We must teach grammar to middle school students. Not only is it a part of the ELA curriculum, but it’s also essential for students to know as they continue their academics and careers.
However, for many teachers and students, the thought of having to teach and learn grammar can feel boring and unengaging. So, how do we teach grammar effectively and engagingly? First, let’s look at two important aspects of teaching grammar: making it fun to teach grammar and getting enough grades throughout the unit.
Issue #1: Grammar is Boring
Many teachers love grammar, thoroughly enjoying teaching parts of speech and diagramming sentences. But for other teachers, the thought of having to teach grammar is similar to a trip to the dentist – it doesn’t feel exciting or attractive at all.
So, how do we combat this issue and make teaching grammar fun?
When you have to teach grammar, it will never be as exciting as a book versus movie assignment or even a short story unit. With those kinds of assignments or units, there is an actual story to look at or something that students are excited to compare, like whether the book for A Wrinkle in Time is better than the movie.
But there are things you can do that will make grammar significantly more engaging to your students. Here are some ideas:
- Set the tone for grammar to be not only important but also interesting. Your excitement for a unit can transfer to your students and, in turn, make them excited to learn. Don’t treat grammar as something you must get through just because it’s in the curriculum. Grammar can be fun! If you make the upcoming grammar unit sound boring, your students will not look forward to it at all, and they might continue to see grammar as boring throughout the rest of their academic careers.
- Encourage student participation. When you teach grammar, have students do examples on the board, discuss possible answers, and help create an engaging review of the previous lessons. When you ask students to participate, you are encouraging them to be an active part of the unit rather than passive observers. Students want to feel like they’re experiencing something, not just suffering through a lecture.
- Don’t make grammar the focus of an entire period. While you may be excited to teach everything about grammar to your students, it can be overdone – and overwhelming. There are so many grammar rules and concepts that you don’t want grammar to turn into a boring topic. By breaking up the grammar into smaller portions, you will help prevent students from zoning out and becoming disinterested in the subject. While teaching grammar in smaller chunks might take longer, students are more likely to remain engaged in the long run.
Issue #2: Gathering Enough Grades
Another issue when teaching grammar is getting enough grades for the unit. For some teachers, this is a challenge, especially if they do not assign worksheets or workbook exercises.
One trick is to think of grammar like math instead of language arts: it’s a skill that needs a lot of practice. The only way to become good at distinguishing between an action and a linking verb or between a clause and a phrase is by doing it and by doing it repeatedly.
As the saying goes, practice makes perfect, and when you teach grammar, it’s another area where students will need practice. They will not come out of one lesson remembering the different parts of grammar – they need to practice. Every new type of grammar taught should involve student practice.
This is where you’ll get the grades you need for the unit. These daily assignments- be they worksheets, exercises from a book or workbook, or even questions you put on the board – should be graded. While this may initially seem like a huge paper load for the teacher, don’t fret.
This is an excellent time to have students self-check work and self-report grades. You can periodically spot-check student grading and weigh the final test (which you will grade yourself) more heavily to help keep students honest.
For more information on how to perform assessments and ways you can improve your assessment skills, check out this blog post: Tips and Tricks to Help You Improve Your Assessment Skills.
Grammar does not have to be the thing you dread teaching. With a few tips and tricks, you can not only enjoy the time you teach grammar, but your students will enjoy it as well. If you’re unsure of where to start with your grammar unit, read on for some ready-made resources and recommendations.
Effective and Engaging Ways to Teach Grammar
Teaching grammar to middle school students can be challenging, but there are plenty of creative and interactive ways to make it more engaging.
Here are ten different ways you can teach grammar that is both fun and engaging:
- Turn grammar into a game by creating grammar bingo cards where students have to mark off different grammar rules as they’re taught.
- Bring in newspapers, magazines, or other written materials and have students identify grammar errors or rewrite sentences to correct them.
- Let students combine humour and storytelling by creating comic strips that illustrate the grammar rules they’re learning.
- Create a grammar scavenger hunt where students have to find different examples of grammar rules in their environment, such as on signs, posters, or in books.
- Turn grammar into a challenge by having students work in pairs or small groups to build sentences that use specific grammar rules. Give them sentence parts on cards (subjects, verbs, adjectives, etc.) and challenge them to create grammatically correct sentences.
- Have students write short stories or creative pieces incorporating the grammar rules they’re learning.
- Combine grammar and art. Have students create artwork or visual representations of grammar concepts. They can display their work around the classroom or as a gallery walk and explain how their artwork relates to the grammar rule they chose.
- Show students examples from literature, articles, or social media posts to illustrate grammar concepts, turning learning into real-life situations.
- Have students work on podcast creation by creating a podcast where they discuss different grammar topics or analyze examples of grammar usage in popular media. This combines language skills with technology and allows students to showcase their speaking and listening skills.
- Use peer teaching to teach grammar. Assign students to teach a grammar concept to their peers. This will not only reinforce their understanding but encourage collaboration and active engagement.
