We made sure to keep things lively on this gloomy and moist Monday. First, the students had the opportunity to create a variety of expressions sharing their thoughts on grammar. They received the following instructions:
You will have a choice of doing one of the following:
- Create an analogy: You will create 5 analogies such as the one below:
- Grammar is to _________________ as _______________ is to _____________.
- (You can also include similes and metaphors.)
- Grammar Brainstorm: You will brainstorm why grammar is useful.
- Grammar Pitfalls: You will brainstorm the problems with grammar. The students will be encouraged to think about ELL and immigrant populations.
- My Grammar Experience: You will share their experiences with grammar, whether positive or negative, and explain why.
- Situational Grammar: You will brainstorm the ways in which the rules of grammar change based upon the situation.
After presenting their creations, the students then created skits to illustrate what an engaging lesson looks like and how a not-so-engaging lesson might run. Many of these were EXTREMELY funny to watch. It was a great way to engage the students in understanding the expectations of their Grammar Presentation Project.
The students then divided themselves up into groups. Each group had to decide which of the following topics they wished to present:
- Compound Sentences
- Complex Sentences
- Simple Sentences
- Compound-Complex Sentences
- Transition Words
- Run-on Sentences
- Basic Capitalization Rules
Next, each group told me whether they wanted to present their grammar lesson on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday of this week. They will be allowed to bring their own devices to class tomorrow to work on the project in class, but they were also provided with a space on their project information sheet to record their groupmates’ roles, phone numbers, and email addresses. This way, each group could devote time after school to complete their project and prepare it for presentation.
The Grammar Presentation instruction sheet can be found below:
Grammar Presentation Project (PDF)
Homework:
- Read for 30 minutes.
- Continue work on Grammar Presentation Project (see link above to PDF file).
PowerPoint:
