How to Teach Phrases in High School English

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We’re Facing a Grammar Crisis in High School Classrooms!

If you’re an English teacher, you’ve probably written things like “awkward phrasing” or “unclear” in the margins of many, many student essays. Has it seemed like it has grown worse in recent years? I think so. Today’s high school students (even my AP Literature kids!) often struggle to construct sophisticated, grammatically sound sentences. Their work lacks variation, lacks clarity, and lacks the verve I used to see in student writing. Isn’t it clear to everyone why this is happening? Too many teachers and schools have spent decades avoiding direct grammar instruction. Of course that’s left massive gaps in our students’ foundational language skills!

The shift toward teaching grammar “in context,” which means either pretending we’re teaching grammar when we aren’t or trying to teach grammar through sporadic mini-lessons, sounded good to a lot of people. Few of us love teaching grammar; most of us would rather teach literature, writing, speaking, and listening skills. But the results speak for themselves: declining writing ability, college professors lamenting freshman writing skills, and students who can’t even understand the feedback we give them because they lack basic grammatical vocabulary. (I know I just started a sentence with a conjunction. Sometimes, you get to break the rules once you know them, right??) Anyway, it’s time we acknowledged that the “constructivist approach” to grammar instruction has failed our students.

The solution isn’t complicated: we need to include direct, systematic instruction in grammar topics. Today, I’ll focus on why we need to teach phrase types and sentence structure. I know everyone has been trained to hate the idea of a “skill and drill” approach, but has hating and avoiding direct instruction and PRACTICE (which is all skill and drill is) worked out for us and our students? The approach for which I am advocating WORKS. It’s strategic, scaffolded teaching that transforms student writing from basic to mature. Why not try it?

What Are Phrase Types, and Why Do They Matter?

Before we discuss “why,” let’s clarify “what.” Important phrase types include:

Noun phrases
Adverb & adjective phrases
Verb phrases
Prepositional phrases (showing relationships like location, time, or manner)
Participial phrases (adding descriptive detail and context)
Gerund phrases (functioning as nouns in sentences)
Infinitive phrases (expressing purpose, intention, or possibility)
Appositive phrases (renaming or explaining nouns)
Absolute phrases (providing additional context to entire clauses)

When students understand the building blocks of the sentence, from words to phrases to clauses, they can THINK THROUGH constructing clear, varied, and sophisticated sentences. They develop metalinguistic awareness: the ability to think about and manipulate language consciously. This leads to BETTER writing!

Seven Compelling Reasons to Teach Phrase Types in Your 9-12 ELA Classroom

1. Bridge the Gap Between Reading Complex Texts and Writing Sophisticated Responses

An example: Most of our American Literature students can read Faulkner and Fitzgerald, but can they write with similar sophistication? Understanding phrase types creates a bridge between literary analysis and composition. We can ask our students to identify how canonical authors use participial phrases to create vivid imagery or absolute phrases to establish context for a main clause; as we practice this, they start to internalize these techniques. The next step then is that we’ll start seeing them apply these tools in their own writing (perhaps with a bit of prodding at first). Grammar knowledge can become a tool for emulation, not just correction.

2. Unlock College and Career Readiness in Ways “Authentic Writing” Can’t

We’ve all heard the argument: “Students learn grammar best through authentic writing experiences.” But here’s the uncomfortable truth: without explicit instruction, students simply repeat the same errors in every “authentic” piece they write. They are not going to spontaneously develop an understanding of sentence structure, gerund phrases, or absolute constructions through journaling or other “low stakes” writing practices in our classrooms.

College application essays, scholarship proposals, wedding invitations, professional emails, and workplace communications all demand precision, correctness, and variety in sentence structure. Students who understand phrase types can:

Eliminate wordiness by converting clauses to phrases & sentence combining
Add sophistication to their expression without sacrificing clarity
Vary sentence openings and patterns for better flow and more interest
Convey complex ideas with a unique flair, their own voice

Learning about phrases will improve our students’ writing, a lifeskill they DESERVE to gain from sitting in our classrooms!

