To say I love grammar is an understatement. I thrive on grammar! I love diagramming sentences, and teaching parts of speech thrills my soul. So yes, I’m one of “those” English teachers. The kind who insists upon a strong foundation of understanding prepositional phrases, subjects, predicates, gerunds, infinitives… and beyond!

Studying grammar inevitably improves a writer’s sentence structure. Diagramming sentences helps young learners visualize how sentences are built. Most exciting is that grammar lessons can be completely void of worksheet instruction and filled with songs, dance, games, scripts, and physical experiences. Some students have created amazing grammar scrapbooks and others have painted art, produced iMovies, or written poetry to explain their understanding of grammar lessons.

Over the years, most of my students in grades five through eight felt frustration at trying to grasp grammatical concepts. But by grades ten, eleven, and twelve, many of those same students returned to thank me for making Advanced Placement Language class so accessible to them. They fully appreciated then, what I knew when they were young. And so, with that valuable support in my pocket, I continued to torture a multitude of young people with English courses speckled heavily with lessons about verb tenses, commas, sentence fragments, and possessive pronouns.

If you’d like to celebrate National Grammar Day today, ask Siri about the Present Perfect Continuous Tense Verbs. You probably know more than you think you do and may even learn something new!