When it comes to teaching grammar, the research is clear. Drill and kill is not what we’re looking for. You don’t want to march through a series of grammar lessons unrelated to your students’ writing and reading.
Here’s what NCTE’s “Resolution on Grammar Exercises to Teach Speaking and Writing” has to say about it:
“This resolution was prompted by the continuing use of repetitive grammar drills and exercises in the teaching of English in many schools. Proposers pointed out that ample evidence from 50 years of research has shown the teaching of grammar in isolation does not lead to improvement in students’ speaking and writing, and that in fact, it hinders development of students’ oral and written language. Be it therefore resolved, that the National Council of Teachers of English affirm the position that the use of isolated grammar and usage exercises not supported by theory and research is a deterrent to the improvement of students’ speaking and writing and that, in order to improve both of these, class time at all levels must be devoted to opportunities for meaningful listening, speaking, reading, and writing; and that NCTE urge the discontinuance of testing practices that encourage the teaching of grammar rather than English language arts instruction.”
So how can we teach students about writer’s craft moves, and the rich palette of options that grammar provides them in making meaning?
Well, that’s our subject for today’s “Plan my Lesson” episode. I received several requests for lessons to make grammar more fun, so today we’re talking about ideas for making grammar moments more effective AND more interesting when it comes to lesson planning. You won’t find any multiple choice here, but you will find ideas you could try weaving into your lessons regardless of where your students are in their writing journey.
Start with your Agenda on the Board and Ask your Attendance Question
You know the deal! Cut down on questions during the lesson and build community with this easily repeatable routine.
Begin with Mentor Texts
For today’s lesson, we’re going to imagine that you’ve noticed many of your student writers are using a very similar style of short, declarative sentences. The sentences take on a monotonous quality when connected into paragraphs, and you’d like to see them expand their options. So your goal is to help them learn about the writer’s craft move of playing their sentences like music, making meaning with long notes and short ones, medium ones and bursts of percussion.
Enter, mentor texts. What better way to showcase all the different ways sentences can make their mark in a story?
You could pull mentors from your current class text, recent book clubs, the day’s First Chapter Friday selection, your choice reading library, or just favorite authors that come to mind when you think of the strategy you’re focused on.
Maybe you want to show some of Hemingways’s spare lines because you love them (oh wait, or is that just me) or you want to showcase Faulkner’s 1000+ word sentence from Absolom, Absolom.
Whatever and whichever you choose, let students see just how many different ways there are to write a sentence.
Deborah Dean, author of What Works in Grammar Instruction, suggests showing students mentor examples and discussing what they notice before you even give the craft move you’re sharing a name.
So you might want to just share some slides, or a handout with mentor examples on it, and ask students to chat with partners about what they notice.
Build in Direct Instruction
Now, this next part depends on your students.
Maybe your A.P. Lang students simply need to see mentors and be reminded of the concept of changing their sentence structure to highlight their meaning and make their writing stronger, and then they’re ready to put it into practice in their writing. In which case you might substitute a little creative writing practice with the strategy for your direct instruction, like trying a shaped story activity or challenging students to write a single sentence in 10 different ways.
Maybe your seventh graders need concrete examples of how to turn a simple sentence into something more. You might need a mini lesson on types of sentences, like how to go from a simple sentence to a compound or complex sentence. (This game I made for The Lighthouse doubles as a mini-lesson and a silly game).
Depending on what your students need, help them to have confident access the craft move so that they are ready to try it out in the next part of the lesson, when they apply it to a piece of writing they’re working on in your class.
Applying the Strategy
Now students have seen the strategy in mentor texts, learned more about it or practiced it in a creative way, and they’re ready to apply it into their current writing.
This is a great time to pull out some of their most current class writing, whether it’s a creative piece, an informational piece, an argument piece, a journal entry, etc. and apply what they’ve learned.
Challenge them to rewrite a paragraph using more variety in their sentences.
Or ask them to choose one sentence in each paragraph to change dramatically, intentionally, to make it more powerful in the context of the sentences around it.
And the next time they write for you, include a reminder of this craft move, and others you’ve explored, to help them remember to use it.
If you have Time
If you still have time, and you’re running a choice reading program, this could be a fun time for your writing program and your reading program to intersect again. Let students read their books for the last ten minutes of class, but invite them to be on the lookout for one amazing sentence as they read. For their exit ticket, they can pop that one amazing sentence up on a post-it on the wall, helping to create a collage of even more mentors from even more varied sources for everyone to see in the coming days as you help students keep their new strategy top of mind in their writing.
Teaching Takeaways
The biggest takeaway here might be that NCTE statement on teaching grammar. It’s so tempting to blast through a bunch of grammar in an isolated way, just to check off the boxes. But approaching specific craft moves you want your students to use in their writing, focusing on what you notice in texts that your writers can learn from, or helping them shore up places where errors keep happening that they can then directly apply back to their writing is going to be more helpful.
There’s also some gamification at play here, if you can find a way to make your mini-lessons a challenge, a game, or a creative writing activity that helps students push out of their usual patterns. I love the idea of giving shaped story templates here, for practicing sentence structure. As a writer, I really have to remind myself to change the shape of my sentences, and this little template can be a fun version of that reminder in a practice session.
