Six Musts For Teaching Grammar
SIX MUSTS FOR TEACHING GRAMMARKnowing grammar can improve our ability to think analytically and communicateconfidently and effectively.It can also help us understand the language that shapes our world and our personalidentities.Grammar matters, and I’m so happy that you’re here learning more about how to sharethis important subject with your students!I hope that these six musts for teaching grammar help make it an easier and moreenjoyable subject for you to teach. Here we go!SIX MUSTS FOR TEACHING GRAMMAR www.GrammarRevolution.com2
#1 MOTIVATE THEMNo matter what subject you teach, motivation matters!Tips For Motivating Younger Students (Middle School Students & Younger)If you’re trying to motivate younger students, short and sweet is the way to go. In fact, Isuggest that you don’t even explicitly motivate them before you start teaching. Instead,motivate them through the teaching itself.This is done by teaching clear, understandable, and engaging lessons - with a smile ifyou can manage it. J If students “get it,” they feel validated and they’re motivated tocontinue.Teaching with sentence diagrams is helpful for this younger group because learning todiagram is like learning a game. (This is discussed more in #6.) Most children have anatural interest in learning to diagram sentences because it’s so much like doingpuzzles.One other way to motivate this group is by encouraging them to share what they arelearning with adults. Have you noticed that younger students love to correct adults andteach them something they didn’t already know? Students find this very motivating. (Andmany of us adults find this very annoying!) However, use their interest to youradvantage. As you teach, encourage students to “share” what they are learning withtheir parents or other adults. (Mom, do you know the subject of this sentence? I canshow you how to diagram it.)Tips For Motivating Older Students & Adults (High School Students & Older)Getting older students motivated can be a longer process if you’d like it to be. You canengage them in a discussion of whether or not grammar matters and why. Here are twomore specific ideas to help your discussion. Older students are closer to the “real world” than younger students, and theyhave more of an interest in their future careers because of that. You could have adiscussion about grammar as it relates to job prospects. Search online for “KyleWiens grammar,” and you’ll find the article “I Won’t Hire People Who Use PoorGrammar. Here’s Why.” This article is a good way to spark a discussion. Many dating sites have found that bad grammar is a deal-breaker for almost 50%of users! If you’re teaching older students or adults, this might be a good way tomotivate them since most people care about finding a potential mate. Searchonline for “grammar and dating,” and you’ll find many articles that could helpspark a discussion.If you’re uncomfortable facilitating these kinds of discussions, students can also becomemotivated by your clear and enthusiastic teaching. So, don’t feel like you must have oneof these discussions before you get started. You could also just briefly mention thesefacts and then start your lessons.SIX MUSTS FOR TEACHING GRAMMAR www.GrammarRevolution.com3
If you want to do that, here’s a script that you could use.The way you present yourself to the world matters. Whether we like it or not, peoplejudge us based on our writing and speaking. Many employers look at a candidate’sgrammar as a reflection of their ability to perform a job well and grammar even mattersin the dating world. Many online dating sites have found that poor grammar is a dealbreaker for about half of users. Whether or not you agree with people making thesejudgments, I want to prepare you for success in the world, so we’re going to startlearning grammar. Then, you can present yourself to the world in the best light possible,and I will have done my job.After you say that, get started with your teaching!SIX MUSTS FOR TEACHING GRAMMAR www.GrammarRevolution.com4
