I love grammar. But convincing my students to love grammar sometimes feels like trying to convince a bobcat to enjoy a nice, relaxing ice bath.
Itâs true that students are more likely to be engaged in the learning process if youâre excited about the content, but Iâve noticed that students will stay engaged if theyâre participating in a way that leaves room for creativity, choice or snort-inducing laughter.
Here are some ways to put a little grammar fun into your routine!
1) Build grammar practice into fun writing assignments.
My most recent assignment for students to practice comma usage was to choose between writing a letter using one of the following points of view: an old curmudgeon complaining to city hall about a completely trivial issue, a teenager writing to their* celebrity crush, or an alien writing back to their alien friends after visiting Earth. (Trust me, they got into it.)
2) Make funny examples or practice sentences.
I think it is totally worth the effort to write your own practice sentences for grammar. Sometimes if Iâm on top of things enough to be working on lesson plans in advance, I call a rotating list of students over to my computer to ask if theyâre willing to be featured in my practice worksheets and to check if what Iâve written about them is OK. These sentences create record-high student engagement for modeling and independent practice because every single student is listening to hear whoâs next. The sentences also contribute to a really fun (albeit cackle-y) classroom environment.
Here are some examples of what Iâm talking about:
I love my pretzels so much said jose I often sing lullabies to them
in her spare time stella enjoys throwing flaming donuts into the gulf of mexico
rachel won the race against usain bolt after tying his shoelaces together (bad sportsmanship, rachel)
3) Make a bulletin board or anchor chart called âWhy Grammar Mattersâ and have students contribute.
They can bring funny or surprising pictures of misspellings, omitted punctuation or other grammar errors from real life or the internet. Hereâs one to get you started:
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4) Have âstory timeâ with this book one day.
You would be shocked at how psyched secondary kids would be to sit cross-legged on the floor to listen to a story.
5) Play Reviewsical Chairs with grammar concepts youâve been learning.
I. Love. Reviewsical. Chairs. Itâs the same as normal musical chairs, but the last person left gets to challenge a student who is seated to a showdown. The showdown consists of you asking a grammar question of some kind to the two studentsâit can be an incorrect sentence projected on the board, a sentence spoken verbally that they have to write with correct punctuationâand the first student to answer âwinsâ the chair. The game is crazy-fun, and students get so excited to play it that I now have to give a safety talk to students prior to every time we play.
6) Dress up as grammar.
This could be a thing that you do as the teacher for Halloween or a random Friday, but I think it would be fun to figure out a way for students to participate too. Consider acting out or dressing up as the following:
Dependent clause: A Santa who goes around asking everyone if they can give him a ride, loan him $20, make him a sandwich, etc.
Possessive pronoun: Wears a shirt that says âMINEâ and goes around stealing othersâ pencils and belongings (eventually gives them back).
Dangling preposition: Walks around with a fishing rod that has âcaughtâ a piece of paper with a preposition written on it.
Part of speech: Has a sign around neck that says âSPEE.â (Get it?)
What are your favorite ways to teach grammar?
Love, Teach teaches secondary English and writes about it at loveteachblog.com. You can follow her on Facebook or on Twitter, where you are highly encouraged to tag her in a picture of you dressed up as one of her grammar examples.
*Iâm intentionally using âtheyâ as a singular pronoun in this post because the AP Stylebook said I could. I love grammar!
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