Vocabulogic: Emphasizing the Wee Apostrophe

Heres something for all your childrens’ to enjoy.

Apostrophe comes from Greek, according to Etymology Online:

apostrophe(n.1)
"mark indicating an omitted letter," 1580s, from French apostrophe, from Late Latin apostrophus, from Greek apostrophos (prosoidia) "(the accent of) turning away," thus, a mark showing where a letter has been omitted… In English, the mark often represents loss of -e- in -es, possessive ending. By 18c. it was being extended to all possessives, whether they ever had an -e- or not.

(Thats not boring, is it? Its interesting! Easy peasy!)

Some students struggle mightily with apostrophes in possessives and contractions, etc. Where does that pesky apostrophe go?? Which letter(s) does it replace?? To say nothing of whether or not the word even needs an apostrophe. Mistakes can create misunderstandings, a comprehension glitch. It is common for writers to mistake a plural (boys) for a possessive (the boy's backpack) for a contraction (this boy's so hungry). Writing aside, some readers do not know how to interpret the apostrophe.

To complicate the issue, an apostrophe has multiple uses: In addition to possessives and contractions, an apostrophe goes after a lowercase letter to make it plural. Watch your p’s and q’s. And don’t forget to dot your t’s! See the wise old Owl at Purdue’s writing lab for an interesting backstory on those p’s and q’s.

Note also the use of an apostrophe to hold the place of omitted numbers, as in '60s for 1960s, and the television program That '70s Show.

But the possessives and the contractions are paramount in terms of writing competency. Teachers must be very clear about the apostrophe. They must explicate the whys and the wherefores. That tiny notation has to pop!

To introduce the mark, a teacher might write the boy’s dog on the whiteboard, in large letters, with the apostrophe in a bright color, and say:

"This small mark is called an apostrophe. It can be straight or curved. Listen closely: apostrophe (articulate the four syllables). It looks like a comma, but see where an apostrophe goes in the word — a comma goes at the foot of the word but an apostrophe goes up high. An apostrophe is important, but it’s easy to overlook. Don’t let its size fool you. An apostrophe is powerful — it can change the meaning of an entire sentence.”

The lesson might include pronunciation, spelling, and even etymology tips: "Say apostrophe like this: uh-poss-tro-fee. You say it. (Write apostrophe on the board). “See the word apostrophe. It is a word from faraway Greece, where people speak Greek. Many English words that flow from Greek have the letters ph for /f/, like graphic and phantom. And notice the final e is long, not silent, just like in Aphrodite, the Greek goddess.”

A short little introductory lesson. A start. But not enough. Not even close. I speak from experience. Regardless of whether I was teaching second grade or seventh, I would get sentences that looked like this:

Six teacher's walked to the park. | Six teachers walked…

That teachers really mean to us. | That teacher’s really mean…

Is that the womans car? | The woman’s car?

Contractions

In contractions, some of my middle schoolers did not realize that an apostrophe goes where a letter has been removed.

I would model and say, “A contraction is formed by smashing two words together and leaving out a letter, or maybe a few letters. It’s like there was a little fender-bender among words, and all that’s left of the tailpipe is the apostrophe. Where the letter is missing, we make an apostrophe."

I started with the easier contractions -- those formed with a missing letter o from the word not, including wasn't, didn't, isn't, couldn't, shouldn’t. As we would spell the contraction, we would say a little jingle, "Where the o should be, make an apostrophe!" (My second graders would say it, anyway.)

Still not clear enough for some. This was a tough nut to crack. Of course, some (few) learners had no problem with plurals, possessives, and contractions, grasping the patterns rather quickly. Others struggled mightily with that sign, often skipping past it, unseen or unnoticed. It is rather small. A blot on the page maybe?

Possessives

Readers and writers must comprehend the difference between an apostrophe in a possessive (mom’s keys) and an apostrophe used in a contraction (I’m).

the boy’s dog, the girl’s fish, the cat’s bowl

I might point to the phrases and say, “This time the apostrophe means something different. We did not smash two words together and make a shortened form.This is not a contraction. Instead, we inserted an apostrophe to show belonging. The dog belongs with the boy; the fish belongs to the girl; the bowl belongs to the cat.”

I found that teaching possessives began with oral language and had to include comprehension. First, I had to determine whether or not the student understood what the apostrophe did, how it changed the meaning of the sentence. I might query a student, using a dynamic approach, offering more support and hints as needed.

Say and Show: Mr. Block is bringing the soccer gear. Is that the coach’s car?

First, we might eliminate the notion of a contraction, where coach’s means ‘coach is’, as we see in Mike’s at the store, which can be restated as Mike is at the store. Then we might ensure understanding of coach’s car as the car belongs to the coach, a singular possessive. We might start with known synonyms such as has, belongs to, owns, and move to more advanced terms like possession and possessive. Plural possessive. Singular possessive.

Back to our fender bender analogy, the possessive apostrophe+s might as well be a little traffic sign that says, “Stop! Property of…No tresspassing!”

Craig’s car = “Stop! The car belongs to Craig!”

Be creative. Give the apostrophe a voice. Be more explicit than seems necessary. Lather, rinse, repeat. This stuff is not learned in one lesson. Use a think-aloud process frequently to model your reasoning with ever-more-complex sentences.

PS.

Then there’s whose versus who’s, another common error.

I might write, “Who’s in the shed?” and say, “The apostrophe signals a contracted form of who + is. Who is in the shed?”

Contrast that with “Whose house is that?” This is how we indicate ownership with the pronoun who. We write whose for possessive, not who’s. We cannot write ‘Who’s house is that?’ because the usage who’s is already taken, reserved for a smash up contraction for who is.

And don't even get me started on its versus it’s. It’s a beautiful day. The bird lost its way. Just read the handy Editor’s Manual.