A while ago I was fortunate enough to attend some training for English teachers on grammar. The course was led by Adrian Pymm, School Improvement Adviser in Doncaster and self-confessed grammar geek. It was one of those times where so many ideas ‘clicked’ into place. This posting is part of a series that shows how ideas gained from that learning are now part of my everyday teaching.
Prepositions are one of the trickiest word classes to explore with students. This is largely because they are ’structure words.’ They have no meaning of their own; they have to work with other words. Thus it is very hard to explain them in isolation.
Try presenting students with the following frame:
This is a quick way of identifying these tricky words. The idea is that any word that can fit either space and make sense must be a preposition.
There are about 100 prepositions in English and students should have a command of most of them if they are to understand the complex relationships they form in speech, reading and writing.
If you are exploring this word class with students why not try a preposition poem. The only rule is that each line of the students’ free verse begins with a preposition. [For a useful crib sheet see below]
It’s always great fun watching this part of the lesson as students realise slowly that the poem will never end.
When the majority of the class has made this discovery, ask them what class of word has to begin the final line of their poems.
The answer of course is a verb. Allow them to use a verb to start the next line and suddenly they find they can complete their poem. It’s a very neat way of demonstrating the relationship between these two word classes.
The Last time I taught this lesson idea one student said, “Prepositions are waiting words. They are waiting for that verb to help them to finish an idea.” Now that’s a novel understanding of English grammar.
Filed under: Grammar, Language, Poetry, Resources, Teaching, Teaching English | Tagged: Grammar
I love the idea of a preposition poem! What a great assignment. Any other ‘grammar poem’ techniques up your sleeve? I like to use Mary Oliver’s poem, “Some Questions You Might Ask” to help students (especially ESL students) practice forming questions and using correct punctuation. They come up with some great stuff!