May
06
Filed Under (Differentiated Instruction) by sfitzell on 06-05-2008

Color Coded Grammar

The idea of color coding grammar has been brewing in my brain for weeks now. I had heard that some people were using color to attach meaning to the parts of speech, but I have been unable to find a system for doing so anywhere. 

 I had a two and a half hour drive today from Rockford, IL to Peoria, IL and decided to work on the idea in the car. (I wasn’t driving!) I not only attach color to grammar as a memory strategy, I  use a snapshot device and the analogy of a stoplight to ‘hook’ the concepts into long term memory. I’d love to know how you like it, if you use it and if it works! Please write to me and let me know.

To make this one better, have students border the parts of speech in the shape of the word in the color cue. For example, nouns would be bordered using red and following the shape of the word. The brain thinks in pictures and remembers what’s in a border like a snapshot.

Enjoy and feel free to pass this image onto your friends. Look for it on my website in a PDF file. It’s not there tonight, but I hope to get it up there within the week.

I was doing some research for a teacher that I’m coaching in differentiating instruction and decided to share the results of the search with my blog readers. She teaches language arts.

If your students or children (I realize they are often both the same) could use some extra practice with grammar, dictionary skills, parts of speech, etc. Check out these resources!

Dictionary skills (and more) Read the rest of this entry »