Composition Interventions

Grammar is the system and structure of the English language. Many students struggle with composing papers that are grammatically correct because they lack content or application knowledge of the parts of speech, or do not understand how to construct sentences to impart meaning (also known as usage). However, multiple studies have shown that explicit grammar instruction does not improve a student's writing. In fact, multiple studies have shown that traditional grammar instruction (such as teaching grammar as an independent activity) actually decrease a student's quality of writing (Graham & Perin, 2007). While planning to intervene in this area, proceed with caution: Teaching grammar in isolation may, in fact, cause more harm than good, if it takes the place of actual writing time and instruction. Therefore, when choosing to intervene to support your student’s grammar and usage, take the following steps:

1. Identify student-specific grammar needs to teach (rather than teaching generic grammar instruction)
2. Embed your grammar instruction into the current writing context (rather than isolated grammar activities)

Because explicit grammar instruction in isolation is not a high-impact way to support a student's writing, this page includes only two intervention strategies to support your student in grammar and usage. First, you'll learn about a resource you can use to teach a student about basic grammatical rules and structure. Then, you'll learn about an intervention you can use to provide explicit instruction concerning a specific grammar rule. As you read, consider how these intervention best align with your student's strengths and needs in the whole-learner domains.

Explicit Instruction

If you are intervening to support your student's ability to employ grammar and usage appropriately, you should start by explicitly teaching the skill. If possible, use an example from the student's own writing. Note: this script will change depending on the skill you are intervening to support. If you were teaching your student about subjects and predicates, your explicit instruction might sound like:

• Explain the Skill/Concept. Define subject and predicate, and explain the activity. ("A subject and predicate are two very important ideas in English grammar. A subject is the topic we are talking about, which might be a person, place, or thing. A predicate is everything that comes after the subject, which includes the verb and everything after the verb." "Today, we are going to go through the writing you've done to double check that you've used subjects and predicates in each sentence." )
• Model Skill with Examples. Think aloud about a sentence that uses both a subject and a predicate.  ("Listen as I read this sentence: 'Destinee ran to the park.' The subject is Destinee that's the who. 'Ran to the park' is the predicate, because it's the verb 'ran' and everything that comes after it  'to the park.'")
• Model Skill with Non-Examples. Think aloud about a sentence that does not have both components. ("What if I wrote the sentence: 'Destinee'? Or just 'Ran to the park.' These are fragments, not sentences. Neither of these sentences describes a complete thought. In order to write a whole thought, we need to use both a subject  'Destinee' — and the predicate, or what Destinee did ' ran to the park.'")
• Practice the Skill. Engage in one or more of the activities below to practice the skill with your student, providing feedback as necessary. ("Now, let's read your writing and make sure all of your sentences have both of these components.")

Activity A: Sing It! 
If your student needs support with grammar, teach him to Sing It! Research has shown that music improves memory, so putting specific grammar rules to a tune will help your student remember the rules and aid in his ability to apply these rules independently. One great resource that has already been created (and used successfully) to teach students grammar rules is Schoolhouse Rock.

How to use songs in the English language classroom | British Council. (2015). Britishcouncil.org. https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/how-use-songs-english-language-classroom#:~:text=1%201.%20Listen%20to%20the%20song%20That%E2%80%99s%20it

Activity B: Say It!
If your student needs additional support to apply the grammar rules he has previously learned, you'll want to build in opportunities to practice the rules aloud. Note, however, that these practice sessions should be short (~2 minutes or less), as students need to spend the bulk of their time applying these skills, not stating them aloud. The parts of speech and their usage should be taught in the writing program. Teaching grammar during sentence activities helps students gain an understanding of how parts of speech are used in context, which proves especially useful when students are expected to revise and edit their own work or assigned passages.

Saddler, B. (2017). Teacher's guide to effective sentence writing. Guilford.