This practical resource provides 40 research-based, classroom tested, and developmentally appropriate minilessons for kindergarten through grade 3--presented in the context of authentic writing experiences. Teachers can use these lessons to teach students how to: (1) Generate and organize ideas before writing, and then turn their prewriting ideas…

Ways to overcome difficulties in mastering the subjunctive in Spanish are described, using a travel analogy and a passport as memory aids. The passport reminds students of grammar rules, including trigger verbs and "que" clauses. (LB)

Discusses the didactic implications of the object + infinitive pattern for English as a foreign language. The pattern is divided into several subgroups, the object taking different types of infinitives. The significance of the first and second objects, of objects as antecedents, and of the second object being a clause is detailed. (PJM)

Describes a classroom grammatical activity in which the teacher isolates typical sentences from textbooks and writes the individual words on placards. Describes how students are each given a placard and asked to form a sentence. Reports that students enjoyed this activity and began to get the feel of language and sentence structure. (RS)

Describes a teaching sequence in which students are taught to write as if they were readers and read as if they were the writers. (HOD)

In this five- to ten-hour presentation, intermediate and advanced students of Russian learn how prefixation affects all types of motion in terms of displacement, transitivity, and perfectivity. The features of the prefix are detailed. Throughout, changes in government (subject, object, and prepositional complements) are explained in relation to…

This new method of teaching verbs of motion in Russian is posited on the assumption that the unidirectional-multidirectional distinction in unprefixed verb forms is also present in prefixed forms. This distinction may be used to explain the derivation of these verbs. Suggestions for using the method are included. (PMJ)

The writing of ESL students, while sophisticated in some respects, often contains fragments and run-ons. Because these students have no reliable, self-monitoring system for analyzing their writing and because they believe they are communicating effectively, they fail to recognize their difficulties in forming complete sentences. This paper…

Gives a grammar presentation complemented by a variety of exercises on the use of the subjunctive as opposed to the use of the indicative, on the use of the auxiliaries, on verb aspect, and on the conditional mood. (MES)

Offers a method of substituting new words for the words in a well-known phrase to demonstrate the power of syntax. (TJ)

Suggests that teaching students to achieve coherence involves teaching them what it means to plan and to move up and down a hierarchy of abstraction as well as teaching them to build cohesive links into their writing. Describes a program for teaching coherence. (RL)

Described is a fourth-grade classroom teacher's approach to studying English grammar. She adopts a surgical approach to analyzing grammar, with students acting the part of surgeons. For example, an adjectomy is the removal of adjectives from a sentence. (KC)

Reviews several syntactic studies of children's reading comprehension and suggests teaching methods for promoting sentence comprehension in context. (DD)

Notes the problems associated with integrating grammar study in writing instruction. Provides strategies for such integration, including a syllabus for teaching the verb phrase. (RL)

Draws on concept learning research to address the problem of grammatical explanations that may be perfectly clear to the teacher or textbook writer but that leave students groping for help. Describes problems that students have in learning grammatical concepts, and provides strategies to overcome those problems. (RS)