My ELA Block: Teaching Grammar and Language

Thanks for popping in to read the fourth part of my ELA blog series! If you missed any of the posts, you can use the links below to get caught up.

Part One: Whole Group Reading Lesson

Part Two: Reading Centers

Part Three: Vocabulary Instruction

Today I am sharing all about my grammar and language instruction!

I only have ten minutes to teach grammar. The good thing about that is that grammar can be sooooo boring to teach. The bad news is that there are lots of standards to cover and my students often act as if they have never even heard of a noun!

I tried a lot of different things, but nothing seemed perfect. Some resources were just worksheets that were boring and too much prep. Other resources were too complicated for my students, because they didn’t have the basic skills mastered. So, I made my own resource! BOOM!

I created a resource that was basic, engaging, easy to prep and included assessment and review. The resource helps me to implement a consistent routine for grammar each week.

On Monday I use a PowerPoint to introduce the skill for the week. I am not much of a PowerPoint reading kind of teacher. So I made this PowerPoint short and sweet. Plus, the slides include tasks for the students to do so that they stay engaged.

On Tuesday my students complete a simple notebook activity. The activity is great practice of our weekly skill and the notebooks become a source of reference for the entire year. The activities include super simple cuts to make them quicker! 

On Wednesday I like to integrate some quick writing into our grammar time. (This does NOT take the place of our writing workshop!) This is just another way to practice our weekly skill and allow students to see the skill in text. 

I have PowerPoint presentations that give students a simple prompt each week. Then they are told to trade notebooks with a partner. If we are working on action verbs, students are told to underline the action verbs in their partner’s writing. If we have time, I ask students to raise their hand and share one action verb that their partner used in their writing. So simple!

On Thursday we get out of our seat and SCOOT! Students complete task cards. This can be done many different ways, but I love to have kids up and moving around the room. I set the cards on desks and students roam around the room answering each of the questions. You can have them work independently or with a partner. Whatever suits your fancy!

After a week of working on one skill, we are ready for our Friday assessment. I give them a short assessment that is crazy easy for me to grade, but an effective tool to determine student mastery.

Are you wondering what skills to teach each week? It’s too bad you don’t know someone who would write a pacing guide for you… OH WAIT! You do know someone like that! ME!

Here is a full year of weekly grammar and language topics:

I made some grammar posters for you and they are totally free! Sign up and I will send them to you right away.

If you don’t have time to make your own mini lesson PowerPoints, notebook activities, task cards and assessments- I have you covered!

I am working VERY HARD at getting grammar sets made for every single one of the topics listed above! 

You can click HERE to check out the sets that I already have completed and available in my store.

And if you want to know when I add new grammar sets to my store (at greatly reduced prices), you can click HERE to sign up for notifications. I’ll even send for a FREE student notebook cover and table of contents pages!

That’s a wrap folks! I hope that you were able to get some new ideas for your language instruction. 

Are you ready to read all about my writing workshop? Click HERE to check out the last post in the series!

Have a Not So Wimpy day!