Download Grammar

Deductive Grammar Teaching Activities
D1. Passive and Active Sentences.
After having taught the passive and active forms of sentences, give students a list of sentences, some in
passive and active voice. Have students change the sentences from the active to the passive or vice
versa.
D2. Adjective and Adverb Taboo http://www.lessonplanspage.com/LAAdjAdvTaboo912.htm
Write on several slips of paper simple subject + verb sentences (The child laughed.) This game is played
similar to the popular game of "Taboo." Divide class into four equal teams. One member chooses a slip of
paper with the sentence written on it. He/she then gives up to 5 adjectives to describe the subject (ex.
small, young, cute, fair-haired, or sweet to describe "child"). The team then tries to guess the subject. If
they are correct, the team scores 1 point. The clue-giver then gives up to 5 adverbs to describe the verb
(ex. happily, humorously, gleefully, sweetly, joyfully to describe "laughed"). If the team guesses correctly,
they earn 3 points. If the team misses either the subject or verb, the next team has an opportunity to
"steal" the points by having one of their members give one clue. The player is disqualified if he/she gives
a noun instead of an adjective or a verb instead of an adverb or gives more than a one-word description.
This was a great way for my class to recognize the role of adverbs and adjectives in sentence
construction
D3. Main Verb Switch Out- changing tenses
Give students several different sentences. By applying the knowledge of other verb tenses and how they
are made, have students change the current sentence into another tense. Ex: How long did you have
your computer? (Present Perfect)
How long have you had your
computer?
D4. Adding/Omitting Adverbs and adjectives.
Have students write about their weekend. At first, do not let them use adjectives or adverbs. The
students will have a hard time consciously omitting these words from their vocabulary. Have students
come back and add the necessary descriptors without over doing it. This activity may even be taken a
step further; provide a piece of writing to students. Instruct your students to omit all of the adverbs,
adjectives, both, or any other part of speech.
D5. Grammar Poetry: <http://home.online.no/~anlun/gram-po.htm>
 On the first line write a noun of your choice
 On the second line write two adjectives joined by and to describe this noun
 On the third line write a verb and an adverb to describe this noun in action
 Start the fourth line with like or as followed by a comparison
 Start the final line with if only followed by a wish
D6. Make Your Own MADGAB:
Students write a paragraph. Have the students go back and omit certain parts of the sentence based
upon your specifications, i.e. 4 nouns, 6 adjectives, 3 adverbs, etc. Students make a list of type of speech
is omitted and their partner fills in an example of that on a separate sheet of paper. Their answers are
read into their partners MADGAB. Students with an understanding of the parts of speech will be able to
come up with the specifications. The students’ paragraph should be about a specific topic or something
they choose.
D7. Linking Verbs Followed By Nouns or Adjectives
Linking Verbs cannot end sentences, nor can they be followed immediately by adverbs. They must be
followed by either nouns or adjectives; those nouns or adjectives may be single words or multiple-word
phrases. Now that we know the Linking Verb rule, here is an example followed by an adjective: The dog
looked weary.
D8. The Function of Prepositions
Prepositions give information concerning location or time. Prepositions also answer how long, why, how,
or what condition. With this definition of prepositions, circle the preposition in the following sentence:
Hockey season starts in ten days.
D9. Subjects vs. Predicates
A subject is what a sentence is about. A predicate makes a particular reference about the subject.
Circle the subject and underline the predicate in this sentence: Han Solo and Luke took down the Death
Star.
D10. What are Transitive Verbs?
Transitive verbs are action verbs that require a direct object.
Insert a transitive verb in this sentence: Zombies _________ my neighbors.
D11. Auxiliary Verbs
Auxiliary verbs are helping verbs that cannot exist without main verbs.
Circle the main verb and underline the auxiliary verb in this sentence: The werewolf is howling at the
blood red moon.
D 12 Part of Speech Slide Show
Assign each group of students a part of speech, then let them learn more about the part of speech, find
examples, and teach the class in a slide show.
D 13 From Short and Long Vowels to “ing”
When teaching students that adding “ing” to a word can change its spelling, first give them the difference
between long vowels and short vowels. Then show how in verbs with short vowel sounds have their
spelling changed, not words with long vowel sounds. The students then gave their own examples.
D 14 Capitalization and Basic Punctuation Workbook.
Discuss the rules with the students and then have them work on examples in the workbook.
D 15 Grammar Webquest—Taking Grammar Online
Students start with finding ten rules, then narrow down to one important rule and give examples to
classroom.
