ABSTRACT

Creative Approaches to Teaching Grammar is an easily accessible, practical guide full of ideas to support teachers in making the learning of grammar a natural part of developing their students as writers and as readers. Written for those teaching years 5,6,7 and 8, the authors’ approach concentrates on the individual needs of students rather than of a year group as a whole.

Split into two main sections, the first looks at creative ways of exploring grammar and includes more than forty ideas that can be implemented into the classroom. This section can be used as a quick resource or the whole sequence can be followed to ensure students are investigating, exploring and having fun with grammar.

The second section includes an extensive glossary of terms to develop a full understanding of grammar which can be used to audit your own competences and highlight areas for further development. 

Creative ideas explored include:

    • Being silly with grammar
    • Favourite words
    • Exploding sentences
    • Writing for real audiences
    • New punctuation marks and emoticons
    • Sorting out confusing words
    • Broadening active vocabulary
    • Top ten spelling tips
    • Flexing your vocabulary brain
    • Redundancy in language

Creative Approaches to Teaching Grammar is a truly practical guide that is a must read for anyone teaching grammar to years 5,6,7 and 8. With plenty of ideas to implement into the classroom it encourages students to take ownership of their own learning and progress.

chapter |2 pages

Introduction

chapter |2 pages

Teachers of Key Stage 2

chapter |2 pages

Teachers of Key Stage 3

chapter |2 pages

The problem with transition

chapter |3 pages

Auditing your knowledge

chapter |2 pages

Levels of understanding in testing

chapter |2 pages

Relevance

part |95 pages

Ideas for teaching grammar

chapter |2 pages

Idea 1: Questioning

chapter |3 pages

Idea 2: Sentences

chapter |2 pages

Idea 3: Marginal commentaries

chapter |3 pages

Idea 4: Collecting signs

chapter |2 pages

Idea 5: Guiding the reader

chapter |2 pages

Idea 6: The grammar of speech

chapter |2 pages

Idea 7: Being silly with grammar

chapter |2 pages

Idea 8: Your attitude towards grammar

chapter |2 pages

Idea 9: Favourite words

chapter |2 pages

Idea 10: Syntax

chapter |2 pages

Idea 11: Dictionaries

chapter |2 pages

Idea 12: Stop PEE-ing!

chapter |2 pages

Idea 13: Significance and value

chapter |2 pages

Idea 14: Exploding sentences

chapter |2 pages

Idea 15: Grammar working wall

chapter |2 pages

Idea 17: Handwriting

chapter |2 pages

Idea 18: Writing for real audiences

chapter |2 pages

Idea 19: Chasing the dream

chapter |2 pages

Idea 20: Telling stories

chapter |4 pages

Idea 21: Twitter stories

chapter |2 pages

Idea 22: Just because it is

chapter |2 pages

Idea 24: Grammar t-shirts

chapter |1 pages

Idea 25: Sorting out confusing words

chapter |2 pages

Idea 26: High-frequency language

chapter |2 pages

Idea 27: Broadening active vocabulary

chapter |3 pages

Idea 28: Re/drafting

chapter |2 pages

Idea 29: Patterns and exceptions

chapter |3 pages

Idea 30: Ten tips for spellings

chapter |2 pages

Idea 31: Big, deep and wide questions

chapter |2 pages

Idea 32: Making up new words

chapter |2 pages

Idea 33: Difficult words/punctuation

chapter |2 pages

Idea 34: Cut and paste fun

chapter |2 pages

Idea 35: Dramatic readings

chapter |2 pages

Idea 36: The grammar of photography

chapter |3 pages

Idea 37: Innate competence

chapter |3 pages

Idea 38: Playing with word class

chapter |2 pages

Idea 39: Explicit modelling of writing

chapter |2 pages

Idea 40: Ask the author

chapter |2 pages

Idea 41: Flexing your vocabulary brain

chapter |3 pages

Idea 42: Redundancy in language