My first year, I’m embarrassed to admit, I was so overwhelmed with the idea of teaching grammar to a group of adolescents who could not even identify the subject and predicate of a sentence, I just didn’t teach grammar at all. I didn’t know where to begin!

The following year, I taught isolated lessons on parts of speech and sentence structure from a text book the LA department ordered the year before. These lessons were structured in a standard format: direct instruction, guided practice, independent practice, formative assessment. Still, I had trouble getting my students to write in formal grammar, because the skills were taught in isolation and not directly applied to student writing in instruction.

This year, I’ve structured my instruction to follow a weekly format: Tuesdays and Thursdays are “Grammar Days” and Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are “Writer’s Workshop.” This creates a nice opportunity to apply whatever skill we learn on Tuesdays and Thursdays directly to our drafts. (I always speak in the third person plural with my students - even though I’m of course not writing a 7th Grade Portfolio or learning what a dependent clause is.)

Another change from last year: I never use my text book. Scandalous, I know! It is so much easier for me, though, to teach according to my kids needs (both in terms of the actual grammar lesson and their cognitive stumbling blocks.) It’s also easier for me to create my own grammar lessons, because I can’t necessarily explain something the way a text book author has explained it. I need to put the concepts in my own words before I’m able to convey the information to anyone else.

My Grammar Bibles (i.e. the two resource books I use to help me plan):

So this year has been more successful than the last two years in terms of grammar instruction. I still have a long way to go, however, if the goal is to get my kiddos to actually write in formal “Standard” English (which it is.)

My latest grammar inspiration came from - surprise! - a math teacher at my school. Amy English (my friend and colleague) was surprised by how much she inspired me, because she had not previously considered how very similiar math and grammar really are. It’s true though: grammar follows abstract laws that exist outside its symbolic form in the very same way math does. That is why I think grammar teachers ought to take a look at the way math is being taught in Best Practice classrooms in order to inform their teaching of grammar.

Ms. English’s classroom is rich with Best Practice instruction. Her latest kick over the last two years has been in the five representations for math instruction. She was inspired by a David McKillops‘ presentation last summer, and has since shared her findings with our school and the larger teaching community. To learn more, check out: The Roles of Representations in School Mathematics, published by NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.)

Just to give the layman’s version: the represenations are five different modules for in-depth/mastery learning. They target the different learning styles and push students to the deepest possible understanding of abstract concepts. The representations are:

  • Context (relate the concept to something authentic and “real-world” applicable)
  • Concrete (manipulatives or kinesthetic representations)
  • Symbolic (actual number formulae or - for grammar - words and sentences)
  • Language (explain the concept with words)
  • Pictoral (represent the concept visually: draw meaningful shapes in math or diagram sentences in LA)

While I haven’t implemented the five representations fully into my instruction yet, I plan to develop a structured framework for teaching grammatical concepts via these modules within the year. Hopefully I will be able to establish a routine within the next six week grading period.

Wish me luck!