15 Tips and Tools for Teaching GrammarBy Kristen Hicks on November 26,

2015@atxcopywriter

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Who doesnt love grammar? Well, most people as it turns out. The subject is
often regarded as tedious by students, if not also by many teachers. Learning a
set of rules that should govern the language you already thought you knew can
be frustrating work.

Some of that comes from the subject itself, but some if it has to do with how
grammar has been traditionally taught. Memorizing parts of speech and the
proper rules for using each one just isnt the most fascinating of tasks.

Mind mapping game

rewrite: http://www.edudemic.com/grammar-mind-map/

Educators are nothing if not creative though, and some have been working to
find more innovative, entertaining, and effective ways to teach grammar to
students. Here are a few ideas and resources that can help you make one of the
most dreaded classroom subjects one that students actually look forward to.

Grammar Teaching Techniques to Try

1) Grammar Mind Maps

Grammar mind maps can make your grammar lessons more visual. The goal of
grammar mind maps is to appeal to both the left and right sides of your brain
and hopefully thus enable students to learn concepts more successfully. The
website GrammarMindMaps.com has a number of great examples you can
employ. Just take a look at this one that explores the present simple tense as one
example its got colors, fun images, and examples of the different forms of the
tense.

2) Writing Assignments

An article in the Atlantic last year made the point that sentence diagrams and
memorization arent helping students learn in the way we want them to. Instead,
the writer made the case for teaching grammar through more active writing
assignments. Let students write first, and then use their writing as examples for
focused grammar instruction. Authentic practice is a more powerful tool for
learning effectively than any other.

3) X-Word Grammar

This editing technique came recommended by one of our loyal readers. Its
meant to help students learn grammar rules as they go (so it works well in
conjunction with #2). The idea behind it is that our language has a number of
key terms (the x words) that play an especially important role in understanding
the grammar in any sentence. By focusing on the x-words and the part they play
in each sentence, you can come to better understand sentence structure and the
relationships between parts of speech.

4) Use Existing (Fun) Text

Analyzing sentence structure can become immediately more entertaining if you

start with sentences that students have a reason to care about. You could take a
clip from a popular TV show, childrens book, or even comic book and pull out
sentences for your students to analyze. Grammar will be a little more
entertaining for your students if they get to talk about the Avengers or Dora the
Explorer in the process.

5) Physical Games

Why not bring a more playful physical component into your grammar lesson?
Over at Busy Teacher, they recommend gathering your students into a circle for
a parts-of-speech challenge. Throw a beanbag toward a student chosen at
random and name a part-of-speech that they must provide an example of. If they
get it right, they stay in the game. If they get it wrong they leave the circle until
the next game.

Education World recommends a game of verb/adverb charades, which is just

what it sounds like. Students have two stacks cards with verbs and adverbs and
choose one of each. Then they act out what the two words together mean while
other students guess. These are just a couple of starter ideas, but with a little
creative thinking you can probably come up with more.

Online Grammar Games

6) Sheppard Software

With games like Verbs in Space and Comma Chameleon, Sheppard Software
combines fun scenarios with grammar lessons. All of the games are free, but
theres an ad-free version of the website you can pay for.

7) ESL Games Plus

As the name suggests, ESL Games + is mostly targeted at students learning

English as a second language, but some of the games help with grammar
concepts useful to any student. Sentence Monkey, in particular, can help
students learn different parts of speech in a playful context.

8) Maggies Earth Adventures

Maggies Earth Adventures is a set of games provided by Scholastic that explore

different subject areas. You can choose from five games focused on grammar
that touch on subjects like prefixes and suffixes, nouns and verbs, and
punctuation.

9) Skillswise

This resource from the BBC claims to cover English and Math for Adults. so is
more appropriate for older students. Not all of the games are focused on
grammar, but many challenge the player to spot punctuation errors.

10) English Media Labs

English Media Labs provides games and other interactive activities that teach
kids about a long list of grammatical lessons, including tenses, adjectives and
adverbs, and prepositions and conjunctions.

Grammar Apps for Kids (and Teachers)

11) Grammar Police

The Grammar Police app drops different parts of speech into a police chase
scenario that will keep kids entertained while teaching them about sentence
structure. It was designed by English teachers and is available on iOS devices for
$0.99.

12)Grammar Jammers

Grammar Jammers uses catchy songs, animation, and quizzes to give students
lessons in the parts of speech. You can find a free version in the Apple store for
iOS, as well as versions more focused on elementary and middle school
specifically for $2.99.

13) Jumbled Sentences

Jumbled Sentences is an app in nine parts available for iOS for free and Android
for $0.99. It gives students a group of words to start with, and has them put the
words in order into a sentence.

14) Grammar Wonderland

Grammar Wonderland is an app provided by McGraw-Hill Education that allows

students to play as a character moving through different settings that advances
by succeeding at grammar activities. Its available for $2.99 in both elementary
and primary versions for iOS, and for free in elementary and primary versions on
Android.

15) Grammar Games

The Grammar Games app provides two games, Flight Take Off and Flight
Landing, that cover a number of grammatical concepts, along with illustrated
tutorials students can view. Its available on iOS for $1.99.

In Sum

Weve just covered the tip of the iceberg here. If youre interested in exploring
more techniques, games, and apps that teach grammar in new ways, you can
easily find far more options out there on the web. Nows a great time to be a
grammar student (and teacher).
Editors note: This piece was originally written by Katie Lepi and ran on
November 24, 2013. A lot has changed since then, so weve had author Kristen
Hicks update this piece with the latest techniques and innovations.