Grammar
is a tedious and boring subject to the point where many students
receive a sub-par education on it. The fault doesn’t lie with the
students, it lies firmly in the hands of the teachers that find the
subject so monotonous that they rush over the subject matter. Grammar
is supposed to govern the rules of written English, but one wonders
why people bother these days when people on Twitter are writing with
a language made up of letters, numbers and errant punctuation. Be you
a teacher or student, here are some tools and apps you may use to
teach and learn.
Grammar
Teaching Techniques to Try
Grammar
Mind Maps
Make
your grammar lessons a little more visual with mind maps built for
teaching grammar. The idea is that the process appeals to both the
left and right sides of your brain. They may help students learn the
rules of grammar a little more easily. There are some students that
are simply going to struggle unless they find a different way of
looking at their grammar lessons, and this may be the most suitable
lesson for them.
Writing
Assignments
Give
your students more writing assignments in which they have to work
through different grammatical structures and concepts. Set up writing
assignments that are specifically sculpted to force students to
confront and use the concepts taught during grammar lessons and they
will learn a little more easily. In an article
in the Atlantic last year,
they showed that simply memorizing the principles of grammar is not
good enough.
X-Word
Grammar
There
is an editing technique you may use if you want to teach your
students the rules of grammar. The idea at the root of it is that our
English language has a large number
of key terms (the “x words”),
and these “x words” play a very important role when understanding
grammar in a sentence. The teacher may focus on the “x words” and
how they make the search engines work so the students may understand
the relationship between them and other words in the sentence.
Use
Existing (Fun) Text
If
you have your students analyze sentences, they may learn how to spot
the principles of grammar at work. They may find it more entertaining
if you use fun sentences and you analyze the structure of pieces of
text they may be interested in. You could take part of a popular TV
show or book and have the students analyze it to find the grammatical
mistakes. There are plenty of TV shows that are littered with
grammatical errors you can pick up on.
Physical
Games
The
Busy
Teacher
people say you should gather your students in a circle and then throw
around a bean back as they work on grammatical problems. The students
throw beanbags and the one that catches it is the one that gives the
question or answer.
The
people at Education
World
say that words and adverbs may be taught with games such as charades
and such. They also advise on a number of games that students may
find engaging.
Online
Grammar Games
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/web_games_vocab.htm
The
Sheppard Software people give you a number of different grammar,
spelling and English games for students to learn from in a fun and
hopefully entertaining and engaging way.
http://www.eslgamesplus.com/
There
are plenty of ESL games with ESL Games Plus. If a student is learning
English as a second language, then you are able to help them with
these games. They may provide engaging entertainment as the student
learns.
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/adventure/
There
are plenty of scholastic adventures and games within this game. You
have the students select the subject area and they are able to focus
on it as they play and work. For example, in the grammar section they
may focus on the suffixes, prefixes, punctuation, verbs and nouns.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/english/games
Here
are quite a few lessons that children and adults may use to learn the
principles of English. They are not all games, some are courses, and
some are functions that people may use to help them learn a little
more easily.
http://www.englishmedialab.com/grammar.html
There
are plenty of interactive games and activities that may be used by
teachers to teach younger people. There are also games that kids may
play to learn things such as adverbs, tenses, adjectives,
conjunctions and prepositions.
Grammar
Apps for Kids (and Teachers)
Grammar
Police
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/grammar-police/id397583585?mt=8
This
helps to teach children about sentence structure by dropping parts of
a sentence during a police chase. It keeps the kids engaged whilst
also teaching them something. It is for the Apple iOS and costs
$0.99.
Grammar
Jammers
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/grammar-jammers-primary-edition/id386384446?mt=8
They
use animations, catchy songs and a series of quizzes to help students
learn about grammar and how it is used Internet English language.
They have created this app for the Apple iOS and it costs $2.99.
Jumbled
Sentences
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/jumbled-sentences-1/id545928916?mt=8
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jimbl.jumbledsentences&hl=en
This
app gives the students jumbled sentences and asks them to sort them
out. The students learn about sentence structure by finally figuring
out what goes where. It is available on the Android and iOS for just
$0.99.
Grammar
Wonderland
https://www.mheonline.com/apps/final_info/grammar_wonderland
As
a character in the game, the student is able to move through the
different levels as if playing an English grammar adventure game.
There are different settings for different levels of ability, and it
costs $2.99.
Grammar
Games
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/grammar-games-by-tap-to-learn/id434660444?mt=8
Here
there are two games that the students can play for the Apple iOS.
There is a grammar game used to help students take off and another to
have them land. It has tutorials for more in-depth learning and can
be bought for $1.99.
In
Summary
There
are a lot of tools and techniques that may be used to help students
learn their spelling and grammar a little more efficiently. It is a
tough and boring subject to cover, so it is often a good idea to get
in as much help as you can, even if it is a new technique or tool.
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