Grammar Instruction Your Students Will Actually Like

In this S5E8 Schoolutions Teaching Strategies conversation, join me with literacy consultant Patty McGee as she reveals how 10-minute daily grammar studies can revolutionize student engagement and writing power. Transform grammar instruction from worksheet dread to engaged discovery!

📚 GET THE BOOK: Not Your Granny's Grammar by Patty McGee & Tim Donohue

In this episode, discover:
• Why traditional grammar worksheets fail and what actually works for student success
• The revolutionary 10-minute grammar study approach that builds thriving students
• How conversational partnerships transform student participation and active learning
• Evidence-based instructional strategies that make grammar meaningful
• Why grammar gives students power to affect change in their lives

🎯 KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- Replace worksheets with hands-on grammar manipulatives
- Build conversationally compatible partnerships for student engagement
- Use inquiry-based learning over direct instruction alone
- Create grammar notebooks for authentic learning
- Implement surface, deep, and transfer learning phases

Episode Mentions:
💫Steve Graham & Karen Harris
💫Jeff Anderson: Mechanically Inclined
💫Whitney La Rocca
💫John Hattie
💫Dr. Rebecca Winthrop - Winthrop's World of Education

This innovative teaching approach addresses low engagement, transforms classroom behavior, and creates inclusive classrooms where every student thrives. Learn effective teaching strategies that honor the whole child while building essential communication skills.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction: Making Grammar Fun & Engaging
01:00 Why Traditional Grammar Instruction Fails
02:00 Meet Patty McGee: Transforming Grammar Education
03:00 The Research Behind Grammar Study
05:00 What's Wrong with "Granny's Grammar"?
07:00 Defining Grammar Study vs Traditional Instruction
09:00 The Power of Comparison in Learning
11:00 Teachers as Facilitators, Not Experts
13:00 The Explorer Mode: Student Agency in Learning
14:00 Immersion Phase: Surface Learning
16:00 Deep Learning: Hypothesis & Discovery
18:00 Play & Experimentation in Grammar
19:00 Grammar Notebooks: Capturing Student Thinking
21:00 Why Worksheets Don't Work
23:00 Grammar Learning Partners vs Peer Editing
25:00 Fitting Grammar Study into Your Day
27:00 Tackling Sentence Construction Challenges
29:00 Communicating with Parents About Grammar Study
31:00 Why Grammar Matters for Student Power
33:00 Resources & Video Tutorials Available

Join our community of educators committed to cultivating student success, inspired teaching, and creating inclusive classrooms with a pro-kid mindset focused on the whole child. 

📧 Connect: schoolutionspodcast@gmail.com
🎵 Music: Benjamin Wahl

When coaches, teachers, administrators, and families work hand in hand, it fosters a school atmosphere where everyone is inspired and every student is fully engaged in their learning journey.

Transcript

Olivia: [00:00:00] Welcome back to Schoolutions Teaching Strategies. Today we're talking about something that probably made a lot of us break out in hives as students - grammar, but what if I told you grammar instruction could actually be, wait for it: fun, engaging, even empowering. I am talking with Patty McGee, co-author with Tim Donohue of Not Your Granny's Grammar, and they're flipping everything we thought we knew about teaching grammar on its head.

Here's the thing that really struck me throughout my conversation with Patty. We've been expecting students to master grammar after one lesson when literally no other subject works that way. We don't teach a math concept once and expect perfection. So why do we do that with grammar? Patty and Tim's approach, grammar study is [00:01:00] all about giving kids time to be language detectives. 

They work in partnerships. They play with sentences like manipulatives. They discover patterns instead of just memorizing rules. And here's the best part, it takes only about 10 minutes a day. If you've ever felt that shame around not remembering grammar rules or if you're a teacher drowning in worksheets that don't seem to stick, this conversation is for you.

Patty's giving us a roadmap to help students see grammar, not as a gatekeeping exercise, but is a tool that gives them power. Power to persuade, to teach, to make people laugh, to craft their words like artists. So, let's dive in and find out why grammar doesn't have to be something we dread, but something that actually lights students up.

[00:02:00] This is Schoolutions Teaching Strategies, the podcast that extends education beyond the classroom. A show that isn't just theory, but practical try-it-tomorrow approaches for educators and caregivers to ensure every student finds their spark and receives the support they need to thrive. 

