Parts of Speech Teaching Resources
Parts of speech are the foundation of grammar instruction. Before students can analyze sentence structure, edit their own writing, or understand why a sentence works, they need a working command of the eight grammatical categories. This page brings together the InstructorWeb-curated collection of free external parts-of-speech teaching resources — lesson plans, reference guides, videos, and writing-application activities — spanning elementary through middle school.
11 Curated Resources · Curated by InstructorWeb
Why parts of speech matter beyond the grammar test
Parts of speech often get taught as a labeling exercise — identify the noun, underline the verb — and then forgotten until the next grammar unit. That sequence produces students who can pass a parts-of-speech quiz and still write flat, structurally unclear sentences. The deeper purpose of teaching grammatical categories is not classification: it is giving students the vocabulary to understand why choices in their own writing work or do not work.
When a student knows what an adjective does, they can hear the difference between “the dog ran” and “the exhausted, mud-covered dog ran” as a writer’s choice, not an accident. When a student understands that adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs, they stop treating “really very extremely big” as an intensification strategy and start making deliberate word choices. Grammatical category knowledge is the metalanguage that turns editing from guessing into reasoning.
This matters especially for English language learners. ELL students learning to write in academic English need explicit instruction in how parts of speech work in English, which often differs from their home language in word order, inflection, and category boundaries. A student whose home language is Spanish, Chinese, or Arabic is not confused about grammar — they are applying different grammatical rules correctly. Parts-of-speech instruction that names the differences explicitly, rather than assuming they are intuitive, is one of the highest-leverage moves a mainstream classroom teacher can make.
The eight parts of speech: what to teach and when
Not all eight parts of speech need the same instructional depth at the same grade level. Here is a rough sequence that matches how curriculum standards typically treat them:
Nouns and verbs (grades K–2): The first pair. Students learn that nouns name people, places, and things; verbs name actions and states. Concrete activities — sorting word cards, acting out verbs, drawing noun examples — build the category intuition before metalanguage. ReadWriteThink’s Sentence Quest and Action ABC’s lessons in this collection are built exactly for this stage.
Adjectives and adverbs (grades 2–5): Added as students move from building sentences to elaborating them. Adjective instruction in grades 2–3 focuses on description; by grades 4–5, ordering rules (the PBS No Nonsense Grammar video on ordering adjectives) and comparison forms matter. Adverbs are the trickier category because they modify three different word classes — student confusion here is a signal to slow down, not speed up.
Pronouns (grades 2–6): Introduced early as noun substitutes, but the full picture — pronoun case, reflexive pronouns, pronoun-antecedent agreement — develops through upper elementary and middle school. The PBS video on reflexive pronouns addresses one of the most common student errors in this category.
Prepositions, conjunctions, and articles (grades 3–8): These function words are taught more implicitly at first and more explicitly in upper elementary and middle school. The Grammar Bytes and Purdue OWL references in this collection cover them at the depth appropriate for grades 6–12 review and for teacher reference.
How to use these resources in a grammar unit
The curated collection is organized to support three different teaching contexts: initial instruction, writing application, and ELL support.
Initial instruction and reference: The Purdue OWL Parts of Speech Overview is the most concise free reference covering all eight categories in one place, suitable for teacher prep, student reference in grades 6+, or a shared anchor document at the start of a unit. Grammar Bytes’ individual term pages (Noun, Verb, Adjective) go deeper on each category when a class is ready for it.
Writing application: ReadWriteThink’s Magnetism of Language lesson is the strongest writing-application activity in the collection. Using Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky,” students identify parts of speech in nonsense words (which forces them to use grammatical clues rather than word meaning) and then build magnetic poetry kits for original composition. This is the activity where parts-of-speech knowledge becomes a writer’s tool rather than a grammar-test answer.
ELL support: The Colorín Colorado article on academic language is the most useful resource in the collection for mainstream teachers working with ELL students on grammar. It explains why ELLs may struggle with parts of speech even when they are conversationally fluent, and gives practical strategies for making grammatical instruction explicit rather than assumption-based.
A look inside the curated collection
Four representative previews from the curated set — a spread across resource types and grade bands. Full Members can open every resource on this page directly.
Academic Language and ELLs: What Teachers Need to Know — Colorín Colorado
Colorín Colorado colorincolorado.org
A Colorín Colorado article that explains how academic language shapes parts-of-speech instruction for ELL students, with practical classroom strategies for building grammatical vocabulary across content areas.
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Related InstructorWeb resources
- Grammar Teaching Guides — The InstructorWeb grammar teaching hub, with guides on parts of speech, capitalization, pronouns, and more.
- How to Teach Parts of Speech — The companion InstructorWeb teaching guide: a complete approach to building parts-of-speech understanding from early grades through middle school.
- Capitalization Rules for Students — A practical guide covering the eight core capitalization rules, with student-ready examples and common errors.
- Grammar Worksheets — The InstructorWeb pillar hub for printable grammar worksheets, including parts of speech, punctuation, and capitalization with answer keys.
- Grade-Level Worksheets — Browse all InstructorWeb worksheets organized by K–8 grade level.
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