#2 START FROM THE BEGINNINGThis one is really important. In fact, teachers breaking this rule usually do more harmthan good.You need to make sure your students have a solid understanding of the basics beforeyou move to more abstract concepts.You might teach all of the right things to your students, but if you don’t do it in the rightorder, none of that matters. In fact, it’s a recipe for disaster.If you needed to drive somewhere that you had never been before, you would probablyhop in the car and use your phone's navigational system to give you step-by-stepdirections from wherever you started to wherever you wanted to go.You would expect your phone to give you, not only the right directions, but the rightdirections in the right order.But what if it gave you all of the right directions in the wrong order? That would be lessthan useless. You would have spent time and energy driving, but you wouldn't end upanywhere near your destination. You would be tired and frustrated, and you would go tothe nearest Dairy Queen to drown your sorrows in a large chocolate milkshake.You would probably also blame your phone for giving you the wrong information.However, it didn't give you the wrong information. It gave you all of the right informationin the wrong order.We all know that for directions to make any sense, they need to be given in a particularorder. Well, the same thing is true for learning grammar. It makes sense when it's taughtin a certain order, and it can be very confusing when it’s taught in a haphazard manner.Here is a guide you can use for structuring your lessons. It outlines the order of conceptswe cover in one of our courses. (This is from our Get Smart Grammar Program.)LessonTopics CoveredExample Sentence1Subjects, Verbs, SentencesRex barks.2Verb Phrases, Helping VerbsRex will bark.3Questions (Interrogative Sentences)Will Rex bark?4Review: Subjects (Nouns), Verbs,Parts of SpeechReview Sentences & Quiz 1SIX MUSTS FOR TEACHING GRAMMAR www.GrammarRevolution.com5
5Pronouns &Commands (Imperative Sentences)He barks.Go.6AdjectivesCrazy Rex barks.7AdverbsHe howled loudly.8Review: Subjects, Verb Phrases, Adjectives,AdverbsReview Sentences & Quiz 29Prepositional Phrases (Adjective)The girl with the blueshirt smiled.10Prepositional Phrases (Adverb)The boy ran across the field.Walk across the room.11Review: Prepositional PhrasesThe dog with the loud bark ran into thehouse.Review Sentences & Quiz 3(Adjective & Adverb)12Transitive Active VerbsDirect Objects (Noun Job)We won the game.13Coordinating Conjunctions(Compound Subject & Verb)Maria and Martha sat and thought.14Coordinating Conjunctions(Compound Adjectives & Adverbs)The black and white dog ranquickly and quietly.15Coordinating Conjunctions(Compound Verb & Prepositional Phrases)Maria will sit and wait.I ran across the fieldand over the hill.16Coordinating Conjunctions(Compound Sentences)I will teach, and youwill learn.17Review: Subjects, Verbs, Adjectives,Adverbs, Prepositions, CoordinatingConjunctions, Correlative ConjunctionsReview Sentences & Quiz 4Maria and Martha sat.SIX MUSTS FOR TEACHING GRAMMAR www.GrammarRevolution.com6
18Transitive Active VerbsIndirect Objects (Noun Job)Mrs. Jacobson taught the class history.19Interjections & Nouns of Direct AddressWow, we won!Elizabeth, we won.20Review: Intransitive Complete Verbs vs.Transitive Active Verbs,Subjects, Verbs, Adjectives Review Sentences & Quiz 521Transitive Passive VerbsThe ball was kicked by Jack.22Linking Verbs - Predicate Adjectives &Predicate Nouns23Linking Verb or Action Verb?Maria tasted the soup.The soup tasted salty.24Review: Verb Types & MoreReview Sentences & Quiz 625Review of Noun Jobs: Subject, Direct Object,Indirect Object, Object of the Preposition,Predicate NounJohn baked Gerry andTom a cake.Tom ate the cake with glee.John is a baker.26Independent Clauses vs. Dependent Clauses- Adverb ClausesThe kittens ran home afterthey lost their mittens.27Dependent Clauses – Noun ClausesI knew the studentswould learn.28Review: Subordinating Conjunctions,Dependent Clauses (Noun & Adverb), VerbTypes & MoreReview Sentences & Quiz 729Dependent Clauses – Adjective ClausesThe scarf that I want is black.30Review: Dependent Clauses (Adverb, Noun,Adjective), Verb Types & MoreReview Sentences & Quiz 8SIX MUSTS FOR TEACHING GRAMMARThe soup tastes salty.Mr. Black became a teacher. www.GrammarRevolution.com7
31GerundsPainting is fun.32Gerund PhrasesPainting pictures is fun.33ParticiplesHe ate the burnt toast.34Participial PhrasesThe shoe filled with mudwas heavy.35InfinitiveI want to run.36Infinitive PhrasesI want to run the race.37Review: Everything!Review Sentences & Quiz 938Bonus! Excerpts from Stay Smart : 188Advanced Sentence Diagramming ExercisesEverything!SIX MUSTS FOR TEACHING GRAMMAR www.GrammarRevolution.com8
