ELED 412-ELAR Content Area-Homophones: What are Homophones

Homophones are words that have exactly the same sound (pronunciation) but different meanings and (usually) spelling.

For example, the following two words have the same sound, but different meanings and spelling:
hour
our
In the next example, the two words have the same sound and spelling, but different meanings:
bear (the animal) bear (to carry)

For my content area presentation, I choose to focus on homophones. I found that when working with students in the classroom, that were having trouble understanding how a word could sound the same but had a different meaning and spelling. As a visual reminder, Homophone posters were placed around the room so that students could refer back to them as they needed.What a difference the visual made in the student's understanding!

Interactive Websites

I have listed links to some great sites that introduce Homophones, that students could visit to reinforce the concept and practice their Homophone skills.
Homophones to Music

This fun video from PBS' Between the Lions has singer-songwriter Brian McKnight and Cleo Lion singing about "a very unusual H word homophones.

http://pbskids.org/lions/videos/?pid=jlxn0UPSPVhu8rltZelQOprWACkv_V5W

Homophone Memory

This concentration-style memory game requires you to match homophones, using text instead of the usual identical pictures. For example, "hair" is a match for "hare" and "scene" is a match for "seen." Because the game scrambles with each restart, it can be played multiple times.

http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/adventure/grammar5.htm

Homophone Jeopardy

Interactive Jeopardy game that allows 2 players to show what they know about Homophones.

http://www.gamequarium.org/dir/Readquarium/Vocabulary/Homophones/