The explicit teaching and modeling of grammar gives students the tools they need to be effective and creative when expressing their own ideas. By teaching through activities that connect to a specific literature stimulus, students are able to explore how authors employ grammar to create informative, imaginative and persuasive texts, which then opens the door to endless exciting creative writing possibilities. 

To achieve this, however, “…teachers must possess knowledge of language if they are able to explain concepts simply (but accurately) and help students learn. This knowledge must be explicit and not merely the intuitive knowledge we all possess as language users. Teachers need to know the structures of what it is they want their students to use so they can … explain ways of making the language more effective … in writing.” (Emmitt, et al., 2015, Language and Learning: An Introduction for Teaching (6e), Oxford University Press)

With this in mind, Oxford University Press has just released a new edition of its workbook series, Oxford Grammar, which seeks to make teaching grammar relevant and enjoyable for both students and teachers. The student books use stimulus literature in a range of text types to exemplify grammatical features at the word, sentence and text level in an authentic and engaging way. The new edition is accompanied by a comprehensive teaching program, including a series of short videos explaining key grammatical concepts with worked examples, which educators can use to reinforce their own understanding before explaining to students. The Oxford Grammar Teacher Book provides information and activities that balance the explicit teaching of grammar with inspiring student inquiry, helping ensure that students see the value of grammar and how to apply it to their advantage in speaking, writing, reading and comprehension.

Each unit of the teaching program follows the same structure:

• Provoke and inspire: Help students make authentic connections and see value in the learning
• Assess prior knowledge: Understand what students already know so that individual needs can be catered for
• Set a learning intention: Establish a learning intention that is the anchor for the session and that can be reflected upon later
• Investigate: Support and underpin the activities in the student books through an investigation of the language focus
• Differentiate: Cater for students requiring additional support or challenge
• Reflect: Provide opportunities for reflection and application of the learning.

The program has been designed to allow flexibility in the way the learning is presented. Teachers could choose ‘Provoke and inspire’, followed by ‘Activate prior knowledge’ on one day, and follow with the ‘Investigate’ activities on a weekly basis to support teaching grammar. Guided by student engagement and classroom timetables, the ‘Investigate’ activities could be delivered as one lesson or broken up into shorter lessons over a number of days. Suggested lesson plan timetables, student book answers, curriculum mapping and success criteria checklists are provided on the companion website, Oxford Owl.

The Oxford Grammar series recognises that explicitly modelling grammatical concepts can help foster an understanding of what can be quite complex ideas. By drawing on the professional resources provided in the teaching program, and using the activities suggested in the teacher books alongside the activities in the student books, you can support students to have the tools they need to be successful and creative communicators and creators of text.