How I Plan a Giant Grammar Topic and Break it Down to Manageable Lessons

If you've ever been tasked with teaching "reflexive verbs" or "the preterite" or "travel vocabulary" - you already know this isn't as easily done as it is said.

"The Preterite Tense" for example is a beast of a tense with lots of exceptions (looking at you - verbs that add Y in some forms but not all forms).

Here's how I take any large topic and break it down to manageable (let's say bitesize?) lessons, so students can actually master the topic.

I'm going to use the preterite tense as an example, but any large topic will work. Let's also assume that you already have vocab picked out to go along with your preterite tense lessons and you'll be teaching students in context to talk about what they did last summer or on vacation or whatever.

Step 1

List allllll the things students need to learn for that giant grammar topic.

So for the preterite tense, this would be:

regular AR verb endings
regular ER & IR verb endings
spelling-changing AR verbs (-car, -gar, -zar)
ER and IR verbs that add Y
IR stem-changing verbs
irregular verbs (which could also be broken down over several sub-topics)

I literally write it out in a list.

Step 2

Make each of those topics its own lesson and put them in an order that will make sense.

For example, the list above has regular ER and IR verbs before -car, -gar, -zar verbs. I'd teach the AR spelling-change verbs first, since I will have already taught regular AR verbs.

And "irregular verbs" can easily be stretched over several days, since there are so many of them and so many ways they're irregular. Break them down into groups that are similar.

Step 3

Match the vocab you're teaching with each day's lesson.

Like for example, the AR verbs lesson should only include AR verbs vocab.

Also, I aim for 10-14 new vocab words/day so I'm not overwhelming students.

And make sure to recycle previous days' vocab & grammar as you plan the unit. Include AR verbs in your lesson on ER and IR verbs, so students don't forget those endings!

Step 4

When you're actually planning the activities you'll have students do and creating the powerpoint you'll use for teaching, think about what students will struggle with. Address the questions you know they'll have.

How do you know which verbs add Y?

How do you know if a verb is stem-changing?

Step 5

Include review days.

I teach regular ER and IR verbs on Day 3, "Y" Verbs on Day 4, Stem-Changing Verbs on Day 5, and then on Day 6 I review all of them.

Old material combined in a new way.

We focus on how you know if a verb is regular or Y or stem-changing and even sprinkle in some AR verbs so they don't forget those (slightly) different endings.

Lessons like this are a good time to teach new vocab, since the grammar is a review.