3. Solve Persistent Punctuation Problems at Their Root

Here’s a secret: most punctuation errors stem from students not understanding where phrases & clauses begin and end. When students can identify phrase boundaries, many key comma rules suddenly make sense!

A student who recognizes an introductory participial phrase (“Running through the hallway, Marcus dropped his books.”) understands why that comma belongs there. They’re not memorizing arbitrary rules and then guessing when it comes time to edit their work; they’re applying logical principles based on sentence structure.

Teaching phrase types lays essential groundwork for later punctuation units; this helps you create a cohesive grammar curriculum rather than throwing disconnected mini-lessons at the kids that we all know students quickly forget.

4. Address the Needs of Diverse Learners with Structured Scaffolding

Walk into any high school ELA classroom today, and you’ll find incredible diversity when it comes to the students’ grammar knowledge. Some students arrive with strong foundations; others have never heard of subjects and verbs in 2nd or 3rd grade, never searched for a prepositional phrase in 5th grade, and never studied sentence combining in 7th and 8th grade. Perhaps their previous teachers skipped grammar lessons or rushed through them. Maybe they moved around a lot and missed grammar instruction each time. Maybe they went to a school that relied ONLY on “constructivist approaches” to grammar learning. No matter where they are NOW, though, ALL of our students need systematic, accessible grammar, usage, & mechanics instruction.

A well-structured HIGH SCHOOL grammar unit will offer:

Clear, age-appropriate examples (not elementary school sentences about puppies and rainbows and losing your first tooth!)
Incremental skill-building that accommodates various entry points/knowledge levels/comfort levels
Repeated practice that builds automaticity and confidence
Explicit instruction that leaves nothing to guesswork

Good teachers ensure that all students have access to the foundational knowledge they need. Hoping students will “pick up” grammar through exposure isn’t fair: it advantages students who learned these concepts at home or in elementary school, and it disadvantages those who did not.

5. Prepare Students for High-Stakes Standardized Tests

Even if we don’t believe in “teaching to a test,” we do need to recognize that the ACT English section and SAT Writing and Language Test assess understanding of phrase types, sentence structure, and punctuation. These tests contain questions that will ask students to:

Identify the most concise way to combine sentences (often by converting clauses to phrases)
Place phrases correctly to avoid misplaced modifiers
Punctuate phrases appropriately
Choose between/among phrase types for clarity and style

When you teach phrase types in a dedicated grammar unit, you’re teaching essential skills that standardized tests happen to measure, but you’re also helping students become stronger, better, more mature writers who are ready for college & careers.

Your AP Language & AP Lit students need this stuff, too, as a grammar foundation will enable them to truly excel in crafting sophisticated arguments in their essays. Remember: the sophistication point can be earned via an extremely mature, clear, and persuasive writing style with minimal errors.

6. Combat AI-Generated Writing Through Structural Lessons

Anyone who’s been in the classroom since 2024 or so knows that students have access to ChatGPT and other AI programs. Just as students have always been tempted to cheat or plagiraize, some will be tempted to use AI on their school writing assignments. But here’s a way that teaching grammar can present an opportunity for you as a teacher: students who deeply understand grammar and phrase construction can recognize, analyze, and improve AI-generated text, and you can help them see how their OWN writing can be so much more compelling, fluid, and fluent than what the AI produces!

Focusing in on phrases (though it’s important to teach an entire grammar curriculum), once students understand how phrases function, they can:

Identify when AI-generated sentences are awkward or unclear
Revise AI text to sound more authentic and sophisticated
Use AI tools ethically as revision assistants rather than replacement writers
Develop a “writer’s eye” that recognizes quality construction
Compare authentic human writing to AI slop

Plus, demonstrating grammatical sophistication in discussion posts, in-class writing, and even discussion/speeches/presentations will become a way you can identify authentic work vs. AI-generated work. You will notice your students beginning to incorporate a wider variety of phrase types, combine sentences by using phrases, and punctuate more deftly after teaching them explicitly about phrases!

