Captain Ahab's Weird Wide World: Ollie the Sauropod

Learning intention: 

I am learning to recognise both grammatically accurate and inaccurate usage of the apostrophe so that I can develop my knowledge surrounding apostrophe use.  

Success criteria:

• I can identify examples in a text of apostrophes being used for contractions.  
• I can identify both grammatically accurate and grammatically inaccurate uses of apostrophes.  
• I can explain why apostrophes have been used accurately or inaccurately.  

Read Captain Ahab’s Weird Wide World: Ollie the Sauropod. Identify where apostrophes have been used in the text. Discuss each example, ensuring students correctly identify why the apostrophes have been used. Examples include: 

• Ahab’s (explain to students that in this example the apostrophe is used to show possession, that the weird wide world belongs to Ahab) 
• wasn’t (contraction of was not) 
• that’s (contraction of that is) 
• Ollie’s (explain to students that in this example the apostrophe is used to show possession, that the length refers to Ollie) 

Read page 22 and 23 of Hey, What’s Up? Giraffes! Identify further examples of words that feature apostrophes and again discuss why each of the apostrophes have been used. Sample responses include,  

• that’s (contraction of that is) 
• it’s (contraction of it is) 
• don’t (contraction of do not) 
• giraffe’s (explain to students that in this example the apostrophe is used to show possession, that the tongue belongs to the giraffe) 
• you’ll (contraction of you will) 
• what’s (contraction of what is) 

View the webpage, 10 Ways You’re Still Using Apostrophes Wrong, from Reader’s Digest. Discuss why each example is an incorrect use of the apostrophe. Inform students that although the webpage states that apostrophes should not be used for contractions it is referring to writing formally and that this doesn’t apply to the usage in Captain Ahab’s Weird Wide World: Ollie the Sauropod.  

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Inform students that they will working to identify both grammatically accurate and grammatically inaccurate uses of apostrophes. Display the following statements: 

• It’s height is impressive, at nearly ten metres.  
• I can’t find my left shoes this morning.  
• We do’nt need to go to the library until after class.  
• There were six dogs’ in the dog park.  
• The girl’s were late for school.  
• I won’t need a ride to school today as I’m planning to walk.  
• The cars’ lined up to enter the car park.  

Place students in small groups. Inform them that for each example they will need to decide whether in each example the apostrophe has been used accurately or not. Tell students that they will need to justify their ideas. Students should use their workbooks or paper to note down the grammatically accurate way each of the inaccurate sentences should be written. Sample responses have been provided:  

• It’s height is impressive, at nearly ten metres. (inaccurate – in this example its is a pronoun rather than a contraction. This should be rewritten as: Its) 
• I can’t find my left shoes this morning. (accurate) 
• We do’nt need to go to the library until after class. (inaccurate – the apostrophe is in an incorrect position, it should be don’t) 
• There were six dogs’ in the dog park. (inaccurate – no need for an apostrophe for plurals unless they are possessive, it should be dogs) 
• The girl’s were late for school. (inaccurate – no need for an apostrophe for plurals unless they are possessive, it should be girls) 
• I won’t need a ride to school today as I’m planning to walk. (accurate) 
• The cars’ lined up to enter the car park. (inaccurate – no need for an apostrophe for plurals unless they are possessive, it should be cars)