#3 BE PREPAREDIt's a bad feeling to be standing in front of a class lecturing about a topic that you havevery little understanding of. Learn the content ahead of time so that you can confidentlyteach your students.This is easier said than done when it comes to grammar because, although manyteachers know that grammar is important to teach, they themselves don’t knowgrammar. If that’s you, don’t worry.The trick is to remember that you don't need to know everything at once. Focus only onthe content in the lesson you're giving that day. And don’t go overboard. You don’t needto read every book chapter and blog post about each topic. Just prepare enough so thatyou feel confident about the limited topic that you’re teaching that day.If you teach in the right order and you start from the beginning, you never have to do abunch of scrambling because you yourself have already taught your students thesupporting material for each new concept.For example, if you’re teaching in the right order, you would teach adjectives andadverbs before you teach prepositions. This is because prepositional phrases act asadjective and adverbs. However, if you try to cover prepositions before you coveradjectives and adverbs, you’ll be scrambling to prepare, and your students will beconfused!Here’s a more obvious example. You would be sure to cover adjectives, subjects, verbs,and clauses before you covered dependent adjective clauses. If you did this, you (andyour students) would know the background information you needed in order tounderstand dependent adjective clauses.The only thing you would need to prepare and understand ahead of time would be theconcept of dependent adjective clauses.happy adjectivewho looked happy dependent adjective clauseHowever, if you tried to cover dependent adjective clauses before you covered all of thebackground information, you would have a lot to look up. Not only would that hard foryou, but that wouldn’t bode well for your students either.Remember that if it’s hard for you to prepare, it will probably be hard for them tounderstand. (Why? It means that some foundational knowledge for the new concept wasprobably missing from prior lessons.)SIX MUSTS FOR TEACHING GRAMMAR www.GrammarRevolution.com9
#4 DON’T FAKE ITNewsflash: You don’t need to know everything.It’s easy to feel like we, as teachers, should have immediate answers to all of ourstudents’ questions. We’re scared that telling students we don’t know the answer willsomehow make us less credible to them (and to our colleagues).But knowing all of the answers isn’t practical. Most subjects are wide and deep, and itwould take years to become a true expert in them. And, contrary to what your instinctsmight tell you, admitting that you don’t know something can show others that you haveconfidence in yourself and your ability to learn new things (because I’ll bet that you’ll lookup the answer later that day).You don’t need to be an expert. If grammar is new to you, focus on understanding theconcepts that you'll be teaching in the near future. You don't need to know everythingbefore you begin teaching something. In fact, not knowing everything can be anadvantage.When something is new to us, learning more about it can be exhilarating. We go througha honeymoon-like phase with the subject. This means we’re excited and passionateabout the topic, and that excitement shines through us as we teach. We genuinely havea feeling of sharing something interesting as we’re teaching, and students pick up onthat.For some “experts,” mustering that same energy for a subject that is old to them can bevery challenging. Embrace your rookie status!SIX MUSTS FOR TEACHING GRAMMAR www.GrammarRevolution.com10
#5 DO FAKE ITIf you dislike grammar, try not to show it. Your students will pick up on your grudge, andthey'll start to have the same feelings about it. That will make it hard for you to teach andhard for your students to learn.Do your best to focus on some aspect of grammar that you find valuable and interesting.Try to convey a sense of enthusiasm, if possible.I like to think of this advice that Maria Montessori gave to future teachers.You yourselves must be filled with wonderand when you have acquired that, you are prepared.If you're teaching grammar with sentence diagrams, you shouldn't have to fakeenjoyment for too long before you actually start to like grammar!Speaking of sentence diagrams.SIX MUSTS FOR TEACHING GRAMMAR www.GrammarRevolution.com11
#6 USE SENTENCE DIAGRAMSDiagramming sentences is a great way to get students engaged in what they’re learning.Creating a sentence’s diagram is kind of like solving a puzzle. You get to be a worddetective and figure out how the words in a sentence are functioning, and then you getto show that in a picture.If you’re not familiar with sentence diagrams, they are basically lines and words thatshow the grammatical relationships among the words in a sentence.For example, interjections are words that are not grammatically related to the rest of thesentence. We show that in a sentence diagram by having the interjection float on a lineabove the rest of the sentence. This shows students that interjections are notgrammatically connected to anything else.As you can see, I love sentence diagrams. But, having students who can diagramsentences is not my goal. My goal is to help students understand language, and that'sprobably your goal too.Diagrams can be an excellent tool for developing your students' understanding oflanguage, but you also need to make sure that your students can explain everythinghappening in the diagram.Some students are excellent at following patterns, and they can diagram sentenceswithout knowing why they are doing what they are doing.Look at this diagram. The sentence is diagrammed perfectly, but can the student explainthe grammar of the sentence?The orange leaves slowly fell onto the ground.SIX MUSTS FOR TEACHING GRAMMAR www.GrammarRevolution.com12