I am Olivia Wahl, and I am so happy to welcome Patty McGee to the podcast today. Let me tell you a little bit about Patty. Patty McGee is a nationally recognized literacy consultant, speaker, and educator with a passion for transforming classrooms into spaces where language and learning come alive through delightful literacy practices. Patty, I am so happy to highlight your beautiful book.

And it is relevant. It is needed. I have it right here. It is co-written with Tim Donohue, Not Your Granny's Grammar: An [00:03:00] Innovative Approach to Meaningful and Engaging Grammar Instruction. And we are gonna talk about just that, how in the world grammar instruction can be meaningful and engaging because my grammar instruction was not. So, welcome. I'm happy to have you on. 

Patty: Thank you. I'm so happy to be here. And yes, my grammar instruction was not, um, as a student, but also as a new teacher this has been 30 years in the making of trying to figure out what is missing from grammar instruction that is in other types of content areas that are making those content areas flourish with learning, but then we go to grammar and it was like not just a snooze, it was like an abyss. You know, it just…

Olivia: So true. Yeah, so true. Uh, so start us off. Who is a researcher or a piece of research you leaned on or you lean on today when you think of grammar instruction? [00:04:00] 

Patty: So that's a hard one to choose from because I have so many researchers and author educators that I have read and followed and talked to but I'll highlight Steve Graham. He has probably the deepest and his wife Karen Harris, um, have the deepest body of research around writing, um, and the most, in my opinion, reliable. Um, and one of the things in his latest studies or in their latest studies, um, they were talking about how sentence construction is the best way for students to be able to learn grammar and through a couple of other places. Uh, really the three ways that I like to focus on teaching grammar is sentence construction, expansion, and combining. 

Olivia: Okay, [00:05:00] well, we are gonna go in depth today. Just give a beautiful dive into the book. People have to get the book though because you also offer other resources. Spotlight on grammar, books, and resources that have come out over the years. I have books that have lined my shelf as well. The reason I appreciate this approach, you give that picture of exactly what a grammar study can look and feel like for a student from start to end. 

You also juxtapose and this is what is awesome. Your title, it's provocative. I appreciate it. You and Tim went, dove in, Not Your Granny's Grammar. So first of all, what's wrong with granny's grammar? And in the book you do juxtapose. This is granny's and this is what it could be. So help us understand. 

Patty: Okay. Um, I would even say that this is like our great-great grandparents learning, um, or instructional [00:06:00] approach to grammar instruction. It's just been passed down from generation to generation and it has worked for a few people. Like, there are people that are grammarians, I would say Tim Donohue is one of them be, and that's one of the reasons we partnered up, um, on this book. But for the vast majority of people, the traditional approach of identification and even diagramming sentences, um, identification and then expectation of immediate usage, just didn't work. 

Uh, for most people, specifically for educators, I really, we really tried to make this book as accessible and as enjoyable as possible because a lot of people, especially educators who are not grammarians, and I love grammarians, they're to me like the Giver in The Giver, like holding all the memories before us.

Um, [00:07:00] and yet there's also this shame on the part of teachers not remembering grammar. Um, and then the default method of just falling back on the worksheets and the games where there's a lot of competition about grammar. And then it gets like, you know, who knows grammar, who doesn't, and there's like that shame and discomfort that just takes off through life. 

Olivia: Mm-hmm. 

Patty: And so that are, those are just a few of the reasons or descriptions of what Granny's grammar was, but also it can be so different. And so simple. 

Olivia: Uh, so, uh, then help us because you define grammar study very specifically differently than traditional grammar instruction. So let's go there. How do you define grammar study?

Patty: When I was thinking, over the years, [00:08:00] about just grammar, we didn't really study grammar. We identified, we. um, corrected like daily oral language for example, and we parsed things. Um, but we didn't actually study grammar. And so when I thought of, often when I'm coming up with ideas for instruction and approaches, I'll often think about, well, what do we do in the real world outside of school, um, that I could bring into the classroom?

So I thought about, what do I study and how do I study it? What are the experiences that naturally come to me? And many of them were, um, I would hypothesize. I would seek out experts. I'd ask for feedback. I'd play and experiment. I'd reflect on what I was doing. Um, I'd [00:09:00] memorize something. And that to me was like, whoa, okay.

So that's what I do to learn. Personally, it's, it's painting furniture with these fancy paints that I love to use. 

Olivia: There you go. 

