Grammar Plan Book (Constance Weaver)
Scope and Sequence
Note: The Grammar Plan Book provides a range of grammar skills to be taught in the context of reading and writing. However, our students are on a learning continuum, mastering some skills before others depending on both exposure and need. Please use the scope and sequence as a guide rather than a given. Thanks to the language arts teachers at Mountain View Middle School for their work to sort the skills into a draft of a developmental sequence. This work will be reviewed and refined over the course of the year.
Grammar: rules that govern standard structure and features of a language.
Some research-based aspects of grammar instruction
From Hillocks, George Jr. and Michael W. Smith. Grammars and Literacy Learning in Handbook of Research on Teaching the English Language Arts, Second Edition. ed. James Flood et al. Mahwah: NJ: Laurence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 2003, pp. 721-737.
PLUS / MINUS / INTERESTINGTeaching grammar provides teachers and students with a common vocabulary to discuss correctness / Teaching traditional school grammar and teaching no grammar lead to similar results—no impact on student writing / How much grammar knowledge do students need for college, especially for test prep?
Certain genres of writing may require specific language structures that can be learned / Grammar is taught at a simplistic level—yet the study of grammar is ambiguous / Kindergarten students produce nearly all the same sentence patterns as 7th graders
Knowledge about language is of value in itself (aesthetic value) / Students may not be developmentally ready for grammar study until late middle school or early high school
6th Grade
Skill Focus / Grammar Plan Book page references / Other resourcesprepositions
prepositional phrases
object of the preposition
recognition of subject and verb
identify simple sentences
agreement of subject and verb
helping verbs
verb tenses
vivid verbs
recognition and use of adverbs
coordinating conjunctions--BOYSFAN—but, or, yet, so, for, and, nor
introduction of compound sentences
punctuating compound sentences
removing "dead" words from writing
7th Grade
Skill Focus / Grammar Plan Book page references / Other resourcesreview and continue simple sentence structure
review adjectives and adverbs
review compound sentences
agreement of pronouns
apostrophe use
varying sentence beginnings--prep. phrase, “ing” phrase
use of appositive
subordinating conjunctions
complex sentences
compound/complex sentences
removing "dead" words from writing
8th Grade
Skill Focus / Grammar Plan Book page references / Other resourcesreview skills taught in 6th and 7th
continue work on sentence combining
punctuating dialog
transitions
removing "dead" words
increase writing vocabulary
SSD MS Language Arts: 2007.08