Grammar and Writing

Here you have some webpages dedicated to the English Grammar and Writing. First of all, you can visit the following webpages:










In this pages there are some linguistic aspects, such as:

- GRAMMAR AND PARTS OF SPEECH

Acrostic Poetry
Using newspapers or magazines, students create an acrostic poem where words are divided into parts of speech.

Action Verbs
Students add action verbs to sentences.

Adjective and Adverb Taboo
A great way for the class to recognize the role of adverbs and adjectives in sentence construction.

Adverbily
Students act out verbs and adverbs.

Adverbs
Students practice with adverbs by playing charades. They apply their understanding of adverbs to a reading of Tillie's Tuba by Maria Fleming. This lesson is designed for 3rd graders and includes a worksheet and quiz.

Basic Grammar Review using "Jabberwocky"
Designed as a beginning-of-the-year review, this activity helps students identify weaknesses in grammar skills.

The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation
Jane Straus generously shares instruction in grammar, punctuation, and capitalization. Each page also has practice sentences with answers at the bottom.

Color Coded Parts of Speech
Three kinesthetic small group activities to help students identify parts of speech.

Collective Nouns
A pride of lions, a school of fish: these we all know. How about an audit of bookkeepers? Or a sneak of weasels? Almost all of these collective nouns have been verified by Webster's.

Conjunctions
These charts help students see the types and uses of conjunctions, including conjunctive adverbs. Scroll down for an explanation and chart regarding expletives.

Create Your Own Grammar Exercise
Nine activities designed to help students realize the importance of adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, and verbs.

Creative Writing: Teaching Grammar and Writing Principles through the Arts
Students produce original songs, dances, poems, skits or artwork to teach writing and grammar creatively and effectively. This lesson includes an article from the New York Times, journal writing, vocabulary words, questions for discussion, and several extension activities.

Daily Grammar
Sign up for the daily newsletter or browse the archives for lessons on parts of speech, sentence structure, and verbals. Users must login with a username and e-mail address. There is no charge.

Diagramming Sentences
Sample sentences with explanations, ranging from simple to complex.

Discovering Adjectives
A teaching strategy that mixes competition, learning, and food.

English Grammar
This site provides extensive support for sentence diagramming.

English Plans
These activities related to parts of speech and editing are designed for 5th and 6th graders. My favorite is "Quiet Hour Journals," a clever idea adaptable to all age levels.

Fantastic Pictures!
Students create pictures using an adjective-noun combination. Designed for elementary students.

Fun with Parts of Speech
Students work in eight small groups to produce a poster about their part of speech.

Gerund, Present Participle, and Infinitive 1 and Gerund, Present Participle, and Infinitive 2
Interactive, self-correcting practice with verbals.

Grammar Bytes! Interactive Grammar Review
An appealing site generous with explanations, handouts, interactive exercises.

Grammar Court
Students bring in print errors that they find. One student acts as judge, others serve as prosecuting and defense attorneys. The rest of the class is the jury, and so the lesson goes.

Grammar Film Festival
22 short films about grammar, sentence structure, and punctuation for older students and adult learners. Some might not be appropriate for the classroom — preview before using.

Grammar Girl
This series of podcasts provides "quick and dirty tips" for specific writing issues. Since the target audience is the general public, preview to make sure the podcast is appropriate for your classroom.

Grammar Goes Green?
In this lesson, students review what qualifies as a grammatically complete sentence. They then use a Times article about the movie, Hulk, to help them identify interesting and challenging nouns and verbs that they can later mix and match to form new sentences.

Grammar Gorillas
An interactive review of parts of speech for elementary students. Choose "Beginner" (nouns and verbs) or "Advanced" (all parts of speech).

Grammar Journals
A systematic approach to developing skill with language conventions.

Grammar Review: My Favorite Author
Students write about a favorite author and analyze their writing for specific grammatical concepts.

Grammar Review using Sentence Auction
Students in small groups bid on correct and incorrect sentences. The group which 'buys' the most correct sentences wins. This lesson is designed for ESL students and includes sentences, but anyone could adapt it.

Grammar Zone from English-Zone.com
A variety of resources for both students and teachers.

Grammarcise from Kodak.com
Designed for Grades 7 and 8, this activity has students making slide/tape presentations of the parts of speech.

Hacker Handbook Software from BedfordStMartins.com
Online practice with effective sentences, word choice, grammatical sentences, ESL, punctuation, spelling and mechanics, and grammar.

Irregular Verbs: First Person Crossword Puzzle
A printable copy is available at the site.

Language Arts Poetry/Subordinate Clause
Students write poetry using a model that emphasizes subordinate clauses. Adaptable to other parts of speech, too.

More Grammar Review Using "Jabberwocky"
An innovative activity to have students identify parts of speech.

