For several years, I tried to figure out the best way to teach grammar to high school students. Let me tell you, it’s not for the weak! High school students often feel overwhelmed and aggravated by grammar instruction. It’s difficult to break down concepts, and it’s almost impossible to find lessons that aren’t for elementary school.
While I don’t have a lot of extra time in my schedule to incorporate grammar instruction, I have found a few key lessons that have made a big, positive difference with my high school students.
I have a specific process that I follow and a sequence that I have found to be most beneficial when it comes to teaching grammar to high school students.
If you’re like me and you’re always wondering what other teachers do when it comes down to how to teach grammar to high school students, check out my process below!
1. Choose a few key grammar skills to teach.
I have found that teaching random grammar skills just to say that I taught them simply does not work for my students. Each semester, I wait to start any grammar instruction until I have at least 3-4 writing samples from my students. By doing it this way, I get to know their strengths and their growth areas, so that the grammar lessons actually make sense. They can see the “why” behind what I’m teaching them. Personally, my high school students seem to always struggle the most with sentence structure. Additionally, the grammar to teach to help students with the ACT also deals a lot with sentence structure.
So, I narrowed my instruction down to 4 key grammar skills to teach in high school English that seem to pack the most punch:
- Nouns and Verbs: Teach high school students what it means for nouns and verbs to agree.
- Independent and Dependent Clauses: Take it a step farther and teach students how to combine nouns and verbs to create clauses.
- Avoiding fragments, run-ons, and comma splices: Now, show them how to put clauses together in order to form sentences. Then, teach them how to avoid improperly using clauses so they can fix fragments, run-ons, and comma splices.
- Semicolons, colons, and commas: Once my students can identify fragments, run-ons, and comma splices, I teach them how to use semicolons, colons, and commas to correct those errors.
By JUST focusing my grammar instruction on four topics, my students don’t get overwhelmed, I don’t get frustrated, and their writing improves dramatically.
2. Use video grammar tutorials.
I currently teach both in-person and virtually. HOWEVER, I have found that screen recording my grammar lessons works best for both kinds of classes. My in-person students have commented that they like having my grammar lessons on video so that they can replay my explanations or even check their own work.
I record myself going over the lesson/notes, but I also record myself working out practice grammar problems from the ACT. I “think out loud” as I work through each question. I’ll tell students which choice can’t be right and why. Then, I instruct them to pause the video, try it on their own, and press play when they’re ready to check their work. I always give an explanation as to why I chose a certain answer, rather than only giving them the correct answer.
I’ve also found that recording my lesson saves me a TON of time for students who have been absent. I also share these videos with my students’ parents so that they have free “tutoring” for their kids when they need a little extra help at home. My favorite, EASY ways to record my lessons are:
1. Canva.com – Just create your presentation, go to share → present → present, and record. You can share the link to your recording with your students.
2. Screencastify.com – This site has built-in video editing software, which is nice and easy to use. You can get the free version, and it works great. I do a TON of videoing, so I actually pay for Screencastify to get more storage. All videos are saved in your Google Drive to easily share with students.
3. Show students what editing grammatical issues looks like.
While I’m going over my chosen 4 key grammatical skills to teach high school students, I always include examples of how I’ve seen each skill misused. I show examples of student work (with their permission, of course!) and I include sample ACT practice passages where students will be asked to correct things like verb tenses or fragments.
By seeing how the grammatical skill is used or misused, students are more likely to start applying the lesson to their own work.
I write my own ACT practice questions based on inspiration that I get from these sites:
Figuring out how to teach grammar to high school English students can be tricky, but I find that I’ve had the most success with narrowing down the scope, showing them why it matters, and videoing everything! 🙂 By concentrating the most of time on sentence structure, my students see immediate results in their own work and writing.
No matter where you choose to start or how you focus your grammar instruction, it is time well spent. I always tell my students that grammar is important, NOT just for testing, but for helping us all to be better communicators.
Let me know how you structure your own grammar lessons and how your students respond to your new videos, too!
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