D 16 Grammar Journal—Daily Grammar Work
Have students correct an incorrect sentence in their grammar journal, then discuss the rules displayed in
the sentence.
D 17 Proper and Common Nouns- Recognizes proper and common nouns
Explain to students what common and proper nouns are and give examples. Give the students a list of
20 sentences and have them find the proper or common nouns. After the students have identified a noun
have them place a C or a P beside their answers. Doing this should enable students to know the
difference between common and proper nouns.
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/#grammar
D 18 Choosing the Best Verb- Recognizes active and passive voice
Divide students into groups and provide basic definitions of active and passive voice. Students will then
explore web sites and note the verbs that are used. After collecting a dozen references to verbs in
context students identify whether the verbs are active or passive. After gathering information students will
draw conclusions about how and when verbs are used.
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=280
D 19 Run on Sentences- Recognizing the difference of complete or run on sentences
First give examples of run on and complete sentences. Give students a sample of writing with complete
sentences as well as run on sentences. Have them identify every sentence as on or the other. After they
have identified the sentences have them go back and fix the run on sentences making them complete
sentences.
http://www.quia.com/pop/35933.html
D 20 Commas- Recognizing comma placement in sentences
First tell students comma rules. Give students a sample of writing where they have to insert the needed
commas. If they do insert a comma into a sentence have them explain why they inserted the comma into
that particular sentence. This will enable students to recognize comma placement as well as why the
comma placement is necessary.
http://chompchomp.com/exercises.htm
D 21 A Passive Voice Race Game- Recognizing active and passive voice
First explain active and passive voice and how to change a sentence from active or passive. Divide
students into teams and give them sentences in the active voice. The games are played in rounds and
for each round give every team one sentence. Students work together to change the active voice into
passive voice. After they have done so one member of the group races to the board and rewrites the
sentence in the passive. Teacher checks sentences and the class keeps track of each team’s points on
the board.
http://www.eslpartyland.com/teachers/grammar/passivecards.htm
D 22 Nouns—Scattegories
Put the students into groups of three or four and have them divide their papers into three different parts;
person, place, and things. Then time the students for three minutes and have them write down as many
nouns as they can in each category. Then go around to each group and have them call out their
answers. If another group had the same answer then they cross it out. Whichever team comes out with
the most answers wins. Follow this activity by explaining the different kinds of nouns (proper vs. common
nouns, count nouns, abstract, etc).
D 23 Linking Verbs
Have the students write out sentences that describe themselves. Have them write some on the board
with the words ‘like’ or ‘am.’ Have them write above the words what part of speech the words are. Show
the students the words are relational and have them find other verbs that would fit into the places of ‘like’
or ‘am’ and still be linking verbs.
D 24 Adjectives/Adverbs
Divide class into four equal teams. One member chooses a slip of paper with the sentence written on it.
He/she then gives up to 5 adjectives to describe the subject (ex. small, young, cute, fair-haired, or sweet
to describe "child"). The team then tries to guess the subject. If they are correct, the team scores 1 point.
The clue-giver then gives up to 5 adverbs to describe the verb (ex. happily, humorously, gleefully,
sweetly, joyfully to describe "laughed"). If the team guesses correctly, they earn 3 points. If the team
misses either the subject or verb, the next team has an opportunity to
"steal" the points by having one
of their members give one clue. The player is disqualified if he/she gives a noun instead of an adjective
or a verb instead of an adverb or gives more than a one-word description.
D 25 Passive/Active Verbs
Write out list of passive or active sentences and have the students rewrite the sentences to be the
opposite. Have them write beside the rewritten sentence whether it is active or passive.
D 26 Prepositions
Draw a big stump with a cloud over it on the board. Put the words ‘prepositions’ above it. Write a
preposition is anything you can do to the cloud or the stump. Then write all the regular prepositions you
can think of wherever they go on the stump or cloud. Explain to the students that this is an easy way to
remember what prepositions are (example: in, out, around, through, between, up, on, down).
D 27 The -LY Charades
Have students take turns playing charades. One student will draw two cards (one from the ADVERB pile
and the other from the VERB pile). The student will then act out the selected pair of words. This can be
done in pairs, small groups, or as a class.
D 28 Sentence Match Tense Review
Distribute one card per student. Students should walk around the room and find the missing half of their
sentence. Combinations must be grammatically correct and logical. Remind students that they should pay
attention to punctuation. Once students have found their match, ask each pair to read their sentence and
identify both the timeframe and the tense(s) used.
