How to Teach Grammar in Context Passages

Seeing how grammar is used within context helps students learn how to apply grammatical rules.

Understanding grammatical rules is essential to being able to craft well-written sentences, paragraphs, essays and stories. Grammar provides the building blocks with which students can create literary products. One of the best methods of teaching grammar is to use passages that illustrate grammatical functions within their context. Teaching your students grammar in context shows them how to apply various grammatical concepts. This can significantly improve your students' ability to communicate through written language.

Instructions

1. Read passages of grammatically correct text. Use text that illustrates a variety of grammatical structures, such as complex sentences and subject-verb agreement.

2. Have students point out examples of various grammatical structures within the text.

3. Instruct students to create their own examples of these same techniques. For example, if you identify a compound sentence within the text, have the students create their own compound sentences.

4. Provide your students with a text that contains multiple grammatical errors. Read through the text together.

5. Ask your students to underline grammatical errors. Then have them rewrite parts of the text to correct these errors.

References

• National Writing Project: Teaching Grammar in Context- One Approach; Harriet Williams
• The National Capital Language Resource Center: Goals and Techniques for Teaching Grammar