Grammar doesn’t fail because students can’t learn it.
It fails because of how it’s taught.

In this episode of the Have a Life Teaching Podcast, I’m joined by literacy expert Patty McGee, co-author of Not Your Granny’s Grammar, to rethink grammar instruction from the ground up.

We explore how grammar can be:

• taught through sentences, play, and inquiry

• embedded across ELA, science, and social studies

• accessible to multilingual learners

• focused on growth over time, not mastery in a day

Patty shares concrete classroom strategies, including sentence manipulation, low-prep grammar play, and assessment approaches that honor language, culture, and audience.

If grammar feels like a compliance task instead of a thinking tool—this conversation shows a better way.

Patty McGee Website

Not Your Granny's Grammar Book

Music by Aylex