Quick, daily classroom lessons for improving students' grammar and writing skills
This must-have resource features 180 practical, ready-to-use grammar and usage lessons and activities–one for each day of the school year. The activities included help students in grades 5-12 to acquire, improve, and expand their grammar skills, and become more adept and confident writers. Veteran educator and best-selling author Jack Umstatter helps teachers to familiarize students with the type of grammar-related content found on standardized local, state, national, and college admissions tests.
Includes ready-to-use, yet comprehensive and authoritative activities for use as sponge activities, extra homework, or regular daily lessons Reproducible lessons are designed to be non-intimidating and clear for students Other titles by Umstatter include Grammar Grabbers!, 201 Ready-to-Use Word Games for the English Classroom, Brain Games!, and Got Grammar?
Tips for educators on how to best utilize each specific topic or lesson are included for easy classroom instruction.
How to Use this Book • xv Section One Grammar • 1 1. the noun 2. types of nouns 3. the pronoun 4. personal pronouns 5. Do you know your personal pronouns? 6. reflexive, demonstrative, and interrogative pronouns 7. singular and plural nouns and pronouns 8. the adjective 9. the noun-adjective-pronoun question 10. the verb 11. Is it an action, linking, or helping verb? 12. the adverb 13. the preposition 14. compound prepositions and the preposition-adverb question 15. the coordinating conjunction 16. the correlative conjunction 17. the subordinating conjunction 18. combining ideas with the subordinating conjunction 19. the interjection 20. parts-of-speech review (part one) 21. parts-of-speech review (part two) 22. parts-of-speech parade 23. filling in the parts of speech 24. What’s missing? (parts-of-speech review) 25. fun with literary titles (parts-of-speech review) 26. parts-of-speech matching Section Two Usage • 29 27. complete and simple subjects 28. complete and simple predicates 29. compound subject and compound predicate 30. the direct object 31. the indirect object 32. the object of the preposition 33. objects and 8–7–5 34. subject complements— predicate nominatives and predicate adjectives 35. Predicate nominative, predicate adjective, or neither? 36. introducing phrases 37. the verb phrase 38. the prepositional phrase 39. the adjective phrase 40. the adverb phrase 41. adjective and adverb phrases review 42. prepositional phrases review 43. the appositive 44. Appositive, verb, or prepositional phrase? 45. the participle and participial phrase 46. Participial phrase or not? 47. the gerund and gerund phrase 48. Gerund or not? 49. the infinitive and infinitive phrase 50. the many uses of the infinitive phrase 51. verbal phrase review 52. matching the phrases in context 53. showing what you know about phrases 54. happy in ten different ways 55. writing with variety 56. phrases finale 57. introducing clauses 58. the adverb clause 59. nailing down the adverb clause 60. the adjective clause 61. recognizing adjective clauses 62. the noun clause 63. the many uses of the noun clause 64. adjective, adverb, and noun clauses 65. identifying phrases and clauses 66. Do you know your phrases and clauses? 67. putting clauses into action 68. what good writers do 69. starting the sentence 70. it’s all about form 71. sentences, fragments, and run-on sentences 72. What’s what? sentences, fragments, and run-on sentences 73. making sense (and sentences) 74. types of sentences by purpose 75. ‘‘purposeful’’ sentences 76. sentences by design (or construction) 77. simple and compound sentences 78. complex sentences 79. compound-complex sentences 80. Know the sentence’s structure? 81. subject and verb agreement 82. agreement involving prepositional phrases 83. knowing your prepositional phrases and agreement 84. pronouns and their antecedents 85. agreement between indefinite pronouns and their antecedents 86. showing what you know about pronouns and their antecedents 87. indefinite pronouns 88. indefinite pronouns and agreement 89. writing with indefinite pronouns 90. compound subjects (part one) 91. compound subjects (part two) 92. working with compound subjects 93. subject-verb agreement situations 94. more subject-verb agreement situations 95. making the wrong right 96. knowing your subject-verb agreement 97. subject-verb agreement parade 98. practicing agreement 99. How well do you know agreement? 100. regular verb tenses 101. selecting the correct verb tense 102. irregular verbs (part one) 103. working with irregular verbs from part one 104. irregular verbs (part two) 105. working with irregular verbs from part two 106. irregular verbs in context 107. Correct or incorrect? 108. helping out with irregular verbs 109. the verb ‘‘be’’ 110. busy with the verb ‘‘be’’ 111. the nominative case 112. the objective case 113. the possessive case 114. the possessive case and pronouns 115. indefinite pronouns and the possessive case 116. using the possessive case 117. confusing usage words (part one) 118. confusing usage words (part two) 119. confusing usage words (part three) 120. confusing usage words (part four) 121. confusing usage words (part five) 122. confusing usage words (part six) 123. confusing usage words (part seven) 124. confusing usage words (part eight) 125. matching up the confusing words 126. Which is the correct word? 127. select the correct word 128. double negatives 129. misplaced and dangling modifiers 130. revising sentences that have misplaced and dangling modifiers 131. transitive and intransitive verbs 132. Do you know your transitive and intransitive verbs? 133. active and passive voices 134. sound-alike words (part one) 135. sound-alike words (part two) 136. sound-alike words (part three) 137. sound-alike words (part four) 138. making your mark with sound-alike words 139. regular comparison of adjectives and adverbs 140. irregular comparison of adjectives and adverbs Section Three Mechanics • 145 141. periods, question marks, and exclamation marks 142. working with periods, question marks, and exclamation marks 143. commas (part one) 144. commas (part two) 145. commas (part three) 146. commas (part four) 147. commas (part five) 148. commas in action 149. some more commas in action 150. comma matching contest 151. the apostrophe 152. more apostrophe situations 153. working with apostrophes 154. the colon 155. the semicolon 156. colons and semicolons in context 157. quotation marks (part one) 158. quotation marks (part two) 159. quotation marks (part three) 160. italics, hyphens, and brackets 161. parentheses, ellipsis marks, and dashes 162. all sorts of punctuation problems 163. All the punctuation is missing! 164. first capitalization list 165. second capitalization list 166. using capital letters 167. capitalize these (part one) 168. capitalize these (part two) 169. challenging spelling words 170. spell it right—and win the battle Section Four Show What You Know • 177 171. Where did all the letters go? 172. grammar and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea 173. grammar, mechanics, and Alice in Wonderland 174. phrases, clauses, and sentences found in ‘‘One Thousand Dollars’’ 175. find the mistake 176. five questions in five minutes (parts of speech, prepositional phrases, and clauses) 177. five questions in five minutes (sentences and usage) 178. five questions in five minutes (mechanics) 179. five questions in five minutes (verbals and subject complements) 180. five questions in five minutes (confusing and sound-alike words) Answer Key 188
JACK UMSTATTER, M.A., taught English for more than 30 years at both the middle school and high school levels. Selected Teacher of the Year several times, he is the best-selling author of numerous books, including 201 Ready-to-Use Word Games for the English Classroom, Brain Games!, Grammar Grabbers!, and Got Grammar?, all published by Jossey-Bass. Umstatter is a professional development workshop leader, training teachers and students across the nation on reading, writing, and poetry strategies.