Patty: Um, and I was like, how can we pull into grammar? Like what could that look like? And so that's why we have grammar study that it is a time where number one, kids get to learn over time about grammatical concepts because the belief, um, that is prevalent in education that we taught it. How come they don't know it in like a snap? Jeff Anderson especially talks about that and Mechanically Inclined. Yeah. Big hearts for him. 

Olivia: Big Heart. Big Heart. 

Patty: And Whitney La Rocca as well. Um, he talks about like, why is that the expectation? Um, what is it that makes grammar have to be so immediate? And that's [00:10:00] where a lot of things fall off for understanding how to use it. And so with a study, it's actually creating multiple entry points, multiple experiences to learn, um, about grammatical concepts like more than one in a study. Because I find that when we have more than one, we have something to compare it to.

Olivia: Yes. 

Patty: So the unit that's in chapter three is all on simple compound and complex sentences. They're not separate studies, but there's a relationship between them, and when there's that comparison, we can see the differences as well as the similarities. Um, and so I've found that that is so much more helpful in when we study something.

Olivia: What I, I need to just pause right there because I, as a learner, I need to ground anything when it comes to grammar vocabulary by meaning. And so even, I remember when I was [00:11:00] teaching upper elementary grades and we were studying prefixes or suffixes or roots, I would try to group them by their meaning.

And so students, just like you said, could compare across, find similarities and differences, so that that really resonates. Um, and it also feels like you're asking for teachers to shift their dynamic or their role in facilitation. And so who ends up, I'm wondering being the expert here, because traditionally it felt like the teacher was the expert, but this feels different.

Patty: Yes. And in fact, um, I think it's almost better that the teacher, um, come to this with a beginner's mindset if they are grammarians, um, and if they know a lot about grammar. This kind of process through a study that follows Hattie’s surface learning, deep learning and transfer, [00:12:00] that kind of experience allows for discovery.

It allows for explicit teaching. It allows for then taking what has been discovered and taught and then the chance to play around. Um, and play is not frivolous as we know. The research out there is that everybody needs play, um, to learn something. So the play part of this is especially helpful. And the way that teachers respond to it is necessarily by correcting what they've created, but rather being a coach about it.

Olivia: Yeah. 

Patty: And we can get more into like those types of lessons and experiences. So yeah. It's almost better to pretend like you don't know much about grammar as we're facilitating this, this learning. 

Olivia: I appreciate that. I, I thought of you yesterday, I saw Dr. Rebecca [00:13:00] Winthrop. Uh, she has Winthrop's World on Education and she testified with Congress yesterday around how our students really need to be engaged as learners and what's happening in K-12 education.

And she spoke to her explorer mode. Um, I have an interview coming up with her and on the podcast as well about just disengaged teens and how we need to reengage. But as soon as I was speaking with her, and I saw yesterday again that idea of explorer mode. It is - our students engage most when they are in that explore or having autonomy and agency over their learning experience.

You just spoke to the different phases that your units go through. Um, alluding to Hattie, can you take us through what a student would experience from day one of a study to, the last day of a grammar study? I think that'd be really helpful. 

Patty: Sure. Absolutely. So the first. [00:14:00] Say round, um, or section of a unit is immersion. Um, and just to talk about immersion, AKA surface learning, I like to use an analogy. Um, we had never cooked Thanksgiving dinner, but everybody was frying turkeys. Like in my town. It was like this, you know, I'm like, so that must be what we need to do. Before Thanksgiving for a couple weeks leading up, we had to do that immersion surface learning.

We had to explore, um, what other people have done. We had to get the equipment and see how the equipment kind of works together. We had to look at what not to do. Um, we talked to people about frying turkeys. Um, there were just so many things that we truly did to immerse ourselves in it. So thinking about that when it comes to a grammar study, it is important to harness that, that surface learning time, [00:15:00] kids are going to be in it anyway.

Even if we start with, um, direct instruction of some sort, that surface learning is still going to be present for learners. And so, um, how do we make the most of it? And so that first phase is immersion and it's a lot of inquiry, um, with partnerships. By the way, grammar study is grammar out loud. We are with partnerships or trios ideally through at least one unit so that we're co-building understanding through conversation, um, and creation together.

So they'll look at, say, mentor texts to identify a lot of things are already identified for them. 