You can also take advantage of these grammar units, which contain everything you need to teach grammar to your middle school students.
Parts of Speech Grammar Unit
This Parts of Speech Grammar Unit is for middle school students to learn about nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions, and interjections. It is available in PDF and digital formats. Each section includes a teacher-guided lesson using Google Slides, Anchor Charts, and Student Practice Sheets. After each lesson, students do hands-on activities such as fill-in-the-blanks, colouring, or matching to reinforce their learning.
Lesson Overview:
- Lesson 1: Types of Nouns
- Lesson 2: Types of Verbs
- Lesson 3: Adjectives
- Lesson 4: Adverbs
- Lesson 5: Pronouns
- Lesson 6: Conjunctions
- Lesson 7: Prepositions
- Lesson 8: Interjections
What teachers have said about this unit:
“This unit was great. It was very in depth and made it so I didn’t need to relearn and research everything. I like that there were different types of notes and activities to do. Very easy to print and go!” – Lauren M.
“This is wonderful! Easy to use. Engaging. I had so many students who either forgot or didn’t learn proper grammar in the elementary grades. This truly made my job easier!” – Jodi Z.
You can find the Parts of Speech Grammar Unit on Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD.
Middle School Punctuation Unit
This comprehensive Middle School Punctuation Unit will help your students master punctuation, an essential part of grammar. This resource gives them the skills to become punctuation experts, ensuring they understand punctuation rules thoroughly and become confident writers.
This unit has 16 detailed lessons, anchor charts, student practice pages, and more. It is also in both PDF and digital format.
Lesson Overview
- Lesson 1: How to Use Periods
- Lesson 2: Question Marks
- Lesson 3: Using Exclamation Point
- Lesson 4: Use of Apostrophes
- Lesson 5: Commas Used in a List or Series
- Lesson 6: Commas for Introductory Words or Phrases
- Lesson 7: Commas for a Direct Address
- Lesson 8: Commas for Interrupters/ Parenthetical/Non-Restrictive Elements
- Lesson 9: Commas Between Coordinate Adjectives
- Lesson 10: Quotation Marks in Dialogue
- Lesson 11: Ellipses to Indicate Omission or Ambiguity/Hesitation
- Lesson 12: Use of Parentheses
- Lesson 13: Hyphens vs. Dashes
- Lesson 14: Use of Brackets
- Lesson 15: Use of Semicolons
- Lesson 16: How to Use Colons
What teachers have said about this unit:
“This is a great resource that helps students understand how to use a variety of punctuation- students were engaged with the activities and this helped students develop stronger writing.” – Jennifer R.
“Just what I needed to help my students refresh their punctuation habits! Very organized, easy layout and quick lessons.” – Caitlin M.
You can find the Middle School Punctuation Unit on Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD.
When your students are ready, you can go beyond grammar and punctuation and dive into morphology, helping your students understand the Greek roots of words with this Middle School Greek Roots and Morphology Unit. You can find it on Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD.
Grade 6 Grammar Unit
This Grade 6 Grammar Unit offers practical lessons to help your Grade 6 students improve their writing and grammar skills. The lessons cover pronouns, phrases, clauses, types of sentences, verb tenses, commas, quotation marks, semi-colons, brackets, and colons. Each topic includes a teacher-led lesson using Google Slides and Student Reference Sheets, followed by a practice activity where students fill in the blanks, match items, or write their own sentences.
This unit is designed for middle school students but can be adapted for various grade levels.
Lesson Overview:
- Lesson 1 – Subject, Object, and Indefinite Pronouns
- Lesson 2 – Adverb Phrases
- Lesson 3 – Phrases and Clauses
- Lesson 4 – Independent and Dependent Clauses
- Lesson 5 – Compound Sentences
- Lesson 6 – Complex Sentences
- Lesson 7 – Compound-Complex Sentences
- Lesson 8 – Types of Sentences Review
- Lesson 9 – Past, Present, Future Verb Tense
- Lesson 10 – Commas to Separate an Introductory Word or Phrase
- Lesson 11 – Commas to Separate Words in a List
- Lesson 12 – Quotations Marks in Dialogue
- Lesson 13 – Use of Semicolons
- Lesson 14 – Use of Brackets
- Lesson 15 – Use of Colons
What teachers have said about this unit:
“This resource is super helpful with my grade 8 classes. Very clear and easy to use and engaging for my students. Thanks!” – Curly Girl’s Class
“This resource was great to review all the common grammar lessons. I did it as mini lessons with our novel study and it went great!” – Julianne C.
You can find the Grade 6 Grammar Unit on Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD.
There are so many ways to teach grammar in middle school that will engage and excite your students. I hope this post helps you with your upcoming grammar unit and reminds you of the importance of teaching grammar.
More Grammar-Related Resources
- Online Grammar Resources
- 4 Strategies To Help Improve Student Skills
- 10 Important Reasons to Teach Grammar in Middle School
- Effective Ideas for Teaching Grammar and Vocabulary
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