Grammar Matters

Last Saturday I attended a presentation on the book Grammar Matters by Lynne Dorfman and Diane Dougherty. These two ladies are amazing at teaching grammar. Grammar is something I've always struggled with, but just by attending this presentation and reading the book my confidence with grammar has improved significantly. I always wondered how I would go about teaching grammar so my students would really understand it and so it was relevant to them. Grammar Matters provides numerous amounts of activities and little lessons to use when teaching grammar in the context of reading and writing. Now I'm excited to have the opportunity to teach grammar!

Tips for teaching grammar:

• Teach grammar in the context of reading and writing Grammar should not be taught in isolation. You can use mentor texts to demonstrate how writers use grammar throughout their writing. 
•  Learn what your students need by examining them as readers and writers When embedding instruction on grammar you should look to see what it is that the students need to learn. These lessons can be taught to the entire class if they are on errors that are repeated and frequent among a significant number of students in the class. Mini lessons with small groups can be done for students who have errors that are not seen as frequently among other students in the class. 
• Community Building This must be a continuous priority throughout the year. This community helps with student relationships and gives them a better chance of becoming committed readers and writers. They begin to learn from one another during shared writing and peer conferences. During shared writing time ask the students to share something that a peer had tried out that they would like to try, too. 
• Reflections Before sending the students to work on their writing independently be sure to discuss what it is they are to be thinking about while writing. This will be the grammar focus from the lesson. Now when they go to share their reflection on their writing, it will be relevant to the lesson. This will show what it is they have learned about writing/grammar and how they applied it to their writing. Reflections can be used as a closing for a lesson or it can be used to make an anchor chart to record the students' thinking. 

Teaching Grammar develops a love of words and learning grammar means learning the language of literacy<3

I highly suggest reading Grammar Matters, to learn how to teach grammar in an effective way to our young writers.