If you start from the beginning, you teach things in the right order, and you use sentencediagrams, here is an example of what should be going on in your students’ minds whenthey diagram that sentence:The best way to check for this comprehension is to ask students some why questions. WHY did you put the prepositional phrase under the verb? WHY is orange diagrammed under leaves? WHY is slowly diagrammed under the verb?It would be impractical to ask students WHY questions about every sentence that youdiagram. However, it's helpful to sprinkle these kinds of questions throughout yourlessons.In our Get Smart Grammar Program, we have students fill in charts for each sentencediagram. This is another way to check for comprehension. Here's one for the abovesentence. Students would have to complete the chart after diagramming the sentence.The orange leaves slowlyfell onto the ground.leavessentencetheorangeverb (intransitive complete)adverbonto the groundSIX MUSTS FOR TEACHING GRAMMAR www.GrammarRevolution.com13
ontothegroundHere’s what the completed chart looks like.The orange leaves slowlyfell onto the ground.leavessentencesubject (noun)theadjectiveorangeadjectivefellverb (intransitive complete)slowlyadverbonto the groundprepositional phrase (adverb)ontoprepositiontheadjectivegroundobject of the preposition (noun)I love using charts like that because the charts hold the students accountable rather thanthe teacher having to personally hold each student accountable.SIX MUSTS FOR TEACHING GRAMMAR www.GrammarRevolution.com14
#7 ONE MORE THING (IF IT’S RIGHT FOR YOU)Follow our step-by-step program that clearly lays everything out and allows you to moveat your own pace. Our Get Smart Grammar Program is presented in a logical sequence,so it's not an overwhelming mishmash of information.It includes video lessons, sentence diagramming exercises, periodic quizzes, andanswer keys for you to check work. You can teach grammar in just ten minutes a day,and you won't have to plan a thing because it's all done out for you.Learn more SIX MUSTS FOR TEACHING GRAMMAR www.GrammarRevolution.com15
I hope that you found this guide helpful. If you have anyquestions or comments, please send me an email. I’m alwayshere to help!www.GrammarRevolution.com/contact.htmlThank you for being here. J Elizabeth O'BrienI’ve been teaching diagramming and have seen an improvement in how my studentsmanage their sentence structures in writing essays and stories. They are beginning tounderstand that knowing the mechanics of language enables them to express theircreativity accurately.- Amy, Homeschool TeacherYour materials are a life-saver and a confidence-booster.- LoriWe LOVE your curriculum. I tell everyone who will listen about your program and howthey will not regret getting it for their children (and themselves).- Mindy, Homeschool MomYou are the one who made grammar, in all its complexity, simple for me.- Becky, TutorBecause of sentence diagramming, my students were 'climbing all over each other' to goto the board. They loved it.- A Lowe, TeacherSIX MUSTS FOR TEACHING GRAMMAR www.GrammarRevolution.com16
Dependent Clauses – Noun Clauses I knew the students would learn. 28 Review: Subordinating Conjunctions, Dependent Clauses (Noun & Adverb), Verb Types & More Review Sentences & Quiz 7 29 Dependent Clauses – Adjective Clauses The scarf that I want is black. 30 Review: Dependent Clauses (Adverb, Noun, Adjective), Verb Types & More
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What does grammar teaching involve? 1. Grammar is a means to an end, but not an end. 2. Grammar teaching needs to be integrated into the teaching of speaking, listening, writing, and reading skills. 3. Grammar needs to be taught through engaging learners in meaningful and motivating activities. 4. Show how grammar is a resource for making and
Grammar is a part of learning a language. Grammar can be resulted by the process of teaching and learning. Students cannot learn grammar without giving grammar teaching before. Thornbury (1999) clarifies that grammar is a study of language to form sentences. In this respect, grammar has an important role in sentence construction both i.
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