In my experiences teaching English abroad, I’ve found a couple of things to be true.

One, nothing ever goes as planned. No matter how much you rehearse ahead of time, how much time and effort you put into expected questions, something always comes up that was not anticipated.

Two, teaching a grammar lesson does not have to be the mind-numbing experience you were subjected to in grade-school and junior high.

Creating a dynamic and well-rounded grammar lesson is all about the amount of energy and enthusiasm you bring to the classroom. But how exactly do you do this you might ask? Below are some tips and tricks that have worked for me when I’ve walked into a classroom and just wasn’t feeling what I was about to teach. Read them over and see what works for you, and who knows, you just might find a new way to spice up your classroom environment.

Your Attitude

As I have already stated, your attitude and demeanor, as the teacher, makes all the difference when tackling a subject that is often met with loud sighs and an ample supply of eye rolling.

For the longest time I let the teaching materials that my school supplied bog me down and restrict how and what I taught. By all means, you should strictly adhere to your school’s lesson plan and teaching rubric but often times, following the directions precisely, exercise by exercise is not necessary.

I began to put a little more effort into my lesson planning on grammar days. I would open my teacher’s guide take a look at what was being taught for that day, what the objective was and then immediately close the book. My next course of action was to envision this material through the eyes of a twelve year old ESL student. A little difficult, I know, but placing yourself in their shoes and looking at the lesson as the pupil can do great things. Would you find this content engaging? What added flavor would make this lesson on present-perfect tense really stand out in the mind of a student?

I was never afraid to cheese it up. Every tricky lesson was caveated by a personal story of when I was in school and how utterly exciting I found this information to be. Sure, I was met with some criticism, and whether or not my students actually believed me, I had their attention.

I was also never afraid to raise my voice. Certainly not in an aggressive manner but more in a sing-songy way. Countless research has shown that the human brain has a heightened propensity for learning when information comes in varied tones and volumes. To accomplish this, I sang grammar rules, I associated verb tenses with body movements. Silly mnemonic devices were my best friend and while the first couple of lessons saw my students scratching their heads at the ridiculousness of their teacher, they quickly changed their minds and grew to love my silly antics.

Forget Handouts

While in some situations giving out a handout is unavoidable, it has been my experience that once you give these papers out, these papers that you have poured your heart and soul into, they get lost. They are seized by parents from backpacks as junk. They get left in the classroom and rarely, make it back for the next lesson.

The students I was teaching were living with cutting edge technology in their pockets. Smartphones, tablets, laptops and more. Asking these students to regress to the days of the boring paper handout was ineffectual.

Instead, I created interactive power-points. Slideshows that I could email them, or their parents. The student didn’t bring that handout to class excuse is now remedied by a few touches of a button on your laptop of smartphone. While my electronic means of delivering information were essentially just an e-handout, you would be surprised to find how “cool” my students thought it was that I had emailed them a list of the top 20 most popular irregular verbs. Plus, getting email from your teacher is rad, just expect to get a few silly messages every once in a while. “Hi teacher! How are you? I am fine! Thanks!”

Interactive Games

I would try to never let a grammar lesson go by without having my students stand-up, get out of their chairs and engage the material in an interactive way. My three years overseas saw me constantly making use of my different school’s laminating machines. Attach some double sided sticky tape to some letters and you have an infinite amount of word games and activities to spruce up any dull grammar lesson.

The great thing about this is that once you make the material the first time, you have it with you for forever. Chances are, other teachers are either doing the same thing or would be more than happy to jump on board with your interactive adventures. I was never afraid to pop in next door and ask the neighboring teacher if they had any suggestions for the lesson I was about to teach. What did they do to make it more exciting? Can you borrow the same material? Ask away.

My students were always particularly fond of “list” like games. I would often have them get up, stand in a circle and pass or lightly toss around a ball or stuff animal I had acquired. When the object landed in a new student’s hand, they would have to recall an example of whatever it was that I had taught that day. Past tense verbs, proper nouns, etc. Never question the effectiveness of simple games like these, they work every time.

Collaboration with a Reward

It was generally the case with me that each class would have a few students who took a bit longer to get the same information that the rest of the class got a few moments ago. Rather than becoming frustrated with these students, figure out a way to get them on board with the rest of their peers. Giving any sign that you are annoyed with their lack of progress will do nothing to encourage them to learn faster or develop better tools to learning new information quicker and more accurately.

A great resource that I used was the notion of collaboration. Getting two students together, one of which grasped the material fairly quickly and one that is struggling a bit, can be a great way to even out the playing field. I would often pair up students during times in the lesson when the instructions stated that each student individually work on a section. This can be a great tactic to use when you don’t want to keep giving the same student individual help while the rest of the class sits and waits or watches anxiously.

When giving out the pairs, instruct that you want each student to put in the same amount of work. If there are ten questions, instruct that each student answer five of the questions in their own writing. While you do run the risk of one student doing all the work, the opposite usually proves to be true. You would be surprised how quickly students can turn into mini teachers.

I would generally have a small prize or point system designated for the team who could not just finish their work the fastest but was able to recall the answers on a one-by-one basis upon the completion of the section.

Single Out

Singling out a student for punishment is of course an effective way to handle classroom management problems but the reverse is also true. Recognizing a student for great behavior does leaps and bounds in a number of areas.

Simply taking the time to recognize a student who on average, doesn’t perform as well as the rest of the class, is a great motivational tool to get them to pay even closer attention next time. For example, during a lesson on parts of speech, I took the time to announce to the class that I was very impressed with student X’s ability to categorize his or her list of words by type.

Students at the elementary and junior high level love to feel superior and knowledgeable in an area. Playing into this occasionally can sometimes be a good thing. Try it out next time and watch as the other students in the class work harder in order to garner some of that coveted teacher praise that their classmate just received.

There are of course many mote tactics to employ in your classroom to make that next grammar lesson exciting and engaging. The internet is alive with many great resources and ideas. But don’t just stop there, if you think you have something truly great that others would benefit from share it! Post on forums, message boards and collaborative sites. Let others know what has and what hasn’t worked for you. Teaching your next grammar lesson doesn’t have to be met with dread or disdain. Simple tweaks here and there can do great things for the information retention of your students.