Let's talk Grammar

Do your students know the difference between a noun and a verb? Do they get adverbs and adjectives mixed up? For many students they often have great ideas when it comes to their writing. However, they just struggle to organize their thoughts because they are confused with parts of speech and really don't understand why there needs to be all of these different parts of speech in their writing. So here's a way of introducing parts of speech to your students so you can stop getting those strange but unique sentences from your students daily.

This year I decided to use bell work as a way of introducing Parts of Speech such a nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, and adjectives.

In our classroom, students enter the room, place planners in the planner bin, then go to their desk to begin working on one page in their bell work duo-tang.  On Mondays, students receive pages 1 through 5 as their bell work from this Grammar Bundle.

On Day one (Mondays) we play the guessing game after they complete page 1 in their workbook.  I would ask students "What part of speech do you think we are focusing on this week?"

Usually, one of my students are able to guess what part of speech we are focusing on.  It was interesting to see how many of the students are engaged to this quick game to start off our days. It often would help to start off a typically boring unit off on the right note. 

After we guessed what part of speech (verb, adverb, noun, pronoun or adjective), we would say the words together as a class.  Next, we would clap the word out to figure out the number syllables are in each word.  At the end of each section in the Grammar Bundle there are a list of the words for the week.  We place them on the white board and use them as part of a mini-lesson throughout the week.  

When we are done with the word we put them up on our word wall. 

On Page 2 students need to find the words of the week and color them in.  

 On page 3 student need to circle how many syllables in each word.  

Then re-write the word in the correct syllable box.

Then next few pages can vary depending on the focus for that week.  In the example below, students must make 5 sentences with 5 words that we are using for that week.  

In the picture below students cut out letters to build the words of the week. 

As you can see from the pictures and ideas that you can create a fun and engaging activity and use it to help teach the conventions of parts of speech to your students. Not only do you get the activities in the bundles but you also get the definitions for each part of speech to hang in the room and help reenforce what you are teaching. 

Another extension to this could be posting some student exemplars highlighting how different students in your class have used the focus of the week in their writing. When students start to see their writing highlighted for the entire class to see not only will they focus more but they will attempt to try and get their writing displayed, hence more practice and engagement and easier marking for you in the long run. :)