Sometimes our students do not understand a concept the first time we teach it. One of my colleagues introduced me to inductive grammar lessons and it is helping our students. You could use it to introduce a concept, as reinforcement or another way to explain the concept to a student.
This is how I have used it. Before beginning the lesson, I remind my students that in science class that they make observations and then form a hypothesis and test it. This inductive grammar lesson works the same way. First, complete step 1 by observing the verb conjugations (I have broken it up into singular and plural subjects so students do get overwhelmed with information). Then, they try to figure out the rule and write down what they think. After the students have had a couple minutes to observe and predict, I ask the class what they think the rule is. We go through the endings for the verb conjugation and then move on to step 2 where they apply the rule. Students repeat the process with the plural subjects. Finally, students reflect on what it is similar or different to and how they might remember the steps to conjugate the verb.
My students have said that they prefer this method over taking regular notes because it forces them to actively participate and figure out the rule on their own (with guidance of course). They said that it really helps them and that I should continue using this method.
Here are a few inductive grammar lessons that I have created:
- Free example that I created for conjugating -RE verbs in the present tense.
- Future proche
- -IR verbs
- -ER verbs
- Futur Simple