Middle School Grammar Games and Activities
Many middle school students consider learning grammar a chore because grammar lessons and assignments tend to be very boring. You can make grammar more fun for your child by incorporating it into a game or activity that reinforces the concepts being learned in school.
What Are the Standards for Middle School Grammar?
During middle school, students learn to recognize active and passive voice, understand the functions of phrases and clauses, avoid sentence fragments and identify parts of speech. They also learn to avoid or correct inappropriate pronouns and modifiers. Middle school students vary sentence structure in their writing, using simple, complex and compound sentences. The activities and games below can be used at home to help your child boost these grammar skills.
What Games and Activities Can I Use to Encourage Grammar Practice?
Parts of Speech Activity
Give your child some print materials and a pair of scissors. Suggest one or more parts of speech for him to find. For example, you can ask him to cut out various adjectives. He can then write a paragraph using them and glue his words into place as he writes.
Sentence Fragment Race
You can play this game with your child. Write five sentence fragments each. Swap papers and see who can turn them into complete sentences the fastest.
Modifier Challenge
A misplaced modifier makes a sentence sound confusing by separating a word, clause or phrase from the word it describes. A dangling modifier describes a word that is left out of the sentence. Write several sentences containing misplaced or dangling modifiers, or search for examples online, and challenge your child to correct them. Afterwards, ask him to write his own sentences with misplaced or dangling modifiers to help increase his awareness of them.
Proper Nouns Scavenger Hunt
On a sheet of paper, write down several categories, such as places, holidays, teams, events and organizations. Give your child a newspaper and set a timer for 20 minutes. Ask her to find as many proper nouns as possible that fit into each of the categories and write them on the paper.
Clause Mix-Up
A clause has a subject and a predicate, but it is not always a complete idea. Independent clauses can stand alone as sentences, while dependent clauses cannot. For this activity, ask your child to write several independent clauses in present tense on index cards, followed by an equal number of dependent clauses in present tense on separate cards. The independent and dependent clauses should be in two separate stacks, which you can shuffle. Have him choose a card from each stack and construct a sentence using them, even if it's nonsensical, by writing it down with the proper punctuation.
Other Articles You May Be Interested In
-
Grammar is one of the hardest parts of writing to teach to students, and is the part that most students find uninteresting. This article lists three ways that teachers can try to make grammar fun for students.
-
Learning the various parts of speech can be difficult for third to sixth grade students. Read on to gain an in depth understanding of the grammatical classifications your elementary student is expected to know and how to help him or her master the concepts.
We Found 7 Tutors You Might Be Interested In
Huntington Learning
- What Huntington Learning offers:
- Online and in-center tutoring
- One on one tutoring
- Every Huntington tutor is certified and trained extensively on the most effective teaching methods
K12
- What K12 offers:
- Online tutoring
- Has a strong and effective partnership with public and private schools
- AdvancED-accredited corporation meeting the highest standards of educational management
Kaplan Kids
- What Kaplan Kids offers:
- Online tutoring
- Customized learning plans
- Real-Time Progress Reports track your child's progress
Kumon
- What Kumon offers:
- In-center tutoring
- Individualized programs for your child
- Helps your child develop the skills and study habits needed to improve their academic performance
Sylvan Learning
- What Sylvan Learning offers:
- Online and in-center tutoring
- Sylvan tutors are certified teachers who provide personalized instruction
- Regular assessment and progress reports
Tutor Doctor
- What Tutor Doctor offers:
- In-Home tutoring
- One on one attention by the tutor
- Develops personlized programs by working with your child's existing homework
TutorVista
- What TutorVista offers:
- Online tutoring
- Student works one-on-one with a professional tutor
- Using the virtual whiteboard workspace to share problems, solutions and explanations