Grammar, Grammar, Grammar

It's the seven-letter word separating the men from the boys.  It's the secret language English teachers speak only to fall on deaf ears.  It's the difference between, "Let's eat, Grandma!" and "Let's eat Grandma!" (Poor Grandma!)  Now, while I don't claim to be an expert, I have studied more and more on the subject of grammar, and I try to pass along this knowledge to my students.  Lately, I've noticed a decline in the amount of time we, as teachers, spend on the topic.  Essay after essay, I try to mark their papers - not in RED ink, of course - for the errors I find.  I always get questions during the dreaded essay return day, but my explanations carry ZERO instruction.  There are many schools of thought on how to effectively teach grammar.  Some say that it must be relevant to student writing; I must use student samples to illustrate grammar concepts.  Others teach it like math: examples, examples, examples.  With the advent of technology, I've chosen to unite the division.  

Enter: iPad.

The basic component necessary for understanding grammar is the understanding of the parts of speech.  It is amazing to see how many students cannot recognize a noun or a verb.  Rather than having students look at random sentences, I had students CREATE nouns and verbs.  This wasn't the case with nouns, however.  Those were already created.  Verbs, though, took a little more work.  Here's what students "created" and labeled:

 

Verb:  Working

Verb:  Hiding

 

Nouns:  clock, door, student

Verbs:  sharing, helping

There are many more pictures out there,  but I think you get the idea.  I think EXPERIENCING the parts of speech is much more useful that reading random sentences.  

Next up: Students are creating Grammar manuals to refer to throughout the year.  We'll include nouns, verbs, and prepositions in our first draft of it, and we'll add more as we get to more complicated rules.  Stay tuned!