As a child, my family and I tried very hard to settle into this country after such a big change: moving from Venezuela to Long Island. We never seemed to find our place. We moved around many times, each time further out east of the island, until my parents finally bought a house in Farmingville. We moved a total of five times. All throughout grade school, I would settle in a school, and before I knew it, we would be moving again. I think it is safe to say that my worst experience is actually all of those moving experiences put together. Not only was moving to this country and leaving all of our family behind extremely difficult, we were never stable in one place until I finally got to high school. All of the moving around was very traumatizing for me and it caused me a lot of hurt feelings towards my parents because I felt like they didn't care about the way I felt.
Although I had all of these hurt feelings about all of the moving around, I later found out that it was very hard for my mother too. She knew the whole time how much it was hurting my sisters and I to move so many times and she was never able to tell us because she wanted to be strong. On the other hand, it wasn't as hard for my father. He didn't mind being in a new place every couple of years because he was just looking at the money part of it and knew that every move meant saving more money on rent as well as looking for something better for our family.
Vocabulary - Pronouns
I- referring to yourself
We- used to describe yourself and one or more person
they- used to describe a group of people not including yourself
she- used to describe a female
He- used to describe a male
you- used to refer to another person
it- referring to what was just said (as a subject), a place or an object
Vocabulary Activity
Fill out the blanks with the appropriate pronoun.
Linda loves to go out to eat with her family and friends. At least once a week, _____ (referring to Linda) also enjoys getting together with friends and have fun. _______ (referring to Linda and her friends) enjoy singing and dancing together whenever they see each other. _____ (referring to yourself) also enjoy being with friends and having a great time. Whenever I get together with them, ______ (describing yourself and friends) have a night to remember. My friend John does funny impressions of actors while we guess who _______ (referring to John) is imitating and we always laugh a lot. I'm sure if ____ (referring to the reader) were there, you would laugh a lot too. Getting together with friends is very important and so much fun, _______ (getting together with friends) is a must!
Grammar Point
I have used several pronouns in this entry to describe the worst experience of my life. Pronouns are used very often in our writing to make sure we aren't being too repetitive and naming everyone and everything again and again. After the noun or the subject of the sentence is mentioned in the beginning, you can replace that word with the appropriate pronoun to make the sentence sound better. Using the pronouns that we have learned and the ones listed in this entry, write a short paragraph about your worst experience. Try to think of something that you can describe that you can use at least five (5) pronouns.
First, I love the content in your entry- this is something ELL students will be able to relate to and I think it will make students feel much more comfortable being in your class knowing that you all share similar experiences. Second, this is a great way to present pronouns. Some beginner ELLs may have difficulty filling in blanks only because the definitions aren't verbatim to the definitions you provided them with; however, I think your definitions help connect the pronouns to the context and will challenge them to read closely.
ReplyDeleteAshley, thank u so much for your feedback. In regards to the definitions, I actually tried changing them on purpose to give students a diff way to think about it and for them to use the other words in the content just like u said.
ReplyDeleteAna, as I read your post, it brought me back memories of my childhood. I too went through a similar experience. Till this day I always get annoyed when people ask me where I grew up, because I grew up all over Queens! The negative experience only turns into positive because we can relate to those students who go through this and understand their anxieties in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for sharing that, Ana. You are not alone in experiencing frequent moves and upsetting changes in friends and schools. So many immigrants and migrants have that in common with you.
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