Where do they go?

Where do they go?

Pencil and paperOnline interactive
Overview
Using this Resource
Connecting to the Curriculum
Working with Students
This task is about choosing the best word for each sentence.

Question 1Change answer

illustration: children in a classroom
The children are sitting onupindown the floor.

Question 1Change answer

girl-in-library-putting-away-books-USE-THIS-ONE.jpg
In a library, put the books onupindown the shelves.
Please do not leave them onupindown the floor.

Question 1Change answer

illustration: shelving with lots of shoes
Please put your shoes onupindown a row.
This helps to keep things tidy.

Question 1Change answer

illustration: place for coats outside classrooms
Hang your coats inupondown the coat hooks.
This helps to keep things tidy too.

Question 1Change answer

illustration: boy on a ladder
The boy is looking inupondown .

Question 1Change answer

illustration: mum, daughter and stairs
They are going inupondown the steps.

Question 1Change answer

Ask a partner to read what you've done.
Does your partner think that your sentences make sense?
Show how you could make them better in the box below.
The children are sitting  the floor.
In a library, put the books  the shelves.
Please do not leave them  the floor.
Please put your shoes  a row.
This helps to keep things tidy.
Hang your coats  the coat hooks.
This helps to keep things tidy too.
The boy is looking  .
They are going  the steps.
Task administration: 
This task can be completed online only and has auto marking displayed to students. Students can work independently or in pairs on this task.
 
Before students begin this task, you could do a similar activity orally with the whole class or a smaller group. Get students to talk about where an object or person is, by asking questions, such as "Where is the book?", or "Where are you?". The location of the object or person can be changed. In pairs, students could ask each other similar questions.
 
Ideally, this task would lead to students exploring other prepositions that identify location, e.g., under, between, over. See the Next steps section under the tab Working with Students. 
 
While this task builds keyboard experience, especially in the use of drop-boxes, it is wise to teach keyboard skills separately from an activity that has a different learning focus. There are tutorials for learning keyboard skills, for example, http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z3c6tfr#z34thyc . To use this you need to have Flash installed. Be aware, however, that while the position of the letters on UK keyboards may be the same as our US keyboards, there may be some differences in the symbols used. It is important that students practise on the device they will be using as, for instance, there are differences between using ipads and laptops.
 
Copyright: 
Images purchased from Dreamstime.
Levels:
1, 2
Curriculum info: 
English, Creating meaning, Writing
Keywords: 
parts of speech, prepositions, vocabulary, grammar use
Description of task: 
The focus of this resource is on selecting prepositions appropriate to the context.
Curriculum Links: 
Links to the Literacy Learning Progressions for Writing
This resource helps to identify students’ ability to
  • generate content that is relevant to the task
  • demonstrate knowledge of how language works
as described in the Literacy Learning Progressions for Writing at:http://www.literacyprogressions.tki.org.nz/The-Structure-of-the-Progressions.
Learning Progression Frameworks
This resource can provide evidence of learning associated with
Writing meaningful text: vocabulary knowledge, sets 1-2
Writing meaningful text: vocabulary knowledge, sets 2-3
within the Writing Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Read more about the Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Teaching and learning: 
 
 
Diagnostic and formative information: 
This resource was piloted and trialled with groups of Year 3 and 4 students.
  • A quarter of the students consistently used prepositions appropriately. Just over half of the students used prepositions appropriately in all instances except one. This means that about a quarter got more than one preposition incorrect.
  • About 40% of the students used the preposition "in" when the conventional use in the context is "on", i.e., "In the library, put the books on the shelves".
  • About 15% of the students chose "up" for the sentence "Hang your coats __ the coat hooks". This would have been correct if the sentence had read "Hang your coats __". However, when a location follows, i.e., "the coat hooks", the convention changes to "on".
Next steps: 
Using prepositions appropriately
 
Use "in", "at", and "on" for indicating location:
 
The general rule is to use "in" for an enclosed space, "at" for a point, and "on" for a surface. 
  • Use "in" for spaces, for example, "We live in an apartment building"; "We are in the classroom."
  • Use "in" for names of specific land areas, for example, "The building is in a busy area in Wellington."
  • Use "in" for bodies of water, for example, "We paddled in the stream."
  • Use "in" for lines, for example, "The students lined up in a row."
 
  • Use "at" to indicate points, for example, "We're waiting at the front of the building."
  • Use "at" for specific addresses, for example, "We live at 21 High Street."; "They are at the library."
 
  • Use "on" for surfaces, for example, "Put the dinner on the table"; "Our apartment building is on High Street."
  • Use "on" in these contexts: "We are on the bus/train/boat/plane."
 
Note that "in", "at", and "on" are some of the prepositions that can also indicate time. Other prepositions indicate movement and direction, as in the last two drop-down screens of this resource.
 
For a Level 1 maths resource that has a focus on everyday positional language, e.g., next to, above, under, see Toy shelf.