Teachers, if you absolutely dread teaching grammar and try to avoid it at all cost, you aren’t alone. In fact, grammar is the most common complaint I hear when I give workshops for schools or at conferences. Teachers often lament:
“My students never capitalize their sentences.”
“There’s no punctuation anymore. Everything is a run-on.”
“Kids today only use texting lingo.”
“My class still can’t name the parts of speech even though I’ve taught it like a million times already.”
Sound familiar?
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Check out this funny, but apropos quote from the book, Grammar Alive! A Guide for Teachers.
It would be so easy to throw in the towel, and not teach grammar at all. Everyone would be happier, right?
But whether we like it or not, we educators know that grammar skills are crucial. They can be the deciding factor in whether you get into your first-choice college. They also determine if you land that high-paying job. By not teaching our students the ins and outs of grammar, we’d be setting them up for failure.
Okay, so we have to teach grammar, but nothing says we have to teach it the traditional way, right?
In 1936, the Curriculum Commission of the National Council of Teachers of English stated that, “‘all teaching of grammar separate from the manipulation of sentences [should] be discontinued … since every scientific attempt to prove that knowledge of grammar is useful has failed.”
For nearly the past 100 years, teachers have forced their kids to memorize grammar rules. They had to diagram sentences, complete boring worksheets, and engage with daily language drills. This was done despite the research telling us that these methods do not work. The traditional way of teaching grammar actually had negative effects on kids. It did nothing to improve writing abilities.
Sweet Jesus, hallelujah! We have been granted permission to pitch those worksheets and ditch all that. No more good versus bad grammar. No more right versus wrong answers.
So where does that leave us teachers? What does work?
After spending my summer researching best practices in grammar instruction, here are my key takeaways.
Grammar Simply Provides Writers Different Options to Choose From
As a writer myself, I knew this intuitively (sort of) but have never thought of it from a teacher’s perspective. By shifting away from the good/bad, right/wrong narrative, we can acknowledge that language norms are always shifting. Grammar rules change over time.
We shouldn’t focus on teaching rules. Instead, we can teach students that writers choose grammatical structures based on the desired effect on their readers. That’s all grammar is. A bunch of options or tools designed to make your sentences more interesting and ultimately, to manipulate your readers.
Want to speed up the story, or raise the tension? Use short sentences and fragments.
Need to slow down the pace? Try using long, descriptive sentences.
Want to show characterization through dialogue? Code-switch by strategically using dialect, fragments, and word choice.
Want to sound uber professional? Use formal language.
Want to connect with your reader? Chose informal language that sounds like you’re speaking to a friend or loved one.
Embrace Authentic Texts and Relevant Tasks
Grammar can be found everywhere. We don’t need to fabricate anything. Grammar is literally in the stories we read, the shows we watch, and the way we speak. Everywhere you go, grammar is there, hidden in plain sight. All we have to do is help our kids see it. Sounds easy, right? But is it really?
In nearly every book or article I read on the topic, authenticity and relevancy came up again and again. The experts all agreed that kids best learn a grammar skill when it becomes necessary for them to do so. In other words, the grammar skills we teach MUST be directly linked to the writing task at hand. Moreover, kids need to see firsthand how a particular sentence structure can directly impact their writing. They should understand how a punctuation rule can improve the story or article they are trying to write.
Try this. Grab a text your students will be reading this week and skim over it. What interesting grammatical structures did you find? What can you highlight and analyze with your students? Let your kids do all the work and have them name the “rule” or pattern they found. Discuss why the author might have used that particular grammatical structure. Explain why your students might want to try doing the same thing. Think of it as finding “Grammar in the Wild”. I have a great set of grammar bookmarks to help your students search for Grammar in the wild. During this time, I might create an anchor chart and include examples versus non-examples.
Make sense? If not, here’s an example for you. I love writing narrative stories, especially bits of dialogue. Therefore, I require all my 4th and 5th graders to include dialogue in their own short stories. Which means, my very first grammar lesson of the year is how to punctuate dialogue. We all grab books and read a random page that includes dialogue. I let the class try to identify and name the rules for punctuating dialogue.
And when I teach biographies before out big Wax Museum project, we read a ton of biographies. I point out and teach kids how to use apposition as a way to tuck more information into their sentences. Suddenly the grammar skills have a practical application the kids can harness to their own benefit.
The Art of Imitation
Kids still need practice – ungraded, low-stakes practice – with the grammar skills they’re learning. Instead of asking kids to correct “bad sentences”, pull out fabulous “Mentor Sentences” for your class to imitate. They spend time analyzing and discussing what makes this sentence so effective before mimicking it. They need to keep the basic structure. All punctuation should remain unchanged. However, they can change out the words used.
First, let the kids try this orally with a partner. Ask volunteers to share out, reteaching and clarifying the skill as needed. Then move to putting it on paper.
Sentence Combining
Much like completing a puzzle, short phrases and sentences can fit together to create something new. While long sentences can be torn apart and broken down into their essential parts. However, unlike a puzzle, key words and phrases can be assembled in a variety of different ways. Again, there’s no right or wrong way here. Instead, focus on effectiveness. Which sentence did you like better?
While preparing to give a professional development workshop on grammar, I turned to ChatGPT. I asked for 5 simple sentences. What I received back was 5 incredibly complex, long sentences. Clearly I haven’t mastered AI yet, so I decomposed each of those sentences down to their smaller chunks.
You can make sentence combining and sentence building fun by adding a hands-on component. Try making it a relay race challenge, or add a timer to beat. I’ll talk more about that in my next blog post.
Play with Punctuation
I spend much of my writing time teaching kids about comma rules. During our reading fluency drill (something our district dictates we must do), I often have kids speak the punctuation. This comes in handy when you have students who use the speech-to-text feature on their devices. It also helps kids understand that they need to pause when they encounter a comma or period when reading.
Remind your students that punctuation can shape meaning for the reader. Placing a comma in a different location can lead to really funny consequences as is shown in this popular meme:
Heck, it’s even mentioned in the musical, Hamilton:
In a letter I received from you two weeks ago
I noticed a comma in the middle of a phrase
It changed the meaning, did you intend this?
One stroke and you’ve consumed my waking days
It says
“My dearest, Angelica”
With a comma after dearest
You’ve written
“My dearest, Angelica”
Here’s a quick, but very funny video about speaking the punctuation aloud: Victor Borge Phonetic Punctuation. I would embed the video but WordPress isn’t letting me right now.
Final Thoughts
I most certainly do not have all the answers when it comes to teaching grammar. But over my 20+ years in the classroom, I have discovered ways to make grammar more meaningful for my students.
- Kids need ample exposure and frequent practice before they can understand and apply grammar to their own writing.
- Be on the lookout for opportunities to show grammar in action. A couple minutes off and on throughout the day can really add up. Weave grammar instruction in to both reading AND writing time.
- Hands-on grammar practice is less intimidating for kids.
- Allowing kids to communicate and collaborate with peers helps support ALL students.
- Make it play-based fun. Turn grammar practice into a team effort, or into a race, but don’t grade them on it.
If you are interested in making your grammar lessons more fun, check out these grammar resources from my TPT store.