[Teaching phrases can be easy! Grab the full unit!]

7. Give Students the Vocabulary They Need to Discuss and Revise Their Own Writing

How many times have you circled a sentence and written “awkward” or “revise this” or “comma use” only to have the student ignore the feedback or reveal that he or she cannot figure out what’s wrong or how to fix it? I ran into this the most when I was a new teacher; I didn’t know what my students had learned and hadn’t learned, so I would often use terms they were unfamiliar with in my comments. I soon realized that A) I needed to figure out what they had and hadn’t done in the grammar, usage, and mechanics realm, and B) Students can’t revise what they can’t name or understand!!

When students have been taught (explicitly! with practice!) grammar, usage, and mechanics topics, EVERYTHING becomes so much easier. For example, when they know more about phrases and phrase types, peer revision sessions and teacher/student writing conferences can become more productive. For example…

Before phrase lessons:

Teacher Feedback/Peer Feedback: “This sentence is awkward.”
Student: “Okay…” (makes no changes, makes it worse, or asks the teacher or peer to fix it for him or her)

After phrase lessons:

Teacher: “This participial phrase isn’t connected to a noun; see how that’s a dangling modifier?”
Student: “Oh, yes! I remember that from class. I need to make sure the noun right after the comma is the thing I’m describing, right?”
Teacher: “Yes! That’s great!”

Giving students grammatical vocabulary empowers them to be active participants in the revision process rather than passive recipients of teacher corrections. You’ll LOVE the conversations that open up once students are able to actually TALK about their writing in a sophisticated way, and everyone will save a TON of time when you can quickly and easily explain WHY a sentence is messed up and HOW the student can fix it.

What About the “Grammar in Context” Argument?

The most common objection to systematic grammar instruction usually sounds like this: “Students should learn grammar in the context of their own writing, not through isolated exercises.”

Here’s why this argument FAILS and HAS FAILED our kids for decades:

Context without content is meaningless. You can’t teach mini-lessons on participial phrases “as they come up” if students don’t understand what participles are, how they function, or why they matter. Explicit instruction must precede application.

Mini-lessons are easily forgotten. A five-minute lesson during a writing conference addresses one student’s immediate need but rarely leads to long-term retention or transferable knowledge. Systematic instruction with repeated practice creates lasting understanding. You don’t look down on practicing piano or free throws, right? Why look down on practicing grammar, usage, and mechanics topics??

Not all errors appear in student writing. Students often avoid complex structures they don’t understand. If they never attempt to use an absolute phrase or try using an appositive construction, you’ll never have an “authentic context” to teach them about how to punctuate these phrases or how they could work to combine sentences! If that’s the case, then they’ll never develop the sophisticated writing skills they need via the “teach grammar in context” paradigm.

The most effective approach combines explicit instruction with meaningful application. You’ll want to do this for ALL of your grammar units. For example, you would teach phrases and phrase types with direct instruction (mini lessons with handouts, you up at the board explaining and showing examples, etc.), then provide numerous opportunities for students to practice and apply this knowledge (both with practice activities, worksheets, questions, and games AND in authentic writing contexts).

[My phrase unit combines direct instruction with repeated practice!]

Practical Implementation: Making Grammar Instruction Engaging

Many teachers don’t teach grammar because they feel it isn’t fun. If you’re worried that grammar lessons will bore your students, consider these engagement strategies:

