Teach Terrific Grammar, Grades 6-8: A Complete Grammar Program for Use in Any Classroom (McGraw-Hill Teacher Resources)

Before the Common Core came out, I purchased this manual, out of concern for the lack of grammar being taught. I teach 5th grade and was upset how the most basic of skills were not known. I have used it for two years, so far, and use it as an entry task, correcting it a bit later in the morning. It progresses in skill difficulty, logically, and I like how it integrates various and interesting content topics (science, social studies, inventions, etc.) with trivia facts by using riddles/codes! Most times, the solutions are not easily filled in by guessing; you need to apply the skill being taught to get the correct solution. There is an introductory page defining each skill, giving lots of italicized examples for students to refer to in each new section. I copied those on colored papers, to separate them from the student work pages, and stapled the lot together. I used most, but not all, of the pages in the book, as you may pretty much pick and choose.

Now that I have a Smartboard and document camera, I find I use more quick checks or worksheet kind of materials, such as this book provides. For me, this kind of source has good practice, but I never could warrent making a hundred copies of something that would take the kids five minutes to do. This book provides fun exercises in necessary skills, and I can project a page up, and we can do it together in a game sort of format. I have only just gotten the book and used the first few pages, but students enjoyed doing them. I had them take notes from the tip page and then they had those to refer to as they did the puzzle. The notes are brief and clear and my 7th and 8th grade students didn't even grumble! I called on students randomly to answer questions. They could confer as teams before answering. I really like the format of the book because kids can take notes--(provided in the book) which are brief that they then use to their benefit for the activity. This is the type of book that you can pick and choose what you want to use, and there isn't a lot of preparation time needed to use it.

We home school and this is an additional book for our grammar study. I have found many of the texts we use give inadequate definitions and really don't give much practice. These explanations of the parts of speech and their job in the sentence are short and clear. The exercises are useful for practice. I'm always attracted to the layout of a book, because I find that poor spacing and organization and make my job much more difficult especially with learning disabilities. This book has a clear layout with enough white space for easy reading and plenty of space to do the exercises. Since I am using this as an extra book, I give it five stars, though some people may want even more practice depending on your goals. It's a basic book and covers all the basic grammar skills a student in middle school needs.

Who would think that adding a "solve a puzzle" aspect to a grammar worksheet could make such a difference in middle schoolers' attitude, but it WORKS.Hey, they need the practice to internalize this mundane material-- I am very pleased to find a resource that gives them the added bonus of wanting to get the grammar practice right so they get the puzzle right. Plus, the puzzle answers make the worksheet self-correcting--if the answers don't make sense, then the students knows they need to review their work.Super purchase for this middle school English Language Arts teacher.

I just purchased this book on my Kindle and was so excited to begin using it with my daughter. However, when I scanned through the book I noticed that the activities have a much smaller font size than the rest of the pages. Easy fix right? Just go to the settings and increase the font size. WRONG! There is a block on this action. I can increase the font size of the text but not the activities. I will not recommend this book as a Kindle edition if you are planning on teaching your children. However, if you have abnormally terrific, superman vision I'm sure you will be able to read the activities fine. I however, just have 20/20 vision. Wish I would have purchased the print version, but too late for that without a Kindle refund. If the activities were going to be virtually unreadable then the Kindle edition should have been significantly less than the printed version in cost. My money is going elsewhere.

My students and I are enjoying this book, written at just the right level for middle school. It's a collection of standard grammar worksheets, but they are very doable, and the answers to each form a "secret word" (often a little-known historical figure, or animal), so there's a fun, puzzle-like aspect to them. Makes grammar about as painless as possible. Plus it's extremely difficult to find blackline masters to teach grammar rather than expensive workbooks.

The book is decent (at best) - I was hoping to use it as a supplemental material for my 6th grade language arts class. Many of the instructions in the activity pages are very difficult to understand (both as the teacher, and as the student). The sections that I was really looking forward to using were already written in when I received the book in the mail... disappointing.

This book does a good job covering a wide range of grammar topics, and the rigor level is right on for 6th and 7th grade students. My only complaint is that the exercises are a little repetitive.

Livre destiné à mon épouse pour ses cours d'anglais pour ses élèves ! très bonne référence ! je le recommande vivement.

Not bad

Great idea in a book. Great way to make grammar fun. Not really useful for the lessons themselves, but great to follow-up (although know that there are summaries of grammar lessons included). Lots of puzzle type games and riddles where if you know your grammar, you get the answer/solution. My younger kids found it hard (8-9), but I think appropriate for those that like brain teasers...or 10 up..