TIPS FOR TEACHING grammar to elementary students

Do you ever open up your curriculum guide and wonder how on earth you are going to get your students to sufficiently practice and master all of the grammar skills you are supposed to be teaching this year?

Would you rather use your writing block for your students to actually write than practice grammar?

ME TOO! Throughout my time using various curriculums in the classroom, I had to find a more efficient way to teach grammar so that my writing block could mostly be used for writing. 

How to Teach Grammar Effectively in Elementary

Research confirms that grammar should be effectively integrated into the writing process because students need to see the relevance of grammar in writing. This means that we should be incorporating grammar into the writing process rather than teaching it in isolation. Read more about that in this blog post. (link to cornerstone grammar)

How might this look practically when you have lots of grammar skills you are supposed to be covering this year?

Here are a few tips.

5 Easy Tips for Teaching Grammar in Elementary

1. Figure out what your students already know about grammar.

Many grammar topics are repeated in each grade level and build upon what students learned during the year prior. Before teaching a new grammar topic, try to find a quick way to assess what your students already know about the topic. Don’t spend too much time on the topic if most of your students have a good understanding of it already. 

2. Connect grammar skills to writing genres.

Remember that you can re-work your curriculum to teach grammar more effectively. For example, perhaps you might consider teaching adjectives in a descriptive writing unit. Your students will develop a deeper understanding of adjectives when they are using them to make their writing more descriptive.

3. Teach grammar in the revising & editing stages of the writing process.

Teach a mini-lesson that targets specific grammatical errors in student writing. Project one of your student’s drafts and identify with your class some mistakes that you see. In this process, you can cover multiple grammar skills. For example, in one short mini-lesson you could discuss proper nouns that need to be capitalized, subject-verb agreement problems, and sentences that need question marks. When you do this, you are covering multiple grammar skills while helping your students make the connection between grammar and writing!

4. Hold students accountable for 1 or 2 grammar skills in their writing.

For example, if you have recently taught adjectives and proper nouns, include only these topics on your revising checklist for their current writing piece. Don’t expect your students to correct all grammar mistakes in their writing as this will be too difficult for them. Instead, have them revise for grammar skills that you’ve been working on as a class. Then, assess students for these skills in the rubric.

5. Give students extra grammar practice for centers or independent work.

Do not use your precious writing block time for students to work on grammar worksheets and activities. Rather, assign extra practice for centers or homework.

Now go back to your curriculum guide and take a deep breath! Think about what your students already know,and don’t use too much instructional time for those topics. For other topics, do short, instructional mini-lessons, and hold your students accountable for applying these grammar skills in their writing.  Finally, assign extra grammar practice to students for center work or homework.

Free Boom Cards for Elementary Grammar

Are you looking for an engaging way for your students to practice grammar skills?

Boom Cards are a perfect way for your students to practice grammar independently. Boom Cards are interactive, self-checking, digital task cards. They are engaging for your students, and they will save YOU time! Check out this blog post to read 10 reasons to use Boom Cards in your classroom.

Want to try some grammar Boom Card decks for FREE? Sign up on the sidebar. ➔

The 5 decks included in this freebie are: Subject-Verb Agreement, Contractions, Adjectives, Proper Nouns, and Subject and Predicate.

Elementary Grammar Boom Card Bundle

This bundle includes 50 Boom Card decks that cover 50 grammar skills for Grades 1 – 4! This bundle will cover all of the grammar topics in your curriculum and give your students the practice they need to achieve skill mastery.

More Grammar Blog Posts

• Best Practices for Teaching Elementary Grammar
• 10 Reasons to Use Boom Cards in the Classroom