Instructional Method
True Grammar Mastery Comes
from Multi-Angle Learning.
Students retain more when they learn, practice, and apply. We combine clear instruction, interactive exercises, and real writing tasks—all designed to boost engagement and retention.
Diagnose
Build a diagnostic to detetmine students’ learning paths.
Learn
Engage with multiple types of instructional content to learn a concept.
Practice
Assign practice exercises from each lesson to evaluate understanding.
Apply
Facilitate writing activities for students to apply the concepts.
Review
Lead your students through a series of interactive review games.
Bloom’s Pyramid of Learning
GrammarFlip also approaches learning at every level of Bloom’s Pyramid of Learning with a focus on moving beyond the “lower-order” thinking skills of simple remembering and understanding and by emphasizing the “higher-order” thinking skills of evaluating and creating meaning.
Our Instructional Method in Action
Teachers can choose to use GrammarFlip’s instructional content and assessment content however they choose to best fit their classrooms and curriculum; however, we feel a higher retention of concepts comes from a dedicated approach of learning, practicing, and applying concepts which is detailed in our Instructional Method below.
Teachers will find the rhythm and frequency of assigning lessons that best fits their weekly lesson plan, but it is recommended to assign no more than 3 lesson topics in a given week. Students need time to digest and apply what they’ve learned, so covering a higher frequency of content will not necessarily yield higher results.
Pre-Work: Build a Diagnostic Assessment
Build your diagnostic assessment while taking into account the age and developmental level of your students so that they may complete the diagnostic assessment in one sitting.
We suggest ten key foundational topics on which to assess your students (a total of 50 questions), but you as the teacher are always the best judge. Once your students have completed the diagnostic assessment, view your results to determine which lessons to assign. You can then assign lessons from the “Customize Lessons” tab from the left-navigation menu.
The following activities do not have to occur over consecutive days, and they can be assigned as either classwork or homework. For each lesson topic, apply the following steps:
Pre-Test (3 minutes)
Have your students complete the Pre-Test assessment prior to viewing any instructional content for the lesson. Pre-Test results will provide you with a baseline of what each student knows regarding that topic prior to the delivery of any instruction.
Long-Form Video, Slideshow, Practice Exercise #1 (12 Minutes)
Assign the Long-Form Video, Slideshow, and Practice Exercise #1. Students may view and/or review the long-form video and slideshow as many times as needed before completing Practice Exercise #1. The practice exercise will serve as a formative assessment for you to gauge your students’ current level of understanding.
Short-Form Video, Memorable Images, Practice Exercise #2 (15 Minutes)
Assign the Short-Form Video, Memorable Images, and Practice Exercise #2. Students may view and/or review the short-form video and memorable images (if available) as many times as needed before completing Practice Exercise #2. The practice exercise will serve as another layer of formative assessment for you to gauge your students’ current level of understanding.
Definition Cards, Music Video, Practice Exercise #3 (15 minutes)
Assign the Definition Cards, Music Video, and Practice Exercise #3. Students may view and/or review the definition cards and music video (if available) as many times as needed before completing Practice Exercise #3. The practice exercise will serve as a third layer of formative assessment for you to gauge your students’ current level of understanding.
Writing Application Activity (20 Minutes)
Navigate to the Progress Reports found in your teacher dashboard to review the practice exercise scores of the assigned lesson topic. Take note of any student consistently scoring less than 70%. These are the students with whom you will focus your attention in the upcoming activity as they have not yet demonstrated a clear understanding of the material.
Upon students arriving to class, allow them to ask questions regarding the lesson, and if needed, briefly review the material to help clarify basic concepts of the lesson. Referencing your list of students who did not score well on the practice exercises, try to actively engage those students throughout your review.
Assign the Writing Application Activity for the lesson covered.Referencing your list of students who did not score well on the practice exercises, circle around the classroom to each of those students to address any initial questions/needs.
After five minutes have elapsed, ask students to click the “Save” button on their writing portal page to capture their writing-in-progress (they should continue writing as they will not be finished). Return to your desk and open your teacher Writing Portal to begin reviewing students’ writing-in-progress.
Skim through each student writing portal to ascertain a general feel for how well each student seems to have grasped the concept. Some will clearly demonstrate mastery of the material (click the green check mark for these students) while other students’ writing may not quite demonstrate the same level of mastery (click the red minus sign for these students).
Keep in mind, the writing application activity is still a formative assessment, and it is recommended that it not be graded; rather, writing activities are to be a sandbox in which students may practice and engage with the concept.
At the 10-minute mark, have students save their work a second time and then ask a sampling of students to share some of their writing aloud (a sentence, an excerpt, or an entire piece, depending upon the lesson). As students share their writing, ask them to point out the correct application of concepts in their pieces. Tell students to frame their verbal responses to your questions in a way that requires them to use and engage with the grammatical terms and language:
Teacher: What is your direct object in that sentence?
Student: The direct object is “ball.”
Teacher: Explain why the word “ball” is the direct object in your sentence.
Student: Because “ball” receives the action of the verb “kick.”
If you have access to a projector and can display each student’s writing as he/she shares it aloud, the rest of the class can follow along visually to see how the concepts were applied.
Review Game, Post Evaluation (20 minutes)
Use the Kahoot review game (10 questions per lesson) to review the lesson topic. After each question has been answered, Kahoot will provide a snapshot of how many students within the class answered the question correctly. Use your best judgement, but if less than 70% of students answered a question correctly, be sure to pause and review the question that was missed to make sure students understand before proceeding to the next question.
Assign the Post-Evaluation for the lesson topic you have covered. This post-evaluation will serve as a graded, summative assessment to see how well the students have grasped the concepts after having engaged in the previous activities.
Interested in a grammar program that
provides the instruction and grading for you?
GrammarFlip is a comprehensive grammar and writing program designed to individualize student learning while saving ELA teachers time in the classroom. Built by teachers, for teachers.
Start with a FREE grammar diagnostic assessment and then customize your lessons accordingly.
