grammar

A list of simple activities for teaching grammar and...
In brief...as suggested by various teachers

> http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Punctuation-Commas-6084838/
 * 1) Arrange Yourselves: Students given parts of sentence (phrases, words, punctuation marks) on color-coded cards. They must arrange themselves into proper sentences based on teacher and student input.
 * 2) Sentence Auction: Give students Monopoly money. They bet on whether sentences provided by the teacher (beamed) are correct or not. Teams compete.
 * 3) Jeopardy, of course
 * 4) Grammar Graffiti: Post A3 sheets with set of examples showing a rule, e.g., about commas. Students circulate and write own sentences beneath teacher's as their own examples of that rule
 * 5) Sentence on a Diet: Give students a very long run-on sentence that contains (for example) five complete sentences. EAch team must remove three consecutive words, leaving a sentence that still makes grammatical sense. In the end it should be reduced to a two-word sentence. Alternative: Expanding sentence.
 * 6) Sound Effects: Teach punctuation using Victor Borge's sound effects for punctuation (needs detail)
 * 7) Sentence Puzzle: To address sentence structure problems (esp. with German speakers): Give students fragments/parts of sentence and have them create sentences. Good for teaching, e.g., adverbial phrases, placing space and time within a sentence, etc. Example cards for the latter might include "a week ago," "yesterday," "last year" as well as subjects, verbs, and more elements to allow compound and complex sentences to be built.
 * 8) Students Write the Book: Give many examples and have students write the rulebook.
 * 9) Remove and Replace: Give students sentences or paragraphs (esp. from an established text) with no punctuation, and a list of the missing punctuation, and let them place the missing items. Have them note the volume of different punctuation used in a piece of literature. Perhaps have them choose short passages from the current text and prepare this very activity themselves.
 * 10) Also watch Phil Beadle do a Master Class on commas with all sorts of active learning at:

(Some of these are adapted from the video at http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Secondary-English-6084041/ )


 * Other strategies**
 * 1) Play audio of native speaker (actor?) reading a text or excerpt and have students merely repeat it back. Some of these may be found online...link to come.
 * 2) Give sheet of Top Ten Errors in recent papers and they must correct these themselves before getting their actual marks.
 * 3) At end of writing time stop them and have them spend last few minutes checking for specific grammatical errors (no more than five things).

Vocabulary-building

 * 1) Put many transitions and connective phrases on cards or in a sack. Students have a "debate" in pairs, drawing a new connecting or transitional phrase before each time they talk; they must begin with the words they chose.

Ideas that remain a bit vague
Grammar Anonymous: After tests are handed back, each student comes forward and talks about a mistake they made. Can format like an AA meeting: "I'm Fred and i forgot to capitalize the character's name...you are not alone...here's how to recover"