Best Practices for Teaching Elementary Grammar

Recall your ELA class in elementary school. What do you remember your teachers focusing on? Was there a lot of emphasis on writing, or did they primarily focus on grammar instruction?

I recall spending a significant amount of time completing grammar worksheets. Elementary grammar lessons often felt dull and lacked a clear purpose, which made it challenging to stay engaged. Consequently, I had limited opportunities to practice writing, and when I did, I didn’t find it enjoyable or feel confident in my abilities.

It’s common for educators to feel less enthusiastic about teaching elementary grammar, possibly due to our own experiences or the lack of excitement from our students.

Why is Elementary Grammar Instruction Important?

As an elementary teacher, I’ve had to reflect on the value of grammar instruction and explore best practices for teaching it. Through this reflection, I’ve come to the realization that teaching elementary grammar is indeed essential.

Elementary grammar instruction helps students communicate language more clearly through their writing. However, it’s important to note that research confirms there are both effective and ineffective approaches to teaching grammar in the classroom.

What Not to Do When Teaching Elementary Grammar

ISOLATE GRAMMAR FROM WRITING

Let’s be honest, it might seem easier to use dedicated grammar blocks and have students practice grammar skills in their workbooks. However, research suggests that this approach may not be as effective as we think.

Studies have found that when elementary grammar skills are taught in isolation, students struggle to apply them in their writing. To bridge this gap, teachers need to help students connect grammar concepts to their writing.

In fact, focusing solely on grammar in isolation can hinder students’ writing development. When students overly emphasize mechanics, they may struggle to become confident writers.

So, what are the best practices for teaching grammar in the elementary classroom?

How to Teach Elementary Grammar Effectively

INTEGRATE GRAMMAR INTO WRITING

Research strongly suggests that grammar should not be taught in isolation. Instead, it should be integrated into the writing process. Students need to understand the importance of using correct grammar and how it improves their writing.

So, how can this be practically implemented in the elementary classroom? Here are a few research-supported ideas.

Integrate Elementary Grammar Skills with Writing Genres

Some genres that you may teach in elementary are narrative writing, descriptive writing, informational writing, and letter writing. Best practice would be to teach grammar skills that relate to these genres so that students can make the connection between grammar and writing. Here are a few examples of how you could do this. 

Narrative Writing

A narrative writing unit lends itself to teaching grammar skills such as: 

• Using specific nouns and pronouns
• Applying quotation marks for dialogue
• Writing verbs in the correct tense

Your instruction will be richer when these grammar skills are taught in the context of narrative writing. For example, students will learn not only how to identify nouns in sentences, but how to select specific nouns to enhance their narratives. 

Informational Writing

Some grammar skills that you may consider teaching in an informational writing unit are: 

• Using commas in a series
• Capitalizing names of people and places (Proper Nouns) 
• Using apostrophes for possessives

Students will apply these skills more readily when they are taught in the context of informational writing. 

Descriptive Writing

Grammar skills to focus on in a descriptive writing unit may be: 

• Using adjectives
• Combining sentences

When students learn adjectives in the context of descriptive writing, they will understand how to improve their writing with vivid adjectives. Likewise, students will understand how to combine sentences more readily when they are combining descriptive details in a writing piece. 

Letter Writing

In a letter writing unit, you may want to focus on these grammar skills: 

• Using abbreviations for addresses
• Using commas 

Your students will learn how to use commas when they are using them for a variety of purposes within a letter. They will see how commas help to structure dates and addresses, set apart greetings and salutations, and organize ideas. 

Showcase grammar skills in mentor texts

Research has shown that using mentor texts to showcase grammar skills can enhance your students’ writing.

Mentor texts are written pieces that serve as examples of good writing for students. The texts are written for the purpose of studying the author’s craft or for the way the author uses structures and conventions in their writing.

Mentor texts can be an excellent way to model how authors apply proper grammar to clearly communicate their messages. 

