My students need help with identifying parts of speech. As part of our daily language activities we have been using the SmartBoard and playing Grammar Ninja as a class. Grammar Ninja is a cool program that allows students to learn the parts of speech. A sentence is posted on the screen with a direction to find a particular part of speech. Students select the word they think matches that part of speech. If they are right a green circle shows up, if they are wrong the word explodes and the program tells them the correct part of speech for that word. If they are not sure of what the part of speech is, there is a box that will give them a definition of the part of speech they are to find. At the end of several sentences it shows the time it took the students to answer all of them. There is a penalty for each wrong answer. Pretty simple, but the students seem to enjoy it and are eager to participate in class.

You can use the program from the website and it is available as a download. If you download it you can also use a feature that allows you to create your own sentences. This may be a good way to increase student learning. Students could create their own sentences and label the parts of speech. They could then enter them into the program for other students to try.

Initially I had the students participate randomly. Now each table has to complete a sentence on their own. While one group is working, the other groups are writing their answers down on paper to compare with the other teams.

UPDATE:
I was made aware of this program through a Tweet by Riptide_Furse. Thanks Andy, I couldn’t remember where I found out about this.
Unfortunately my SMART board is not working as the cable finally died. Our SmartBoard is about 8 years old and I feel fortunate it has lasted this long. A new cord is in the process of being ordered and I hope to be back using the SMART board soon!