Be honest. Do you ever feel like screaming when your students write the following sentence: “I played baseball (or whatever sport) yesterday. I was tiring.”
T-I-R-I-N-G. No. You were not. You were tirED.
The thing is, the students aren’t the only ones to get this wrong. I have had teachers admit that the whole -ing or -ed vocabulary is confusing and just plain weird. In response to this, I tried to think of what is wrong with how the students are using these different words, and made a bulletin board.
Yes, this will also be in the dropbox under English Boards. There was really one main rule. People use -ed, and things use -ing. Wait, wait, wait. Don’t start yelling at me. I know that’s not the actual rule. I know. I speak English. Sometimes. But it’s a good first rule for our students. Baseball is never tirED. Baseball is a thing. And really, you aren’t tirING… I hope. The thing is, think about what your students are going to be trying to say. MOST of the time, they want to use the adjective with the -ed ending for themselves or their friends.
In this board, I also included a list of potential words the students use and practice sentences. Recently, I added an equation portion. For example, “I am boring. = I am not fun.” and “I am bored. = This class is not fun.” When I have used these equation sentences with students, it seems to help them understand the difference between using -ed and -ing words.
Hopefully you’ll be able to help your students too!
If you have any questions or comments, please write below!
~Becca