D 29 Recognizing Noun Clauses in Songs
Have students find the noun clauses in the lyrics to some popular alternative songs. Give one worksheet
with the printed lyrics to each pair of students and ask them to work together and underline each clause.
D 30 Sentence Auction Grammar Review
Give students (in small groups) 'money' with which to bid on various sentences. These sentences include
correct and incorrect sentences. The group which 'buys' the most correct sentences wins the game.
D 31 – Sentence Combining
Take writing excerpts (from anywhere) that make use of sophisticated sentence structure. Rewrite the
excerpt into a series of short, uncombined sentences. Present students with the challenge of combining
the sentences –making use of grammatical information that you have given to the class regarding types
of phrases and clauses. Students writer the combined sentences on transparencies which are displayed
for class.
D 32 – Change the Tense
Have students circle all of the verbs in a newspaper article. Ask them if they notice something that many
of the verbs have in common. Explain to students the typical use of “present” tense in journalism.
D 33 – The Adverb Alternative
Review with students the purpose of adverbs. Then provide students with some samples of effective
writing that are not littered with “ly’s.” Discuss ways in which the author accomplished the adverb task
without using “ly’s”
D 34 – Conjunction Race (or any other part of speech race)
After reviewing a certain part of speech, have the students open their literature books to a certain page.
The class competes against each other in groups to find the most occurrences of that part of speech in
certain length of time.
D 35 – Let’s Have Some Variety
In a workshop, present class with anonymous excerpt of student writing. Challenge class to find five
ways of rewriting that sample using a different sentence structure with appropriate punctuation. Have
students write their re-writes on transparencies and show to class. As they do, they need to discuss the
re-write in terms of the grammatical changes that have been made. If they can’t do this—then you supply
hints along the way.
D 36 – I’m All Tensed Up
Students are usually told that they shouldn’t change tense in a paragraph. But sometimes tense does
need to change. Have students open their literature books to a certain piece of writing in which tense
shift is common. See if students can recognize it. See if they can recognize why it is okay. Contrast
with a writing sample that makes inappropriate use of tense shift.
D 37 – Let’s Be Inappropriate
Take an except of professional writing and present it to class. Challenge students to rewrite the piece in
non-standard English –using dialectal features that they typically use at home. Next, take a sample of
non-standard transcribed speech. Ask students to try and turn it into standard academic English –using
models that you provide. Discuss why each revision would inappropriate in terms of the sociolinguistic
context.
D 38 – When in Rome ..
Have students write a short fiction piece for three different audiences – a formal presentation to the
school, a newspaper article, and a note to a friend. Have students discuss the strategy that they used
for each. Discuss changes that are necessary in grammatical structures to make these adjustments
possible.
Inductive Grammar Teaching Activities
I 1. Their, There, They’re http://home.cogeco.ca/~rayser3/threepigsthere.doc
Once upon a time, their were three little pigs. They’re was Curly. He was the oldest. There was Wurly.
He was the smartest. And then they’re was Flo. She was everyone's favorite pig. Even there mother
loved Flo the best. Curly, Wurly and Flo lived with their mother in an apartment.
- Students will practice and become aware of the uses of ‘there, their, and they’re’ by having to read
through, circle and correct the mistakes made in the writing. After they have completed the reading and
have done the appropriate corrections, the teacher can go over and check for comprehension on the
rules.
I 2 Prepositional Phrase Board Exercise
Put prepositional phrases on the board. These phrases should showcase different prepositional phrase
usage. Give students time to look over these sentences and as classes determine what these sentences
have in common. As they begin to figure out about prepositional phrases, the teacher is able to hold a
lesson as a result of the students’ discovery.
I 3. It Just Keeps Going and Going…. Run-on Sentences –Punctuation
Give students with a piece of writing that is one long run-on sentence. Have them try and fix the
paragraph without adding any additional words. This will bring out the already conceived notions they
possess concerning punctuation. This lesson can lead into teaching about comma splices, etc.
I 4. Determiners
Supply students with a paragraph void of determiners. Have them fill in the blanks with what they deem
appropriate or do this activity as a class. Do not provide a list of determiners until you being to teach the
concept. Discuss the importance of determiners and their function in language.
I 5. Word Jumble
Hand out different slips of paper to each student. Each slip should contain part of a sentence –either a
subject or a predicate. When instructed to do so, have the students try and match up with the other half
of their sentence. These sentences may be silly but should make sense. From here, subjects and
predicates may be discussed, what parts are included in them, how they functions, etc.