Nouns and Adjectives
Students identify nouns and adjectives in a passage about life in a different culture.

Plural Nouns
Young students identify singular and plural nouns in sentences.

The Preposition Song
Students memorize a list of prepositions sung to "Yankee Doodle."

Pretests
Pretests and answer keys for identifying nouns, pronouns, and verbs.

Purdue Online Writing Lab
Follow the navigation on the right to links to grammar handouts.

Reflexive Pronouns
Explanation, practice sentences, and answer key.

A Shower of Adjectives
This activity is designed for elementary students but could be effective with older students, too.

Sufficient Suffixes: Four in a Row
This game, designed for upper elementary, challenges students to add suffixes to change a word to a different part of speech. It requires Adobe Reader or equivalent application for access.

Teaching Adjectives with Lunch, by Denise Fleming
This lesson is designed for grades 1 & 2 and has potential for every student who has to learn adjectives.

The Tongue Untied: A Guide to Grammar, Punctuation, and Style
Explanations, worksheets with answer keys, interactive quizzes, and a 10-week curriculum pacing guide. This site is designed for college students but is appropriate for high school and possibly middle school.

Verb-Adverb Charades
Students draw a verb and an adverb from 2 stacks of cards, then act them out.

Verb-Subject Agreement
A game with 3 skill levels.

Wacky Web Tales
Students review parts of speech using an online format similar to the game MadLibs. Students can submit their own Wacky Web Tale, too. This site is designed for grades 3 and up.

Web Grammar
A reference site about grammar by someone who thinks grammar is fun. Check out the Grammar Tips, the Writing page, and other references.

Yummy Adjectives
Students work in pairs to take a taste and touch test. They brainstorm and record their descriptive adjectives used to describe the food and knick-knacks on handout. Scroll to the bottom for handouts, including a rubric.

- MECHANICS/PUNCTUATION/WRITING CONVENTIONS


Apostrophes
Twenty sentences for practice.

Be the Editor!
Students search for capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and grammar errors in a work sheet about famous African-Americans. Designed for grades 3-8.

Capitalization
This printable poster has examples to help kids remember the rules. Requires Adobe Reader or compatible application for access.

Capitalization and Washington, D.C.
In this unit, students learn and practice capitalizing names of cities, states, countries, streets, buildings, bridges, and geographical places around the theme of Washington, D.C. This lesson is designed for grades 3-5 and could be modified for any city.

Choosing Punctuation
Students punctuate stories that have had all punctuation removed. At first they work individually, then they collaborate on a best draft.

Conversing with an Object
This lesson from the Smithsonian Museum combines practice in writing dialogue with history and creative writing. It includes a forum for sharing exemplary student work.

Every Punctuation Mark Matters: A Mini-Lesson on Semicolons
This lesson, designed for grades 6-8, uses "Letter from Birmingham Jail" and online resources to explore to use of the semicolon. Students also practice with their own writing.

"In Praise of the Humble Comma"
This essay by Pico Iyer celebrates the role of commas. High school and adult learners may appreciate it, as will any teacher who has just marked one comma error too many.

Grammar Girl
This series of podcasts provides "quick and dirty tips" for specific writing issues. Since the target audience is the general public, preview to make sure the podcast is appropriate for your classroom.

The Language Live Home for Abused Apostrophes
Real-world examples of what we hope our students won't do after they leave our classes.

Making a Successful Punctuation Lesson
Central to this teacher's article is the "Holistic Punctuation Chart" that approaches punctuation by purpose.

Pause for Punctuation
Students play with several methods to help them identify, use, and correct the improper use of punctuation.

Punctuation Scavenger Hunt
In this activity very young writers identify specific punctuation marks.

Using Comic Strips to Teach the Use of Quotation Marks
Students convert speech from bubbles to written sentences. This activity is designed for grades 1-3.


- SENTENCE STRUCTURE

Commas after Introductions
A review of comma use after introductory clauses, phrases, and words.

Grammar Goes Green?
In this lesson, students review what qualifies as a grammatically complete sentence. They then use a Times article about the movie, Hulk, to help them identify interesting and challenging nouns and verbs that they can later mix and match to form new sentences.

Main and Subordinate Clauses
Originally designed as a slide presentation, this 14-page document requires Adobe Reader or compatible application for access.

Pardon Me, Your Modifier is Dangling: A Creative Way to Teach Dangling and Misplaced Modifiers
Students understand, correct, and illustrate misplaced and dangling modifiers. This lesson includes sentences for practice.

Phrases, Clauses, and What They Do
Explanations and examples.

Review: Sentence Structure
This interactive activity asks students to identify the type of sentence.

Sentence Clubhouse
In this online activity students review types of sentences. They also practice capital letters and punctuation.

Using Poetry to Teach the Subordinate Clause
This activity includes a model.