Developing Knowledge of Contractions

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Defined

A contraction is defined as a special word structure formed by substituting an apostrophe for omitted letters to shorten the word.

Recognized By

The student is unable to pronounce contractions when he encounters them in print.

Discussion

For some students, a part of poor oral reading is the lack of knowledge of contractions. This is usually a minor reading problem. For comprehension and writing purposes, it is also useful to know what two words each contraction stands for and to be able to make contractions from various words.

Assessing Knowledge of Contractions

When testing for a student’s knowledge of contractions, you should show the student the contraction and ask him to pronounce it. If he can pronounce the word, it will suffice for decoding purposes. For example, the student pronounces the word can’t; for decoding purposes, he does not need to know that it means “cannot.” Have the student tell what two words the contraction stands for, so you know if he understands the meaning of the contraction and will be able to recognize it for comprehension purposes and use it in his written work. Refer to the list of 47 common contractions in the box below that are used for testing knowledge of contractions.

Teaching Knowledge of Contractions

In the Recommendations section there are several ideas that can be used to promote knowledge of contractions. It is important to keep in mind that the ability to correctly pronounce a contraction represents adequate decoding, but knowing what the contraction means will promote comprehension of text containing that contraction.

ELL Students and Knowledge of Contractions

The role contractions have in other languages can be very different than how they are used in English. It may be necessary to teach the concept of contractions to some ELL students.

Recommendations

A.  For any contraction not known, write the two words it stands for and then the contraction on the chalkboard. Have students make up sentences using both the contracted and noncontracted form. See the following example.