Olivia: The why…

Patty: But rather to hypothesize, you know, what's the difference here? And I like to use, uh different genres as well. One of the challenges with this is most, I think about grammar in three buckets. Spoken grammar, which [00:16:00] changes, you know, by community; book grammar, which is the way that authors artistically use or not use the rules of grammar; and then the grammar standards.  None of them are superior. The grammar standards are the ones that we need to teach as teachers, because that's part of our job. 

So one of the things I've had to do is actually go to AI to make these immersion texts, um, and, and check it 'cause sometimes AI doesn't even get it right all the time. But, you know, taking something right out of a book, uh, was really hard. I couldn’t really find, you know, good sections of text that were…

Olivia: …that's interesting 

Patty: …actually standard grammar. The second then is moving into the deep learning. And not to get too far down a rabbit hole, but there's generally four experiences that kids will have during that deep learning time. There's usually three to four, [00:17:00] um, chunks of learning that happen, um, or during that deep learning time. Um, and everyone will experience in partnerships out loud, the chance to one hypothesize. So we'll zoom in on say simple and compound sentences. I give them simple and compound sentences and I've already, 

Olivia: …this is critical…

Patty: …identified that they're simple and compound sentences. Yes, it is. So that it's not an identification guess and correct. It’s what do we think are the differences, which then really primes kids for the next day when I say, here's what a simple sentence is and here's how to take them to make compound sentences.

And in our book, uh, we have all of these things already created, including anchor charts and, and the things that, um, can be used to do that explicit teaching. And then comes play. And we [00:18:00] have a whole bunch of different ways of thinking about and using play for kids to take the concepts that we are studying and with their long-term partner, uh, create things like we have word cards, for example, all different parts of speech, endings, punctuation. 

In partnerships, kids can create, uh, two simple sentences and then combine them to make a compound sentence. So. It's not like they're going straight from I taught it to you, now you must use it Really is that time to, to build understanding through conversation and through creation. 

Olivia: Then I'm thinking as a teacher, I would want to start capturing these wonderings or conjectures, uh, somewhere with the students during play. Do the students capture them? I, I'm wonder, I'm thinking I may [00:19:00] even have like a go-to spot in the room while play is happening, even post-its where students could capture their questions and put it on under a doc cam. So it's living and breathing while play is happening for other students to see. How do you handle that?

Patty: Yeah, there's a couple of ways. Um, and it's really by teacher style, but I am always carrying a notebook around and recording the questions that I overhear, um, and also ask kids to have, a grammar notebook where that play is also recorded, and it's a great place to drop those questions in because the fourth type of experience that kids will have is a time to reflect.

Olivia: I love that. 

Patty: What do we know for sure, right now? What do we still wonder? And then those wonderings become guidance for us as to where we could go. And then the final part is transfer. And [00:20:00] transfer begins by co-creating tools together that can be used when writing, but then transfer is spiraled throughout all of the writing that happens across the rest of the year. So transfer isn't immediate and transfer is…you know there's a lot of sometimes forgetting and relearning, and that's part of learning. So that third part I think is just important to highlight. 

Olivia: I also appreciate you don't have to read front cover to back. You can really dip in and out based on where you need to begin with your students. It also speaks to a wide range of learners, which again kudos. Um, I, I started to feel like teachers have to be grammar detectives alongside their students instead of grammar enforcers of yesteryear. Uh, and so then I also think let's shift to grammar notebooks because you just spoke to that. 

And, uh, I mean, as a teacher, Teachers [00:21:00] Pay Teachers - grammar worksheet-o-rama. That is not the way to go, but help someone that's listening that has copied their week's worth of grammar worksheets, convince them why a grammar notebook is the way to go. 

Patty: Well, first of all, it is a place to record thinking, um, that is happening between partners so they can write their theories down in that kind of hypothesized way. Um, they can go back to those and see if they are true, um, accurate. They can revise them. They can also include the charts, the anchor charts that we might share with them during explicit teaching days. And that might be a section of the notebook that they can turn back to, 'cause it might be their own personal grammar handbook as their writing.

Um, and it's also a place for reflection, um, and [00:22:00] experimentation and having that makes this such an authentic personalized grammar learning experience because it's on the page and it's, again, not predictable, it's guided. But what comes out of student learning, um, are things that will surprise us and a, a place to, to house all of that is absolutely so valuable and very easy to have too.. 

Olivia: I'm gonna dork out right now because I still have my grammar notebook from my undergraduate studies. Shout out to Dr. Pollard. She actually made grammar study fun, which I hated diagramming sentences and all of the identification work. That was not her class.

