Teaching Grammar

Quill

This is website provides a lot of free support for teachers. Not only do they have lesson plans and ideas for teaching grammar for teachers, but they also have independent practice that you can assign to your students. Perhaps this is similar to assigning exercises to students. However, the AI bot used by Quill responds to answers and gives feedback. As a teacher, I might glean from some of the ideas on how to teach grammar on this website as well as assigning practice to my students. 

Mad Libs

The Word Finder 

Word Blank

Mad Libs

Mad libs are short stories out of which some words have been taken. However, in their place is there part of speech. Students must enter a word of their choice that fulills that part of speech without knowing the context of the story. At the end, the get to read the story using their words which is often very humorous. Mad Libs are a fantastic way for students to practice parts of speech. This activity can be done multiple ways. Students can use a pre-created Madlib and simply enter in the parts of speech (ideal for intermediate-level students). On the other hand, students can write their own stories and create Madlibs for their classmates by removing words, identifying which part of speech they need and having their roommates fill them in. This is a great activity for advanced students. 

Dave's ESL Cafe

Sometimes thinking of effective and engaging grammar lessons can be a challenge; it requires a high level of creativity. Luckily, the internet has created more opportunities for English teachers all over the world to collaborate and share their ideas. Dave's ESL Cafe is a great resource where teachers post their activities and lessons. I have used this resource before and it was very helpful as it gave me some ideas that I could then tweak to fit the needs of my class. However, I appreciated that it saved me time and mental energy while also giving me new ideas. 

Have You Ever Question 

These questions are a great for students to discuss in pairs for several reasons: 

1. It gives students the opportunity to practice the question construction of the present perfect tense. 

2. It gives students the opportunity to practice answering in the present perfect tense. '

3. It is fun! 

4. It can be modified to focus on the future tense. For example, instead of asking "have you ever...?" students will ask "will you ever.." and then practice making future plans. 

I Have Never Game

Typically thought of as "Never have I ever", this game could be modified to give students practice in the present perfect tense. Instead of saying "never have I ever" (a very uncommon construct) students can I say "I have never..." or alternatively "I haven't ever...". Students start by putting 10 fingers up. They then take turns saying things they have never done. If someone in the circle has done the said activity, they must put one finger down. The last player to put all of their fingers down wins the game.