Literacy Question of the Week: Contractions

My kids seem confused by contractions. Should they know these by the first grade? Should I teach them as sight words?

I did some research on this, and it looks like 1st grade is the first time students are exposed to contractions – so by October, they may not have had much practice with them yet. But, if you notice they are consistently struggling with them while reading, it could be a great idea to spend a session or two practicing a small set of commonly used contractions.

Keep in mind that students probably use contractions a lot in verbal speech, but may not recognize them in writing or understand what they are or why we use them. If I were a tutor, I would practice them as “pairs” of phrases + their contractions: do not + don’t, did not + didn’t, have not + haven’t, etc. That way you are reinforcing not just the spelling of contractions, but the root words they come from (and their meaning).

After you’ve introduced a set of 5-6 contractions, playing Memory might work well to practice them. Here is a downloadable template I found. You could also have your students point out contractions in a story as you read, and then see if they can tell you the root words of the contraction.

Literacy Program Team