We studied, we worked in partnerships or triads to parse out and understand the why. It was the first time in my entire life I understood the [00:23:00] why of these moves and then was able to use them with complete autonomy as a writer myself, I had never had someone illuminate the why before, and I sometimes still refer back to my grammar notebook from the early nineties just to be able to say like, oh, wow, yeah, I was doing this work then. 

Patty: I love it. 

Olivia: So let's talk about grammar learning partners and how they're different from peer editing partners because you do see them as different. 

Patty: Peer editing in its most traditional form is swapping papers and correcting each other's writing. And more often than not, um, it creates a very uncomfortable relationship between the two. Um, they're almost like nervous to see their paper when it comes back. And really we don't learn by recopying what people corrected. Like it's, it's like saying in [00:24:00] math two plus two is five, and then we correct it to four and then they just rewrite it. Did they learn how to solve that? No. It was just simply recopied.

And so there are so many other ways, um, for partners or trios to be interacting with each other in building knowledge. So it's basically co-building knowledge about grammar concepts and then if we are going to give feedback to each other, there's very different ways of giving feedback when we get into the writing.

Olivia: No, and I, I am also thinking when it comes to feedback, um, that's something I've been studying in-depth aligned with Hattie's work, it's really the idea of praise is not where we want to go, but the idea of the partnerships or the trios, they can really uncover the why behind choices were made and speak to that for [00:25:00] themselves as writers and have discourse around those moves and how it impacted others as readers. I think that is still powerful work. 

Patty: Yes. 

Olivia: Um. But I, I also, you know, my biggest concern with all of this, it sounds dreamy and I know if I am a middle or high school teacher, I have 40 good minutes, if I have even 40, um, to teach whatever my content area is. If I'm an elementary teacher, our day is packed. How in the world do you suggest fitting grammar study in so it is effective? 

Patty: Yes. So part of the whole collection of lessons is that we ask for them to be 10 minutes and 10 minutes of time that can be tucked in anywhere. It doesn't have to be tucked into writing time. Um, it doesn't have to be tucked into a literacy block [00:26:00] even.

Um, but to carve out 10 minutes, three to five times a week. And not expect mastery after those 10 minutes. That's one of the hardest things for us as teachers. We were taught this is the objective. Here's the amount of time you have. Kids need to learn it. How do you know they learned it? And grammar study is saying, no, we don't learn that way.

We learn by almost like a snowball effect by accumulating learning and knowledge over time, um, through multiple experiences and entry points. And my other tip for that is keep it as simple as possible. No slides are needed. This is a very low tech, even sometimes tech-free experience for students and very hands on. There's grammar manipulatives that we have in there that are really helpful, but also very [00:27:00] simple. We don't need to lecture. Um, the explicit teaching days are really the days where we are the ones who are taking the heavy load. Uh, but the rest of the days are really about kids' conversations around a focus that we suggest for them. So just keep it really brief. Keep it bling-free. Um, and trust that learning will happen over time. 

Olivia: I also, I do wanna circle back to, you've pointed out a couple of times, this is with the work teachers are doing as facilitators, you are doing the identification work ahead of time, so then students can get to the meaty work of the why.

But I can see that if we are going to lean on direct explicit instruction for, I don't know, two to three minutes of that 10, one day, it's going to be pointing out the moves we made and identifying, so then the students can get to that why? [00:28:00] Um, and that's what I appreciate with the ebb and flow of your unit, the repeated exposures. Um, so let's go to lightning round. Are you ready? Yes. 

Patty: Yes. Ready!

Olivia: Here we go. Okay. I am gonna throw questions at you and just give your gut response. 

Patty: Okay, 

Olivia: Here we go. What grammar concept do students most struggle with and what's a good way to tackle it? 

Patty: Students most struggle with sentence construction. Um, and really the best way to tackle that is to begin and often revisit simple compound and complex sentences and the differences between an independent clause and a dependent clause. 

Olivia: Yeah. Thanks. Uh, what do you say to a teacher that listens to this but says, oh, but direct instruction is faster.

Patty: I would respectfully disagree that direct instruction is part of [00:29:00] learning. Um, but without the other parts in here, it isn't as effective.

Olivia: What do you say to a caregiver that is saying, why is my student and child not bringing home worksheets? 

