The alternative word exercises described in #15.2 are also very well suited for grammar work with 3rd-6th grade students, when appropriately adjusted.
Examples:
- The students receive a text for working in pairs. Their task is to rewrite the text and change all nouns into plural form. The questions for discussion include: What grammatical changes does it cause? (Answer: the verbs and adjectives must agree in number!).
- Variants: Change all plural forms to singular; change all verbs from the present tense to the preterite or perfect forms (or vice versa); change all adjectives from the normal form to the comparative or superlative.
- A special and interesting function of gap-fill exercises is that they are useful for assessing language competence (see #15.1 gap-fill exercises for specific grammar points). Common mistakes would suggest the need for remediation and additional practice in the areas of weakness.
- Specific grammatical issues can often be remediated and practiced in the area of writing with appropriately formulated, targeted writing assignments. Examples:
- Subject area of training: past tenses. Task: write a story about when you were younger (Topic suggestion: What I did as a 3-year old; a fairy tale; something from history…)
- Goal of training: adjectives. Task: describe your favorite meal (an appetizing description with as many details as possible; or a very detailed description of a picture, etc.
- Goal of training: subjunctive. Describe contrary-to fact conditions with topics like “if I were a wizard/a witch”, “if there were no more schools”, “if my (grand) parents had not emigrated”.