When we read over and begin grading our students’ writing assignments for the first time in a new school year, we are able to assess their writing capabilities. Within a matter of a few sentences, we can see if a student is a struggling writer, or if writing comes more naturally to them. After reading, analyzing, and grading student writing over the past several years, I’ve come one big conclusion: the reason why some students struggle with their writing is that they do not understand the basics of how to form a sentence.
Throughout my years of teaching, I’ve worked at two different high schools with two different student populations. No matter what a student’s language, cultural background, or socioeconomic status is if they have a difficult time writing, it is more than likely due to the fact that they do not know the parts of speech and how and when to use them properly.
Students are taught the various parts of speech early on in grade school. While I think it is necessary to teach students the parts of speech early on in their academic careers, I also feel that it is essential to continuously teach and review parts of speech with middle school students and even high school students.
If a high school student knows what a noun, pronoun, verb, conjunction, adjective, and adverb are and how and when to use them effectively, that student is more likely to be a good writer. Knowing the basic parts of speech, even if it seems like an elementary concept, is so crucial for high schoolers, that I continue to teach and review parts of speech with my high schoolers. Whether I spend one day reviewing parts of speech or many weeks teaching and reviewing parts of speech, I always see an improvement in student writing.
So, the real solution to this problem is simple. We don’t need to worry about parallel structure, active and passive voice, and tone just yet. Let’s review and teach the parts of speech to our middle school and high school students, and really begin to see their writing improve. Sometimes, we just have to get back to the basics to see true growth. And for writing, those basics are teaching and reinforcing the parts of speech.
Here are some age and content-appropriate resources and tools to help you teach and review parts of speech in your classroom.
Parts of Speech Bundle
This teaching bundle has everything a secondary ELA teacher could possibly need to teach parts of speech. For each part of speech, there is a separate unit that contains an editable PowerPoint presentation to use for direct instruction, a secured-PDF file with pretests, student reference sheets, practice worksheets, and a final assessment.
Parts of Speech Mini Flip Book
This is a fun and interactive teaching resource that engages students and they review the parts of speech. This mini flipbook can be used on its own or as part of an interactive notebook.
You may also want to see my Pronouns Mini Flip Book
Parts of Speech Task Cards
Unlike many parts of speech tasks cards out there, these task cards are age-appropriate for middle school and high school students. The last thing we want to do is offend the teenagers in our rooms with childish educational resources meant for third grade. There are two different sets of task cards in this resource, and each set has 40 unique cards. With 80 task cards total, this resource can be used for several days.
You may also want to see my Pronouns Task Cards
NoRedInk.com
Teachers can create a free account on NoRedInk.com to help students learn grammar. There are a couple different sections and lessons that focus entirely on parts of speech alone.
