Activity: HORRID

HOMOPHONES
Author: Jerry Smith, Soroco Junior
High School, Oak Creek, CO
HORRID HOMOPHONES

• GRADE LEVEL: This activity is appropriate for any sixth

toeighth grade language arts class.

• OVERVIEW: When writing, students at the junior high level

often confuse and misuse words that sound alike but have
different meanings.
• Words pairs such as: your-you're, whose-who's,
there-their, and past-passed, where mistakes are
not evident in speech but are only too evident in
writing!

• This activity is designed to remind students of

the specific meanings and correct usage of some
of these often confused words.
• PURPOSE: This activity forces students to think about the
specific definitions of commonly misused words and to use
them correctly in sentences.

• OBJECTIVE(s): Students will do the following:

1. Learn the correct definitions for a predetermined list of

commonly misused homophones.
2. Use each of the words on the list correctly in a
sentence.
3. Recognize that writing words that sound alike requires
the writer to be careful and more specific than when
speaking.
• RESOURCES: The teacher will need a list of words that
havehomophones and are often misused by students in their

 A list of homophones that might be used.

 Dictionaries should also be available to the students for the

culminating activity.

 Plenty of chalk and erasers will be needed.

 Students will need paper and pencils.

 Activities

1. The teacher will divide the class into groups of about ten
students per group.

2. One student from each group will go to the chalkboard and the
teacher will pronounce one word that has a homonym.

3. Each student at the board will then write a sentence that

contains both forms of the word used correctly in the same
sentence. For example, if the teacher pronounced the word
"threw" or "through," the student might write a sentence such
as the following: "I threw the rock through the window."
4. The teacher should act as scorekeeper and give points to
each team for each correct sentence as the activity
proceeds.

5. The students at the chalkboard should be replaced by new

students after each homophone pair is used until every
student has had a chance to write a sentence at the
chalkboard.

6. The team with the most points is declared the winner.

 Culminating Activities

1. The teacher should end the game by discussing with the

students the ways that the writer has tobe more specific
than the speaker.

2. This discussion can include the reasons for good spelling,

punctuation, grammar, etc.!
3. The teacher might ask the students if they have recently
seen any examples of homophones used incorrectly.

2. 4. There are several things that the teacher can use as

a concluding assignment. The teacher might ask each
group to list as many homophones as they can in a short
period of time. Also, each group might be given a list of
words that have homophones and be asked to find the
homophone for each.
 Link
• http://www.eduref.org/cgi-
bin/printlessons.cgi/Virtual/Lessons/Language
_Arts/Writing/WCP0016.html