Use mentor sentences from the literature you’re already teaching. Analyze how Toni Morrison uses participial phrases or how Harper Lee constructs appositive phrases within particularly fresh and moving passages. When you’re reading whatever it is you read in class, search out cool phrases yourself, and write them down/type them up/take a photo. Then, you can highlight these examples in a quick mini-lesson to get their noggins joggin’ before they sit down to write themselves!
Connect to current events and pop culture. When you make questions, try to create practice sentences about topics teenagers actually care about. Thenk music, social media, sports, current events, and even productivity/entrepreneurial content. I always try to use positive, pro-social, relatable sentences that feel like they were made for teens, not k-8 students.
Incorporate sentence-combining activities; these feel more like puzzles, not drills. You can even challenge students to come up with the most ways to combine 2 sentences, or say you’ll give a small prize (candy? gum?) to the team that comes up with 5 ways the fastest!
Link what you’re learning to immediate writing projects. FOr example, you could teach infinitive phrases right before students write college essays, where infinitives often naturally appear in statements of purpose and paragraph/short answer responses.
Celebrate improvement. When you notice students correctly using more varied phrase types in their writing, name it and praise it specifically. The same goes for when you see them starting to use commas correctly with certain phrase types; point out that they are improving, and praise them enthusiastically. You absolutely CANNOT overestimate how much PRAISE really means to our students. It can be truly transformative to your classroom and to your overall hapiness and enjoyment in this career!

The Bottom Line: English Teachers Can’t Skip the Basics

We don’t let students skip foundational concepts in math, science, or foreign languages. We don’t expect students to learn quadratic equations “in context” or master the subjunctive mood in Spanish “as needed.” We recognize that complex skills require systematic instruction and deliberate practice.

Grammar is no different. Phrase types are one of many fundamental building blocks of sophisticated writing. When we skip grammar instruction or relegate it to rushed mini-lessons, we deny students the tools they need for academic and professional success! It’s fundamentally unfair. In fact, it’s WRONG.

Teaching grammar topics (like phrase types) isn’t about returning to outdated pedagogies or handing out mindless worksheets. It’s about giving students concrete skills they can name, practice, and apply throughout their lives. It’s about fairness, accessibility, and preparing students for the real-world writing demands they’ll face in college and careers.

I NEVER feel like my grammar lessons are “busy work” or “boring.” In fact, many students really LIKE grammar time because it is concrete, understandable, and fun for them to practice. They enjoy how they can work through the exercises with a buddy, listen to fun music while we work, and then earn extra credit for correct answers when we go over the answers together. PLUS, they see how important this stuff is for improving their ACT scores, and they THANK me for teaching it when they get those scores back!

Commit to Grammar Instruction This Year

If you know that teaching grammar, usage, and mechanics is important, but it feels overwhelming or impossible to get started, try this:

Dedicate 10-15 minutes of class time three days per week to grammar instruction.
Combine direct instruction (definitions and examples) with repeated, consistent practice.
Connect grammar lessons to your current reading and writing units; try to draw upon or mention the grammar topic as you see it appear in either what you are reading or in student writing.
Use age-appropriate, engaging example sentences. Avoid using materials made for k-8 students if you are teaching high schoolers!
Assess progress with formatives and summatives. I use our practice activities as formative assesment, taking note of the concepts with which students are struggling. (Which questions are they missing from class to class?), and then we do frequent grammar quizzes (about once every 2-4 weeks, and I add topics we’ve covered to what I’m marking when I mark up their writing (both in classwork and essays).

Your students deserve the gift of explicit grammar instruction. They deserve to understand how language works, to create sophisticated sentence structures with confidence, and to express their brilliant ideas clearly and precisely. If you want them to be able to impress their future teachers, professors, and employers, you really NEED to commit to helping them GET TO that point.

We all know that ignorning grammar, usage, and mechanics (punctuation) instruction (or pretending to do it with “grammar in context” lessons that we all know are WEAK and INEFFECTIVE) has harmed our students. The need is urgent. It’s time to bring systematic grammar instruction back to the high school ELA classroom if we want to EMPOWER our students.

Ready to transform your students’ writing through direct grammar instruction? Looking to teach students about phrases? Discover a complete, ready-to-teach Phrase Types unit designed specifically for grades 9-12, with scaffolded lessons, engaging practice activities, and age-appropriate examples that work for AP, honors, and general education classes alike. [My full phrase unit]

English with Mrs. Lamp