Here is an example of how you could use a mentor text in a descriptive writing unit: 

• Read a mentor text to your students in the genre of descriptive writing.
• Discuss with your students how the author enhanced their writing with vivid adjectives. Perhaps you will make a list of adjectives that the author used. 
• Have your students revise their own writing by adding vivid adjectives.

Reading mentor texts will help your students understand the importance of grammar in their writing. 

Focus on grammar in the revising and editing stages.

Allow your students to organize and draft their writing before making grammar a focus. Students will enjoy the writing process more when they can get their ideas on paper without thinking about the mechanics of writing. 

It is best practice to teach grammar skills to your students in the revising and editing stages. Students will be ready to make immediate applications of grammar in these stages of the writing process.

The most effective way to teach grammar in the revising stage is by teaching a mini-lesson that targets specific errors in students’ writing. 

Let me give you an example of how you can prepare for and teach this kind of lesson: 

• First, read through your students’ writing and identify common errors. 
• Select a sample that has these common errors.
• Project the writing sample or provide a copy of it for students. 
• Allow students to identify grammatical errors and to offer suggestions for how to correct them. 

This type of mini-lesson has proven to be highly effective in helping students apply grammar skills in their own writing. 

After a mini-lesson such as this, allow students an opportunity to practice applying the grammar skills they’ve learned in their own writing. Provide them with time to revise and edit their work independently or in small groups, offering guidance and feedback as needed.

Assess Students For Grammar Skills They Have Learned

We often want to correct everything wrong in our students’ writing. This can be overwhelming and discouraging for our students. Instead, choose a few grammar skills to assess in each writing unit. Modify the revising checklist for each writing unit to reflect what you have taught them.

For example, let’s say your students are working on a narrative writing piece. You have taught them about capitalizing proper nouns and subject-verb agreement. Put only these two grammar items on their revising checklist:

• I have capitalized all proper nouns.

• I have checked that subjects and verbs agree. 

This gives students a clear focus for the revising stage and informs them how they will be assessed. Ideally students will apply other grammar skills that they have learned in the past, but they will be held accountable for only a few particular skills. 

On the rubric, only assess for grammar skills that you have taught during the writing unit: proper nouns and subject-verb agreement. This will ensure that it is a fair assessment of what students have learned during the unit. 

Conclusion

Teachers often wonder how to find the time to teach elementary grammar and writing. The key is to effectively integrate the two while always keeping the focus on writing. As students read and write more, their grammar will naturally improve without teachers explicitly teaching every single skill. 

When you look at the Common Core Standards for language, you’ll see that the standards focus on students using grammar in their writing. As teachers, we need to remember that the purpose of teaching grammar is for our students to use it in their writing. This will guide us as we plan for grammar instruction. 

Let’s remember that the reason we teach elementary grammar is to help our students become stronger writers and clearer communicators.

Related Resources

Check out these full-year elementary grammar lessons that use a 10-minute daily routine to teach grammar in the context of writing.

References

• Cleary, M. N. (2020, March 3). The Wrong Way to Teach Grammar. The Atlantic.  https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/02/the-wrong-way-to-teach-grammar/284014/

• DiStefano, P. & Killion, J. (1984). Assessing writing skills through a process approach. English Education, 16 (4), 203-207.

• Graham, S., McKeown, D., Kiuhara, S., & Harris, K. R. (2012). A meta-analysis of writing instruction for students in the elementary grades. Journal of Educational Psychology, 104(4), 879-896.

• Hillocks, G., Jr. & Smith, M. (1991). “Grammar and Usage.” In J. Flood, J. M. Jensen, D. Lapp & J. R. Squire (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Teaching the English Language Arts. New York: Macmillan, 591-603.

• Robinson, L., & Feng, J. (2016). Effect of Direct Grammar Instruction on Student Writing Skills. Online Submission.

• Shaughnessy, M. P. (1977). Errors and expectations: a guide for the teacher of basic writing. Teachers College Record, 79, 317-320.