About this activity
Fourteen contractions shown with their full forms: is not and isn't, can not and can't, will not and won't, did not and didn't, I am and I'm, you are and you're, we will and we'll, she has and she's. Both directions matter — expanding a contraction is a reading skill, and producing one is a speech and writing skill, and students are frequently good at one and not the other.
How to use it in a session
Run both directions in the same session. Give the full form and ask for the contraction, then give the contraction and ask what two words are inside it. Won't is the interesting one and worth naming: it does not follow the pattern, since will not does not become willn't, and a student who is applying the rule will notice. Eight minutes covers the fourteen both ways.
What to listen for
Listen for double negatives appearing when the contraction is expanded. A student who reads he can't go as he can not not go has mis-parsed the contraction rather than the sentence. Watch she's, which is ambiguous — it can be she is or she has — and a student who always expands it one way has a rule that will fail them in reading.
Carrying it home
Contractions dominate ordinary speech, so the practice is in noticing rather than producing. Asking what two words make up don't during a conversation takes a second and needs no materials.
Questions
- What grades is this for?
- First through fourth, covering both the reading and the production side.
- Do I need to sign up?
- No, all fourteen pairs play free in the browser.
- Why is 'won't' irregular?
- It comes from an older form of will, not from the modern one, so it does not follow the pattern the other negatives do. It is worth teaching as an exception rather than trying to make the rule fit it.