How To Teach Grammar In High School

Do you have a high school student who struggles with grammar? Or do you have a soon-to-be high school student and no idea how to approach grammar at this stage? This is the Homeschool Sanity Show, the episode where I share a sane approach to teaching grammar in high school. Hey, homeschoolers! If you've struggled to help your high schooler use correct grammar in writing or if the thought of teaching it in the high school years gives you the heebie geebies, I have good news. The high school years are the perfect time to learn grammar. First, high school students have the abstract reasoning ability required to truly understand and implement grammar. As I've explained to parents of elementary students many times, these younger students simply aren't developmentally prepared to master the abstraction of grammar. It's similar to the abstract reasoning ability required to master algebra. Sure, some students develop this reasoning ability earlier, but most don't. Up until this point in their development, they were working hard to decode and pronounce words and determine the meaning of words given the context of the sentence. Asking them to determine the role of the word in a sentence as well is extra challenging. That's why I made Grammar Galaxy a fun, confidence-building introduction to grammar and other language arts in the elementary years. I didn't want them avoiding grammar once the were developmentally ready to use it in their writing. The second reason high school is the perfect time to learn grammar is because they have begun to care about it. When students are in classes with other students and sharing in speech or writing, they will want to avoid the embarrassment of poor grammar. I capitalized on this peer pressure with my own kids with great results. In the English classes I taught, students read their writing aloud and passed it to a friend to read aloud. This performance pressure rapidly improved my students' grammar and spelling. High school students also begin to use messaging and email and do not want to have poor grammar and spelling for their friends to see. Some of them will be interested in learning grammar for the first time as a result. Finally, high school is a great time to teach grammar because these students can learn independently. With the developmental ability and new motivation, students can use grammar curriculum to learn more quickly than they could have in elementary school. With instruction, they will learn to make better use of automatic editors like Grammarly. Like all writers, they will still require another human editor--whether that's you, an outside instructor, or a friend with good grammar. I have found high school students learn from this editing feedback very quickly. I hope I've convinced you that your teen isn't behind or incapable of growing as a writer if they still need to master grammar. But now the question becomes how to teach it. The first step is to encourage your student to continue reading for pleasure. Studies indicate that high school students tend to spend more time with friends than reading as much as they did in their earlier years. They also tend to use reading time for study instead of leisure. But reading for enjoyment is the key to developing your student's vocabulary, grammar, and writing. Invest time helping your student find enjoyable books and making time to read them in their schedule. The next step in teaching high school grammar is to reinforce the purpose of it. Reluctant students want to know why they should care.