Grammar Rules!

So my goal for my three third graders is to learn some basic grammar rules and apply them in their writing. Thus far they've been able to get away with a lot because we've been so busy trying to increase vocabulary and reading ability that writing has kind of gone to the wayside. Well, no more. Eventually these girls are going to be out in the real world and so we need to catch up on their writing skills. Over the years they've been introduced to many grammar rules and concepts (nouns, verbs, long vowel and short vowel sounds, etc.), most recently being adjectives.

Over the weekend I decided to start them with an easy rule: a or an. Theoretically, this should be simple. So I decided to introduce this rule with a little bit of deduction and critical thinking. Basically I wrote a bunch of sentences on a small white board and underlined a or an respectively. Then I asked the girls to look at the sentences and tell my why I wrote a or an. They thought. And thought. And thought some more. Finally they started to give me reasons- "it's a noun", "it's an animal", etc. When I realized that this may be slightly too hard (basically because they were over-thinking and that's not a concept easily defined to deaf kids), I took a step back. I wrote only sentences that contained the word an and then underlined that in one color and the beginning letter of the following noun in blue. Very quickly one of the girls got this look on her face as if every light blub over her head had just turned on and interjected, "VOWELS!" YES!!! I knew they could do it without my having to explain the rule but they needed the opportunity and the prodding to get them going in the right direction. No problem. I can give them that all day long.

Once I explained the rule and showed them an anchor chart I had made last year when I planned to teach this concept (let's just say "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry"), we practiced filling in the blanks with a bunch of random sentences. They were easily able to choose the right word. So I whipped up this quick worksheet with 10 sentences and blanks for them to write in the correct word choice. The girls especially loved the fact that it was Halloween themed!

 Upon looking at their papers, I realized we needed a refresher about capitals. So we quickly did that today. Hopefully, they'll remember to incorporate that rule into their writing (this is the hardest part for them). We moved on to punctuation marks. We spent a lot of time talking about the three kinds of marks and when to use them. We covered the basic sentence types (asking, telling, yelling). I showed them another anchor chart I made last year (see above quote in reference to anchor charts) and we practiced. And practiced. And looked at words meant for questioning and exclamations. Then they each had to write three sentences- 1 for each kind of punctuation mark. Their English isn't the best but they've got the concept and I didn't have to help other than spelling. I'll take it!

Tomorrow, we practice some more. And then move on to another rule- parts of sentences. That's probably going to take some time...