Grammaropolis

I am sure that at some point you have all heard the saying, “It’s all Greek to me!”   I am also certain that many students would feel that this idiom portrays how they may be feeling as it relates to their educational lives.   With that being said, do you need to present parts of speech in an alternative way that makes more sense to children?  Grammaropolis is here to save the day as you can see from their super hero like icon.  With glowing beams and huge smiles, your students or child(ren) can now feel confident in knowing what type of words make up a variety of sentences.  While visiting Grammaroplis, students will become friendly with their characters: Pronouns, Slang, Action Verbs, Prepositions, Conjunctions, Interjections, Nouns, Linking Verbs, Adverbs and Adjectives.

Grammaropolis can be integrated in so many ways in the classroom with multiple forms of technology.  While  exploring with this application, I could envision my fifth graders using it with either an iPad or an iTouch which would meet some of the language arts benchmarks.   Why not begin your lesson with the friends from Grammaropolis?  Connect your iPad to a VGA adapter and an LCD projector.  As a whole group, read the explanations of those parts of speech and extend the discussion by asking students to share their own examples.  Once you feel confident that your students have grasped the meaning of those words, begin to play Word Sort.  Next the user will need to decide their comfort level with the parts of speech and are then instructed to take on the role of a “Champ”, “Fiend” or a “Master.”  These are levels of difficulty which determine how many words will be on screen at a time.    As words appear, a user can drag and drop them into the correct parts of speech container.  Visually students can see how well they are doing and are able to keep track of their play time.  As they finish each round, students will move through the three levels.  Level 1 works on Nouns, Adjectives and Linking Verbs.  Level 2 works on Pronouns, Prepositions and Interjections.  Level 3 works on Adverbs, Conjunctions and Action Verbs.  The skills being reinforced although simplistic, the application can however be a challenge for some learners.  Depending on their success, high scores are recorded on a bulletin board prompting students to try and beat their own score or their classmates.  As a teacher I am certainly not encouraging a competition, however, I am encouraging a student to step outside their comfort level and to embrace a challenge.

Who knew that a dry topic like parts of speech could be viewed as having fun.  Depending on the user, this application may be more appropriate for only certain learners. Some students may need to build up to what Grammaropolis has to offer.  With direct instruction, reinforcement through various activities and then the incorporation of technology like an iTouch your students or child(ren) will want to become a grammar super hero.  Whether you are provided free choice time in school or you are sitting in the comfort of your own home,  they will want to continue their exploration of Grammaropolis via their  iPhone or iTouch device.

If you happen to be a school like mine that currently does not have a class set of either iPads or iTouches but is looking for means to get them at some point and still wants what Grammaropolis has to offer…. then you may want to try using the Word Sort game or Trivia Quiz via your internet browser and get your students involved by connecting to your interactive whiteboard.  Have I peaked your interest with multiple ways to integrate grammar in your classroom, then you will want to visit Grammaropolis’ website by clicking here. Or you can begin your download to your Apple device now by visiting them in your iTunes library in order to get your child onto the road towards Grammaropolis.