#2579. Oscar Grammar

Reading/Writing, level: other
Posted Mon May 13 17:35:59 PDT 2002 by rick lynn (jmayfieldga@aol.com).
Oscar and Oscar Grammar at the bottom
Teacher, Jacksonville, USA
Materials Required: Copies of Oscar or Oscar Grammar- Oh and perhaps some Hershey's Kisses
Activity Time: one, normal reading or English lesson
Concepts Taught: Teaches Reading and Grammar

I designed the story of Oscar as a high interest, low vocabulary lesson to teach reading and grammar. The story, in one page increments for the grammar version, is about a hound dog named Oscar, who sleeps by day but becomes a super hero at night. Both, the story of Oscar and Oscar Grammar, are at the "bottom of my home site" at http://learningtheory.homestead.com/Theory.html
Just bar down to the bottom.

Feel free to make copies.

When I teach Oscar as a grammar lesson for Special ED, I give the students one sheet at a time. If I just gave them the work and told them to complete them, they would simply give a guess to each one and/or perhaps not even read or work on sheets at all. What I find effective for me is to issue one sheet at a time to the students. Then I help each student who has problems with words or meanings (a raised hand). When a student finishes a page, I grade it for accuracy although not with a letter grade. Instead, reward the students who miss one or two, depending on your taste, with a Hershey's Kiss. For those students who do not miss any, I give them two Hershey's Kisses. This enables me to keep my students motivated and focused on the lesson. They really try to get all the answers correct. This also means reading and understanding the words along with the context. Through this and some good one-on-one help, along with a lot of humor and encouragement, my Special ED. students (and some Regular ED. also) learn to improve their reading, comprehension, and enjoyment of learning.