I 6 Proper Nouns
Circle the nouns in this sentence: I spoke to Dr. Blake about my low quiz grades and test scores.
Notice that certain nouns were capitalized? Think about Blake. How is this noun different from the rest
of the nouns in the sentence? That's because Blake is a proper noun. Blake is a name and a name is a
proper noun. All proper nouns are capitalized.
I 7 The Relevance of Auxiliary Verbs
What is wrong with the following sentence: The zombie eating my neighbors.
Could you add a single word to turn this fragment into an independent thought? If so, which word? You
can insert an auxiliary verb before the main verb, also known as a lexical verb, to give the fragment
meaning.
I 8 The Relevance of Subjects
What does this fragment need: played for the Oilers until he was traded to the Kings.
First ask yourself who or what the fragment is about. Since you do not know, then the subject must be
missing. The subject ties meaning to the sentence by letting readers know who or what it is about.
I 9 Direct Objects
Circle the lexical verb in this sentence: Gretzky passed the puck to Messier.
Who received the puck? A direct object is any noun that receives the action. Mark Messier is the direct
object.
I 10 Prepositions
Circle the preposition in this sentence: Hockey season starts in 10 days.
What does the phrase "in 10 days" symbolize? It is a date. Prepositions give information concerning
location or time.
I 11 Character Talk to Student Talk
After reading a chapter from Indian in the Cupboard, examine the choppy use of English language. Then
discuss with the students how they can improve their own sentences, making them more complete.
I 12 Their Letters and Yours—Write like them
Give students a copy of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Let them observe the use
of semicolons, then explain the rules found within the letter.
I 13 Famous Quotes and Grammar—Movies and Lessons
Watch a three to seven minute clip from a movie scene or video. Write down what grammar forms you
hear. Then have the class do it. Does everyone agree? No? What are the different forms they come up
with? What's correct? Go back, watch the clip again and check. Do it until you're satisfied.
I 14 Listening for Grammar—Can you hear it?
Use Audio-only Segments. Listen to an audio clip. Note the grammar points used. Can you change any
of them? How? Why? What does the change do to the meaning? Does it become formal or informal?
Imperative? Humorous? Don't forget to have the learners practice and deliver these short dialogues
aloud.
I 15 Discovery Technique—Discover For Yourself
To lead students towards a generalized grammar rule or pattern.
I 16 Adjective or Adverb- Recognizing the difference between Adjectives and Adverbs
Present a sample of writing where students choose if the adjective or the adverb fits in the sentence. See
if the students can choose the right part of speech. Don’t give key terms before the activity.
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/#grammar
I 17 Irregular Verbs- Recognizing the infinitive, simple past and past participle
Present students with a list of twenty infinitives. Have the students then write the simple past and past
participles of the infinitives. After they have done so have them pick five infinitives, five simple past, and
five past participles and write sentences. This enables that they understand which form needs to be used
in a particular sentence.
http://www.englishpage.com/irregularverbs/irregularverbs.html
I 18 Time Prepositions- Recognizing Time Prepositions
Present students with a worksheet with sentences where they have to fill in the correct time prepositions.
Give the students choices of which preposition to use, at, in, on, until. This will enable the students to
choose the right time preposition to fit into the sentences.
http://www.englishpage.com/prepositions/time_prepositions_1.htm
I 19 Conjunctions and Compound Sentences – Recognizing combining conjunctions to make
compound sentences
Present students with twenty sentences and have them choose the correct conjunction that combines the
clauses to make a compound sentence. Give them the choices of conjunctions, and, but, or. This will
help students recognize the right conjunctions.
http://www.quia.com/pop/37751.html?AP_rand=535112962
I 20 Nouns—Mad Libs.
Make a Mad Lib that leaves blanks for only nouns. Have students fill in the blanks and ask them what fits
best there. Have them define what they think fits best there. Give example of what ill-fits the spaces and
see if they can tell you why it doesn’t fit.
I 21 Verbs - Past, present, future
Have students read sentences with all different types of verbs and ask what is happening in these
sentences. Ask is it happening right now, has it already happened, or will it happen later (past, present,
future tense). Ask the students how they know that.
I 22 Adjectives/Adverbs
Ask students to describe something. Then ask them what in particular they are describing. Are they
describing an action (example: a trip they took) or a thing (example: their dog)? Then show the difference
between describing an action versus describing a thing or idea.
