Emily's Enrichment Corner: Teaching Grammar: A Content-Rich Approach

The teaching of grammar has always been fraught with peril. Since I started teaching in 1997, the general consensus seems to have been this: "Whatever you're doing, you're doing it wrong." Using worksheets? That's inauthentic and useless. Teaching parts of speech? That's not going to help student writing. Skipping grammar to add more writing? That's not going to get you good standardized test scores!
There are some valid concerns with traditional grammar instruction. When students see isolated sentences with trivial content, their awareness slides right over what we are trying to teach. What students can get correct on a worksheet does not always transfer into their writing. And grammar instruction can seem painful and boring to both teachers and students.
However, an awareness of grammar is vital! In order to make stylistic choices in their writing, students need to be able to recognize what words they're using and why. In order to identify aspects of writer's craft, students need to know how words are used.
But what are the best ways to teach grammar? Wouldn't it be great if we could just conference with every child about key concepts that they need to use in their writing? However, with a class of 25-30 and a finite lifespan, I've learned that I can't address everything through a writing conference. There are definitely times when a whole-group lesson is the most efficient and helpful approach. And there are times when worksheets (the right ones!) work. To this end, I've developed an approach to grammar that I can live with and enjoy: a content-rich approach.

What Is A Content-Rich Approach?

Kids need to know things. They need to know some of the language of formal grammar, but they also need to know about our world as a whole. What if I could make grammar instruction that combines both? Enter my content-rich approach to grammar. No more isolated sentences. Instead, grammar examples carry meaning and build up to a deeper understanding of the world around us.

For example, recently I was teaching about appositives. (I love appositives! They are one of the best grammar concepts to teach!) As I prepared my examples, I used photographs and sentences about reptiles and amphibians. Not only do these examples grab students' attention, but they also show how the grammar concept can be applied in real writing situations.
In worksheets, too, we can create examples that carry meaning. After students learned about appositives, they practiced identifying and punctuating appositives with sentences about sea turtles. These sentences led to further research and questions from students, who extended the grammar lesson into their own inquiry.

Preparing Examples

What content to choose for grammar examples? I like to explore topics that fit in with the typical curriculum, but go a step beyond. For example, when my husband asked me for some third-grade level adjective work, I used the cloud forest as a theme. His students had read a story about the quetzal in their literature anthologies, and grammar activities had the potential to extend their understanding. (Plus, it was fun for me to research and write about.)
Sometimes there are topics that fit in well with a particular grammar concept. When I was working with possessives, I knew that birds would make the perfect topic. Not only could there be sentences about bird's beaks, but I could also use the irregular plural noun geese to show a particular case of the plural possessive!
Content and grammar are of course tied together, and seeing multiple examples related to the same topic helps to create a solid foundation on which to build grammatical learning. The same students who don't remember the words plural possessive perk up when I say, "Remember? What we did when we were reading about the Appalachian Trail?"