In my IELTS writing classes, I like to start from the beginning – and I mean the very beginning. Even though my students have studied a lot of grammar in the past, I go back and build up from the foundations. It’s important because half of them struggle with some key concepts in English writing: using capital letters, periods, and having a subject and verb in each sentence.
Moreover, how can I tell a group of Chinese students to use verbs in a sentence if they don’t know what a verb is?! In today’s lesson (which has been updated several times since I first uploaded it) I will give you some materials to use in teaching your students all about parts of speech.
A Printable Worksheet for Parts of Speech
I was teaching my students about parts of speech last year, and made this useful worksheet. It begins with a matching exercises, which I think works well for guided discovery. Then I have a labeling exercises for a paragraph from the novel, The Rum Diary, by Hunter S. Thompson. (It’s one of my favorite books.)
Here’s the worksheet, and the answers are below:
A PPT Explaining Parts of Speech
I have also created a PPT for explaining the different parts of speech, with examples and a simple guide to building sentences.
More Activities for Parts of Speech
Here are some other activities you can use. Instructions are included in the documents.
Lesson Plan
In teaching parts of speech, I use the above documents. I would tend to begin with the guided discovery matching exercise, and then follow up by explaining (if necessary) parts of speech using the PPT. Next, I would have students do the labeling exercise, then practice changing parts of speech using the table. If they need it, you can have them change sentences, keeping parts of speech the same but using a new word. Finally, give them the writing task. This can work nicely as homework.