Patty: Yeah, that's a tough one because that is often evidence of, um, for, for parents that something's being done. Um, so perhaps there's a communication tool where students, I don't want the grammar notebooks to leave 'cause sometimes they don't come back.

Um, but they can be very specific and on sharing social media what's happening, um, with grammar study. Also making a plan at the end of the week of what are you going to tell your parents about grammar this week? And maybe even some questions that we can send to parents of like, you know, the types of questions they can use to inquire about grammar.

Olivia: I love [00:30:00] that. I love that. Um, and what do you say to this student that says, why can't you just tell me the rule? Why do I have to do all this hard thinking? 

Patty: Yeah. Um, first I would say because you can, because you can do that kind of thinking. Um, and we will get to the rules. Um, but your discoveries will help you remember these even better. And then eventually they just fall into it. Most kids just love to get curious, so. 

Olivia: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Most kids don't like being disengaged and doing worksheets. Um, that I think that's what we have to realize. Um, and then if someone's gonna jump into grammar study tomorrow, what would your the, the one piece be that has to be in place?

Patty: Partnerships. And conversationally compatible partnerships. Not partnerships. 'cause often teachers are like somebody who's strong at grammar [00:31:00] with somebody who's not. This is, again, co-building knowledge. And so we need to have conversations where we're comfortable with each other, um, or trios. 

Olivia: Yes. Um, what do you hope you see in years down the road when it comes to our students as writers, as communicators? Like why does grammar study matter? 

Patty: Yes. Gosh, there's so many reasons, but if we could boil it down to the most important is when we can express ourselves in writing, we can affect our own lives and the lives of the people around us. Um, grammar gives us power, uh, grammar. It gives us power to make people laugh. It gives us power to explain and teach. It gives us power to persuade. Um, and when we can craft our [00:32:00] writing like an artist, and that's what really grammar study is asking for, that becomes a whole different ball game. And that affects everything from here on in.

Olivia: It does, and I also, I wanna just say that we need our children to be able to write, our students to be able to articulate their feelings, their needs, no matter what they want to do with the rest of their life, no matter which career field they want to go into. You need to be able to sit and record your what you need in a job interview.

You need to be able to write letters and emails and communicate in a way that is professional and that you can be seen and heard. So, um, thank you for crafting this beautiful book and for really making it relevant because I think our kids are craving relevant [00:33:00] instruction where they can be engaged.

Patty: Absolutely. And if it's okay if I just shout out one more part of the book that is so useful, especially for teachers that are intimidated by grammar instruction. The last part of the book is Tim Donohue's brilliant grammar Brain, explained in the most accessible ways for the teacher. 

Olivia: I appreciate it.

Patty: Right? And he also went ahead and recorded himself teaching lessons. So there's a QR code to access those lessons where if you're unsure how to teach a lesson that we have in the book, he's got a video for you so you can do it yourself. 

Olivia: So we can use that even as coaches, Patty. I'm thinking to do some grammar study as a staff. It, it's brilliant. Thank you so much for helping us understand not your granny's grammar anymore, and we need to really just jump into the [00:34:00] idea of study and curiosity and exploration. Thank you for all you do. 

Patty: Thank you, and thanks for having me on your podcast. 

Olivia: Schoolutions Teaching Strategies is created, produced, and edited by me, Olivia Wahl. Thank you to my older son Benjamin, who created the music playing in the background. You can follow and listen to Schoolutions wherever you get your podcasts or subscribe to never miss an episode and watch on YouTube. Thank you to my guest, Patty McGee for helping me, and I'm hoping all of you see how we can shift grammar, dread to grammar inspiration.

Here's my invitation. Send me an email at schoolutionspodcast@gmail.com and tell me one thing from this conversation that shifted your thinking. Let's start together with one simple shift this week. Create conversationally-compatible partnerships or trios in your classroom and give them one 10 minute grammar [00:35:00] exploration using sentence manipulatives.

Let them discover, hypothesize, and create - no worksheets required. And grab Patty and Tim's book, Not Your Granny's Grammar for ready to use lessons, anchor charts and video tutorials. Or you can even visit her website for free grammar manipulative resources to get started today. Remember, grammar gives students power. Let's help them find it. And don't forget to tune in every Monday for the best research-backed coaching and teaching strategies you can apply right away to better the lives of the children in your care. Stay tuned for my bonus episodes every Friday where I'll reflect and share connections to what I learned from the guests that week. See you [00:36:00] then.