3	One Spelling - Two Meanings	to (preposition)	to (used before verb to make it an infinitive)
4	Etc.	there	two

Teaching the Big Four Clusters of CCW’s:

• Teaching the Big Four Clusters of CCW’s can be
  
  the first lesson
  
  in a Developmental English/Writing class, especially if not all of the students have showed up yet. It makes a great spelling/vocabulary lesson in any grade. I explain the twelve words according my categories above. I
  
  use a poster
  
  on the topic or the chapter section in my textbook for my reference. Then I ask the students to
  
  write twelve sentences
  
  using one of the Big Four Clusters of CCW’s in each sentence. The twelve sentences will be graded by the next class.

• Undoubtedly, the
  
  most difficult of the twelve words
  
  in the Big Four Clusters of CCW’s is
  
  its
  
  . This word even is misspelled on websites! Things without a gender don’t normally own things. Animals that you know should be referred to by their gender — “his” or “her.” If you don’t know the beast, then refer to their possessions or body parts by “its.”

• 
  A fun game
  
  to play with your students is to split the class into two teams, write one of those homonyms on the board. Ask the first student to raise his/her hand to use that word in a sentence.

  Here is a link to a list of
  
  252 sets of homonyms
  
  , grouped by the traditional sound method. It might be included in your current textbook as it is in mine. Playing the game of “Use the homonym in a sentence” becomes more fun and challenging with the greatly expanded range of words.

  http://www.edhelper.com/language/language_samples113.html

• The last part of this lesson is a
  
  multiple-choice quiz
  
  (see attachment below) on the Big Four Clusters of CCW’s. My Flesch Readability Scale shows that my quiz is at a grade level of 4.6. Teaching the correct spelling of the Big Four Clusters of CCW’s is something that could begin
  
  as early as the primary grades and as late as college
  
  composition in the first year.

Conclusion:

It is likely that English teachers reading this lesson plan have their own ideas of a second or third cluster of commonly confused words. I would like to challenge you to develop lessons based on grammar instead of sound.

1. They’re/There/Their is gold in those hills.
2. They’re/There/Their the nicest people I know.
3. I have they’re/there/their papers corrected, but not graded.
4. Your/You’re interior decorating ability is outstanding.
5. Your/You’re going to lose five points for each run-on and fragment in the essay.
6. She is going to/two/too Grandmother’s House.
7. I want some candy from the store to/two/too.
8. Those amplifiers are to/two/too loud for the small club.
9. I have to/two/too eat garlic and hot sauce every day of my life.
10. Its/It’s a wonderful day in the neighborhood.
11. The school needs its/it’s roof fixed.
12. I want to/two/too pets: a mongrel cat and small purebred dog.

1.	There		7.	too
2.	They’re		8.	too
3.	their		9.	to
4.	Your		10.	It’s
5.	You’re		11.	its
6.	to		12.	two

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J.D. Meyer

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