10 Time-Saving Grammar Activities That Move the Needle

Has this happened to you?  You pick up a stack of your students’ writing, along with a beverage of your choice, and settle in to take a look.  You pick up the first one, and find that you can barely understand it.  It’s so hard to figure out where one sentence ends and another begins!  So you back up. Reread.  Slowly.  You find yourself doing this again, sentence after sentence.  Then you pick up another students’ work.  This time, you find a combination of run-on sentences mixed with oddly phrased, fragmented sentences.  This continues, paper after paper.  After all the grammar activities you’ve been doing in class, this is sooooo frustrating!

There’s so much to teach!  So much, you’ve got to be time-efficient.  Especially after all the games, morning work, and task cards you’ve taken the time to do already.   And let’s be honest.  Because of all you’ve already tried, you wonder if there are any other grammar activities left to try.  Especially ones that are both light on time but heavy on meaning.  Does this dichotomy even exist?  Or are you stuck with worksheets and games even though they don’t seem to be transferring to students’ written work?

Grammar activities that really hit the mark but don’t cost much time do exist!

If you know me, you know I’m not ever going to prescribe worksheets.  I’m going to give you ideas that are done within the context of real text.  Real application to real text is a big key to ensuring student transfer.

So, here are my top 10 grammar activities that are meaningful and time-efficient:

1. Display student work that needs some revision under the document camera.  I like to retype it exactly as is–just a paragraph or two is perfect–so it’s more legible and you can increase the font size for visibility.  This also helps preserve anonymity and makes it super easy to share on the Smart board. As you read the text aloud, activate student engagement as they help to determine where it needs fixing and why.  Now you can come in with a Smartboard marker and make those edits while you explain the fix.  This modeling is very important.

2. More often than not, most of the issues you’re seeing are due to sheer lack of time and attention, not lack of know-how.  To combat this, reserve the last couple of minutes of students’ independent writing time, daily, to have everyone read over their work, finger under the words, and read what they’ve written out loud.  The out loud part is the key.  They have to hear it.

3. Similarly, students can work with a peer partner, where the partner tracks the print with their finger while reading the other person’s work aloud.  The writer can now hear what a reader sees (and doesn’t see).  Here again, out loud is key.

4. Type out 4-5 paragraphs, as is, from students’ writing that needs fixing.  Affix each to a sheet of large construction or chart paper and tape them on the walls around the room. Now students can move, carousel-style, to read the section, discuss together as a small group what to fix, and write down one or more of those fixes on the paper as suggestions to the writer.  The next group can checkmark suggestions to affirm their thinking and/or add more suggestions.  Powerful feedback for writers!

5. I can’t say it enough.  Model, model, model.  This is perfect to do in shared and/or interactive writing!  Your think alouds during the composition of a written piece regarding grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure decisions are instrumental.  If kids never hear and see how to make these decisions, they can’t be expected to do it on their own.

6. As you model, create an ongoing anchor chart of what you’ve taught.  This can be referenced during writing conferences and used as an accountability tool for students.  You can even turn this anchor chart into a student checklist to put the ownership on them–this can go right back to #2, as a part of that self-checking step that’s so important.

7. Mentor sentences taken from the read aloud you’re already doing are an awesome tool.  Using real authors’ work to show how real sentence structure works is a very powerful tool…as well as one more way to get more from your interactive read aloud!

8. Syntax surgery.  This is kind of similar to mentor sentence work, but more about just unpacking what the different parts of a sentence do. This, by the way, is an important reading comprehension skill as well.   Kylene Beers shares this strategy in her book When Kids Can’t Read, which I’ve written about it here.  

9. Chat GPT.  Copy and paste a section of student writing into Chat GPT.  Then ask it to correct the grammar mistakes.  Not only will it do this within seconds, it will also explain why they were mistakes–it’s like having an eagle-eye co-teacher in the room!  This can help you pinpoint what you might share with students (choose just a few of the suggestions to avoid overwhelm), or try this as a fun grammar activity in a small group, using a piece of each students’ writing with older students.  Chat GPT needs to be very carefully guided if it’s used with kids…maybe just reserve it as a teacher helper tool for yourself.

10. Read a fun book like Eats, Shoots, and Leaves:  Why Commas Really Do Make a Difference.  This is a super fun and meaningful way to show how much the humble comma matters!

There are so many teaching ideas for grammar out there.   

But the key word here is teaching.  Grammar activities like games, task cards, and gluing macaroni noodles to represent commas onto sentences might be a fun once-in-a-while idea, but these will not lead to student transfer. These are “go through the motions” things.  If your grade level takes standardized tests, It is a good idea to sometimes include these isolated things in multiple choice formats.  Students will need exposure to this format for the test.  But in terms of actual, authentic student work, this sort of activity alone will always miss the mark.  

“It’s the decision to describe how language is used and the choices authors make, not simply to prescribe them.”

-Jennifer Serravallo, The Writing Strategies Book

We have to teach it before we can expect it.  Explain it.  Show it.  Practice it.  Provide feedback on it.  Not just go through the motions.  The above grammar activities are all in the context of real writing, whether yours, a published author’s, or your students’ own work.  

That’s the key.

Effective, meaningful grammar activities aren’t divorced from real text.  Student transfer doesn’t come from downloaded worksheets, packets, or games.   

It doesn’t come from morning work that’s never applied to their own writing, done hours before students actually write for real.  And, bonus.  Meaningful grammar activities like these, done within the context of actual text, won’t cost you a single cent.  

So, fellow teacher:  which grammar activity in this post do you think you’ll try in your own classroom?  Did these ideas spark any more for you?  I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

If you could use a thinking partner to help you think of ways to include meaningful grammar activities into your week,  I’m here to help!  Through virtual coaching, I can help you figure out ways to sneak in grammar instruction in meaningful ways from the comfort of your living room!  Just reach out at any time to set up a coaching call!

Did you find this post helpful?  Share it with a teacher friend so they can benefit, too!

Related Posts:  What are the Best Methods for Teaching Grammar?, The Significance of Syntax in Comprehension, How to Revolutionize Your Writing Workshop