Researcher Invernizzi created a study with upper level elementary students that yielded positive results. In the study, students chose various books from the Civil War period. The students sorted the word in the books by the spelling of the suffixes er, or and ar. Then discusses what the pattern of the suffixes meant and what part of speech they where, in each case. The children took adjectives from the choose books and wrote a poem. This study provided a introduction into literary analysis, writing and grammar.
There are many controversies in English grammar such as the “Which or That controversy” or the “Split Infinitive Controversy.” Researcher Dunn and Lindblom suggested a few exercises revitalizing and interest in grammar, in 2003. Build and using a grammar- controversy archive was one of these suggestions. In this activity, when the students are introduced to one of these controversies, the entry is entered into a book or computer file and students look in books or other literature to find evidence supporting each side. Another activity they suggested in a public grammar debate. The debate is set of with a few students for each side of the controversy. The students research write out arguments and then debate them in class.
This is another teaching strategy presented by the Dunn and Lindblom team. Is this activity the students study grammar that is used differently depending on the situation or voice of the writer or speaker. This introduces the students the students to a variety of options for writing.
In this activity, teachers have students look at an array of writing samples from simple selections written by first graders to the more complex writing of an experienced author. The students number the words in each phrase or clause. Then the teacher explains that the number of words in the phrase or clause indicates syntactic maturity. Students study the work and place the selections in order by maturity level. During this first study, Vavra, the researcher encouraged teachers to act as though they did not always have the answers. When the teachers did not have an answer for the students they became enthralled in the question and studied the grammar rules until they could find it.
Mechanical drills have been used for years where students change sentences by substituting nouns, pronouns, tense of verbs and so on. These drills don’t cohesively teach meaning, use or grammar form. Communicate drills are oral drills given to one student at a time. As they answer, the student writes down his/her response and the class discusses the grammar use in his/her answer. Each student is asked a different question requiring them the vary their answers and sentence structure.