I am so excited to jump into sharing daily grammar practice with you. My students really struggle with grammar, and this is a way for us to get in more practice, even with limited time. So, if your students struggle with grammar, keep reading to learn what you can do to help, and you’ll get a free grammar resource!
But first, let me start with a disclaimer. Daily grammar practice isn’t meant to be a stand-alone activity. You can’t expect your students to have great grammar skills if you only use this daily grammar practice without also teaching grammar skills in your regular writing block. It doesn’t work like that.
I always try to naturally incorporate the grammar skills my students are struggling with into our writing pieces. I’ll talk more about that in a minute, but I want to make sure you know this is just extra practice for your students. You still need to ensure your students understand and see the grammar work in the context of their writing.
Daily grammar practice has been a huge help for my students and me as a teacher. It helps them continue to focus on and think about their grammar skills, and it makes a huge difference in their writing.
What is daily grammar practice?
This daily grammar practice should only take around five to ten minutes a day. You can choose the best time to fit it in, such as in the morning, after lunch, or before your writing block.
The activity is a half page with five questions that work as a spiral review. The questions review every standard from the current school year and some of the ones students struggle with from the previous year.
If you are creating your own daily grammar practice worksheets instead of using the free resource below, the most important thing to remember is to keep it simple. Five questions are absolutely enough. You want students to complete this in a short amount of time.
You don’t want this to be something you do just to fill time. We want to make sure that these types of activities have a purpose.
Preparing the daily grammar practice printouts
The daily grammar questions take up a half page. Most teachers like to cut the half pages and hand out one every single day.
But, if you’re kind of a lazy teacher like me, you can print it as a packet and just have them work on one every day. If you go this route, make sure you display what sheet you’re working on for the day so students know exactly which one to use. You don’t want them on the wrong practice sheet or working ahead.
It takes a little practice initially, but I don’t like having to pass things out every day. So, printing it as a packet or putting it in a folder with a cover page is so helpful in keeping it all contained.
I find this especially true when doing daily grammar first thing in the morning. I absolutely hate having to prep a warm-up every morning. Having the folder ready so students have everything they need for the month or quarter makes it easy for them to get started.
Grammar practice doesn’t have to be quiet work
If students get stuck while completing their daily grammar practice, I don’t mind them turning to a partner to ask for help. But this doesn’t mean asking for the answer. Instead, they can ask for help understanding what the question means or be reminded of the rules.
For example, suppose a question asks what word in a sentence needs to be capitalized. In that case, the student could ask a partner to remind them of the capitalization rules.
I teach students how to help each other without giving the answer, so they know how to navigate these situations. I’m all for students working together as long as they’re all doing the work.
So, this practice doesn’t necessarily have to be done as quiet work. It’s more important to ensure students understand what they’re doing and get the necessary practice. Sometimes that means working together.
Use daily grammar as an assessment tool
This daily grammar practice can be used as an assessment tool. For example, when you notice where students are struggling with the questions, it can help you know what they need more practice on during writing time.
I always like to combine what I see in the daily grammar practice and what I see in writing time to determine where students need extra help. Then, that’s what we take into our writing lessons, incorporate into our model, and all of the student practice.
For example, suppose my students are really struggling with capitalization in grammar practice and their actual writing. In that case, I can take a day out so we can go over the rules again. Then, they can go into the writing piece they’re working on and focus specifically on capitalization.
That targeted editing is beneficial because students learn to connect the rules and what it looks like in the actual writing. It helps them continue to make that connection in their upcoming writing pieces.
It can be challenging for them if we only tell them to edit mistakes because there are so many different grammatical concepts. So, I like to look for those patterns of things they’re struggling with and have them focus on editing just that one area once we’ve reviewed it and have the rules fresh in their minds.
When your students are done with this each day, you can review it with them so they can correct anything they got wrong. Have them use a colored pen to make it easy for you to see the corrections.
No grading necessary
Personally, I don’t usually collect the daily grammar sheets for grading. Instead, I like to walk around the room to see where students are struggling as we review it. I look for which students are correcting their answers as I go.
It’s much easier to look in the moment than to review daily grammar practice piles every week. If you haven’t noticed, I like to be very efficient because I don’t have a lot of time and want to ensure the time I have is spent planning and prepping so I don’t have to take work home.
So, I recommend going over it together as a class and then being done with them. If I print them as a packet, I’ll send them home at the end so parents can see them. But I don’t recommend grading it.
Grading is only effective and fair when students are taught something, supported through it, and then apply it in an activity or assessment. That’s when I choose to grade something.
This daily grammar practice, on the other hand, is spiral practice. They are either skills they haven’t reviewed in a while or ones they are struggling with. Therefore it doesn’t make sense for me to grade them.
Download your FREE daily grammar practice resource
I’m so excited for you to get your hands on this free daily grammar resource so you can try it with your students. The resource includes an entirely free full month of daily grammar practice. You can implement this in your classroom using the tips from this video.
If you love it and want to use the other months, you can get the rest of them here.
Don’t forget that I’m constantly sharing access to free resources on my YouTube channel, so make sure you check it out here as well.
I hope you enjoy your daily grammar practice. Then, come back and share your results with me in the comments.
Featured Resources in this Article
Multi-Grade Year-Long Daily Grammar Practice 2nd-6th Grade | Grammar Worksheets
Original price was: $100.00.$50.00Current price is: $50.00.
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