I 23 Passive/Active Verbs
Passive--Pick a word (noun) for the students write about (example: tree). Then ask the students to write
everything that can be done to the tree. Then, because the things are being done to the tree, to draw an
arrow from the thing being done to the tree. Active—Pick same word (noun) for the students to write
about. Have them write down everything the thing can do. Then draw an arrow from the tree to the thing.
At the end of both of these activities, pick several of
the student’s sentences and write them on the
board. Ask them to come up and draw and arrow to the thing or from the thing, depending on whether
something is being done to it or by it.
I 24 Writing activity
To understand correct sentence structure. Ask student to write briefly about something they did that
weekend. Ask them to trade papers and have the student beside them grade their papers on their ability
to understand what the writer is saying. Then ask the students to describe to each other why they could
or could not understand what the other was saying in their paper.
I 25 Part of Speech Identification
Present a list of words involving various parts of speech. See if students can identify the words correctly,
even those words that have the potential to act as more than one part of speech.
I 26 Adverbial Editing
Present a writing sample in which an overload of adverbs is used. See if students can recognize when to
use adverbs appropriately and which adverbs could/should be removed from the sample. Have them
further discuss this topic using prompts (i.e.: Why shouldn’t you use this many adverbs?)
I 27 Artsy Prepositions
Using samples of artwork, ask students to describe in a detailed paragraph what is happening, what
things look like, or where things are located in a particular photograph or painting. Then ask students to
underline which phrases they think are prepositional. Some examples of pieces with a lot of possibilities
are: M.C. Escher, Salvador Dali, and Diego Rivera.
I 28 Conditionals: What Would You Do If…
Ask students to imagine the following situation: You’ve arrived home late at night and you find that the
door is open to your apartment. What would you do? Have students read prepared extract using
conditionals and ask them to underline all conditional structures.
I 29 Grammar Maze
Hand out worksheets with a blank maze and sentences (for example:
http://esl.about.com/library/weekly/aa110399.htm). To correctly move through this maze, students must
choose if the provided sentences are grammatically correct or incorrect. Black arrows are for correct
answers, red arrows are for incorrect answers. Two numbers are left out of the correct path of the maze.
If students can't find their way out they know that they have made a mistake along the way and need to
check through the sentences again!
I 30 Good Writing - Better Writing
Take an excerpt from any good piece of literature that your students are encountering in the class.
“Doctor up” the excerpt by exchanging (or removing) parts of speech with others that are trite, lifeless,
non-descript, etc. Pair your adaptations, side by side with the originals and ask your students (perhaps in
groups) to make comparisons between the two. Such an activity can work well with just about any
grammatical concept that you are wanting the students to focus on.
I 31 Breaking Prescriptive Rules
Students need to know that fiction writers don’t always follow the prescriptive rules that are traditionally
taught. Present students with samples of fiction in which the author uses fragments, begins a sentence
with a conjunction, ends with a preposition, or employs dialectal features (ain.t, got none, etc). First, see
if students can recognize the prescriptive rules that have been broken. Encourage students to reflect,
discuss the reasons why the author has chosen to do this.
I 32 Genre Analysis
Present students with writing excerpts from various genres of writing (creative fiction, autobiography,
newspaper, etc) Make a competition and challenge students in groups to find grammatical categories in
which the genres vary (e.g. sentence length, passive vs active verbs, types of adjectives, pronoun type,
etc) Time the competition, whatever team comes up with the most categories and examples in 10
minutes wins.
I 33 Editor in Chief
Create a collection of published newspaper, journal, or book excerpts which contain an unintentional
grammatical mistake related to editing. Present the sample(s) to groups of students and have a
competition to see which group can recognize all of the mistakes in a given period of time. The same
activity works well in a workshop situation by using samples of student writing from previous classes.
I 34 I l’m Lov’in This Grammar!
When teaching literature appreciation and creative writing, teachers rarely focus on the effective use of
grammatical structures in “good writing.” Instead, class discussion often focus on rhetorical devices
(metaphors, oxymoron, onomatopoeia, etc). Instead of stopping with the identification of these devices,
allow students to examine the excepts and see if they can discuss the devices in terms of the grammar
that makes them possible. Adjectives - Oxymoron - I must be cruel only to be kind. Shakespeare,
Hamlet
Subjects - Personification - England expects every man to do his duty. Lord Nelson
Contributors:
Beth Poteat:
D1-6
I 1- 5
Rob Luther:
D7-11
I 6- 10
Emry Stout:
D12-16
I11-15
Philesia Smith D17-21
I16-19
Leigh Nelson D22-26
I20-24
Megan Harris D27-30
I25-29
Yours Truly
D31-38
I30-34