Studies show that interleaving helps students learn. This process, known as “interleaving,” requires learning, forgetting, and relearning before our long-term memories register it all as knowledge.
However, according to a new report from the testing group NWEA, progress may have stalled or even reversed since the pandemic began. Significant gaps remain across grades and subjects.
What is an article?
Articles are small words used before nouns and noun equivalents as part of the determiner group, such as nouns and their peers. There are two categories of articles: definite articles, such as the, and indefinite articles, such as a (the).
The definite article serves to distinguish specific nouns. Typically used before proper and collective nouns.
Indefinite articles (a and an) are used to introduce general nouns such as knife or autobiography without knowing or caring which of these nouns they’re talking about. Sometimes, these articles are also used before plural and uncountable nouns (many dogs or some water).
Articles may seem insignificant initially, but they are critical in sentence structure. Papers distinguish whether nouns are specific or general and mark the start of clauses, phrases, and subordinate clauses. Over time and with practice, using articles correctly will become second nature.
What is the definite article?
The definite article (or definitive article, as it’s sometimes known) indicates that a noun is specific. As well as that function, it also serves as a determiner, which means gender and number for that noun. Sometimes, this definite article can be left out altogether; for instance, discussing your job title or office name directly wouldn’t need one (such as in He’s the head of this department).
Some languages require the definite article before specific names, like country names. In French, for instance, la France requires its definite article when speaking of France, while other countries (like America) use l’Amerique instead – though often in America, we omit this rule when discussing countries.
Other languages do not use definite articles with personal names, like Slavic dialects, for instance; English, however, can use references like Tex to add it when necessary: He’s tall but not too short!
Some words, such as lion and chair, possess plural forms without an article attached. However, when used to refer to multiple instances of an item – for example, broken chairs or dangerous lions – an article should always be included with any plural noun reference.
What is the indefinite article?
An indefinite article refers to nouns without providing any other details; for instance, when someone says they’re searching for an apple, they don’t necessarily mean a specific kind; instead, they mean any apple will do.
English uses two indefinite articles – a and an. When prefacing words that begin with consonant sounds, A is used, while when prefacing words starting with vowels such as (a, e, i, o u). Remember that these articles belong with singular countable nouns only!
Spanish offers four indefinite articles – uno, una, unos, and unas – similar to what English uses: one, some, and any.
Like their definite article counterparts, indefinite articles can be used with both masculine and feminine nouns; however, they’re more often applied to male nouns due to how they make sentences flow more smoothly – for instance, “un Aguila” sounds awkward while “unas Aguilas” flows much smoother in pronunciation.
Like English and Spanish, indefinite articles vary depending on the number and gender of nouns following them. A proper noun does not need an indefinite article but may need one added for convenience: Ella lee unos libros
What is the possessive article?
The possessive article is another type of determiner used in English communication to indicate ownership or relationship of something to another. It plays a significant role in creating clear sentences and conveying relationships among people or items.
As with indefinite and definite articles, possessive articles also take on gender and number characteristics of the noun they describe. Thus, both male (il) and feminine pronouns such as lo (feminine) may be used when referring to objects; when discussing male-owned vehicles, however, only masculine pronouns such as monitoring or suo will apply;
Unlike pronouns, possessive adjectives do not use an apostrophe in writing and reading. This can create some confusion among students as they may be used to seeing an apostrophe used with contractions such as it’s/its’, you’re/your’s, and their/theirs; however, in a possessive adjective, the word itself already contains an “s,” therefore negating its use.
Teaching possessive articles should come at its best after students have learned basic English sentences and subject/object pronouns. Utilize multiple choice questions, fill-in-the-blank activities, sentence rewriting exercises, error detection tools, and other activities to help your students master this grammar concept.
