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Grammar. Did you want to fight, fly or freeze?!
As times tables are to mathematics, so is grammar to English. Without times tables, we can’t figure out what 20% off those Peter Alexander PJs is.
As the engine is to your car, so is grammar to English. Without getting under the hood to top up the oil you won't be going anywhere.
Without grammar we can’t speak or write good. (Yes, that should’ve made your toes curl.) But it's boring, and anyway, how do you fit grammar into your already-crammed English programme.
Here's what I do:
'Reframe'
Enjoy teaching in bite-sized chunks. Very little planning required - wee grammar lessons (5 questions/activities on the whiteboard) can be done on the fly.
Enjoy the visual nature of it. Grammar lends itself to:
Annotation - arrows, highlighting etc.
Thumbnails - a smiley-face apostrophe, a stick figure beside a sentence example...
Equations (for the maths buffs) - S + V = C (subject plus verb equals a complete sentence/clause).
Keep it feeling manageable with your own reference book and checklist (see the next two steps below).
Use that psycho-babble trick that really works: Instead of "I have to teach grammar today", say to yourself, "Yay, I get to teach grammar today!" Crazy but it works. Use that when talking to your students too!
Don't think of grammar as an extra; think of it as your subject base - the crux of the thing!
Avoid thinking - compile a reference book
Compile a guide you can refer to with all the grammar points you need in it. Include examples because they speak volumes when your brain is overwhelmed and you'll need them for your students. Think of this as your number one go-to guide. Knowing you have all the information you need in one place is gold.
Write a list. Check it off.
Write a list of the aspects of grammar and the details of each. I lump punctuation in with mine because I want ‘all the things’. Once everything is set out in front of you, you’ll feel clearer and more confident with no worries about what you might be missing. Because it's in a list form, you can tick things off as you teach them to each class. Everybody likes to tick a list!
Use exercise books
I’ll preach getting back to writing in exercise books until I die. I suggest students have two books, one for literature/topic studies, the other for literacy/grammar (nuts and bolts) work. Get students to take notes about grammar and have them format these well. Write the heading on the board, underline it with a red pen and a pretend ruler, then get students to do the same (except they must use a real ruler)! Notes give students something tangible - something to hold and say, "this is what I've learned" and they're something to refer to later for quizzes and discussions.
Catch each other out
Have an ongoing challenge where students catch each other out (and perhaps teachers - now THAT would be fun). The person with the most (correct) catches at the end of the week or term wins a prize. I don't know about you, but just about everything I learned about grammar was thanks to my mum catching me out!
Catch out pop culture/the media
When students see shoddy grammar in a song or on TV, they write it on a slip of paper (with their name on the back) and pop it in the class grammar box. Draw out a piece of paper each week - the winner gets a chocolate. I doubt many students will watch 'The News' but honestly, the number of journalists that can't use amount and number correctly, and don't use collective nouns as singulars...and don't even get me started on that Bene song where she says "...hence why..." repeatedly!
Explicit teaching
Teach grammar explicitly. I’ve done this in three ways over the years:
With short lesson starters.
With regular mini lessons. Half a lesson once a week is dedicated to ‘nuts and bolts’. (I prefer that fun phrase to ‘grammar’, and I can extend to things like mini lessons in figurative language for example.)
By adding a ‘grammar’ question here and there to other activities. Eg: If you're working on setting in your novel study, add a bonus question where students write a compound sentence about how the main character feels there. Get them to highlight their conjunction. Make sure you go over it later, otherwise there's no point!
When I teach a grammar point, because I'm anal retentive (!), I keep track of what I've covered for that class by ticking it off my list. The List, as mentioned earlier, is king (which is why I've produced one for everyone - see the image below)!
Teaching in Context
DO sweat the small stuff because habits are everything. (That's why the challenges/competitions mentioned above are so good.) So:
Catch ‘em while they’re hot as the teacher saying goes. If a grammar point arises in class, make a note on the board and get students to copy it into their books, OR, if you've already covered this point, say, “remember we wrote a note about this. Look back and find it in your book.” This is gold for two reasons: one – the student is actively thinking about, and revising their grammar, and two – the student is learning to use their book and their notes as reference and is seeing the value of good notes.
Mark their books. Another thing I harp on about. I get out my big red pen and wander around the classroom to mark as students work. This gives me the opportunity to explain things to the student at the same time.
Fun tests
I’ve talked about Attainment Goal tests before – a fancy word for ‘success test’ or just ‘fun, cheaty test’! Give the students the test first – 10-20 questions, go over the answers with them, they take it home and rote learn the answers, then in the next week, they sit the same test in test conditions. The catch is that the pass mark is 80%. Why this is so brilliant:
We all know there’s a place for rote learning.
Students succeed. That student that just got 95% in their wee test? Never had a result like that in their life. Suddenly, English is the subject they succeed in. (And yes, we convert to a percentage, then I give students a slip to take home with their mark on it because they’re proud of it and parents love it!)
Homework - mmmmm....
You can give students all the homework activities under the sun to get through grammar but if you’re not going to mark it or pay attention to how your students are going as they self-mark, then it’s not going to be of much benefit...errr, if they even do their homework.
Digital platforms
There are plenty of self-marking digital games and resources out there. They have their place, but I think they should be used as back-up, not as 'the teacher'. Great for reinforcing grammar, and certainly for relief lessons, but we must teach grammar in person.
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