It’s time to give English grammar and writing the appreciation they deserve! Often considered to be a difficult language with more exceptions than rules, English has the ability to mystify students and teachers alike. In order to cultivate young minds that can distinguish the subtleties of the English language, teachers and students must be open to connecting many rules, in order to understand how they work together to form one language. With this in mind, we have dedicated this week to English grammar and all of its glory. From homonyms to helping verbs, we’ve got you covered on the basics.
Our new English Grammar lesson plans are now live in the Voki Lesson Plan Database. As always, Voki lesson plans are provided to teachers free of charge!
Remember: The grade assigned to each lesson plan is not set in stone – you can use Voki lesson plans from a higher, or lower, grade than the one you teach – if you think they fit! Also, remember that you can adapt Voki lesson plans to fit your style or your students’ abilities.
- Helping Verbs (4th Grade) – In this lesson, students will learn the 23 different helping verbs and use Voki to make lessons for their peers. In order to gain an understanding of what separates a helping verb from an action verb, students will be asked to act out verbs that the teacher says. After the actions (or inactions) are done, students will have had first hand experience dealing with the two forms. The idea of verbs with no singular meaning may confuse some ESL students, so it helps to be fully prepared for this lesson in advance. By the end of this lesson, students will understand the grammatical importance of helping verbs.
- Capitalize that! (3rd Grade) – In this lesson students will be in charge of exploring a capitalization rule out of the many in the English language. Students create a Voki that informs classmates of a capitalization rule, and then give an example. The Vokis can be combined on a webpage to serve as a reference for students before a test.
- Homonyms (5th Grade) – Students will discover the subtleties of the English language by familiarizing themselves with the 5 categories of homonyms. Utilizing various homonym jokes, Voki avatars, and formal instruction, students will become more attuned to the details of English and hopefully never write ‘to’ in place of ‘too’!
When it comes to teaching English grammar rules, the power of repetition and an interactive atmosphere is not to be underestimated. If one student understands the rules, ask him or her to explain it to the students that need help.
Each of these Voki lessons contain tasks that ask students repeat what they learn, through various activities, before creating a Voki. Doing so will help students remember the rules and link what they have learned to other grammar rules they encounter in the future.
As always, we are interested in hearing about how you have used Voki in class. If you have a lesson plan that uses Voki (or that can be adapted to incorporate Voki) and you would like to share, please email us at lessonplans@voki.com.
We hope you enjoy!
Sincerely,
The Voki Team
The Voki Blog - Expanding Education 
I think the ideas are great but using the VOKI voice rather than your own is not as authentic or as easily understood. My EFL students would not understand these definitions. I think if the teacher had said the same thing, pronouncing clearly and slowly, it would be more beneficial for the students. Susan
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Implementing VOKI is a great idea,I think. It’s a great teaching- learning aid. It would be more cathy and effective than a general classroom teaching. However, a teacher’s effort are needed too. A teacher should explain what is being taught through the VOKI, for a healthy teaching- learning process.
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Thank you both for your comments! We completely agree.
Kalyan, you are right. Voki is a tool that works best with the teacher rather than for. Hopefully these lesson plans show that in class teaching and Voki go hand in hand.
And Susan, thank you for your suggestion. We are now creating more example using voice recording rather than text-to-speech. We hope you enjoy our next batch of lesson plans!
Sincerely,
Ashley Chaney Ortiz
The Voki Team
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“With this in mind, we have dedicated this week to English grammar and all of it’s glory. From homonyms to helping verbs we’ve got you covered on the basics.”
should say “all of its glory” (no apostrophe)
should say “From homonyms to helping verbs, we’ve got you covered on the basicsl”
(needs a comma)
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Teachers! What would we do without them? Thank you so much. How embarrassing!
Ashley Chaney Ortiz
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