HeyJaredCommas in the Chaos
Commas in the Chaos is a podcast for upper elementary teachers who are juggling lesson plans, classroom chaos, and trying out what today’s grammar lesson is — all before lunch.Whether grammar feels like your jam or your nemesis, this show is here to help you make it easier,…
- Indexed episodes, last 90 days
- 5
- Latest publication
- Sep 8, 2026
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- Earliest in this view
- Jul 14, 2026
Latest episodes
24. How to Help Students Become Independent With Grammar (opens the original)
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Episode Summary: Your students can answer your questions, follow your prompts, and get the right answer during a grammar lesson then struggle the second they have to do it on their own. That doesn’t always mean they need the skill retaught. In this episode, we’re looking at the difference between knowing a grammar skill and being able to use that knowledge independently. We’ll talk about why whole-group success can be misleading, how teacher prompts can quietly carry more of the thinking than we
23. Teaching Fragments and Run-On Sentences: How to Help Students Use the Skill in Writing (opens the original)
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Episode Summary: Students can circle the right answer and still not understand why it's right. That gap is what grammar discussion closes. In this episode, I walk through how I would lead grammar discussions in my classroom, starting with the layers students move through: identify the skill, explain how they know, prove it with evidence, compare choices, and apply it in a new way. I share a sample sentence and the exact questions I ask, from sentence type and structure all the way down to classi
22. How to Lead Grammar Discussions in Upper Elementary (opens the original)
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Episode Summary: Students can circle the right answer and still not understand why it's right. That gap is what grammar discussion closes. In this episode, I walk through how I would lead grammar discussions in my classroom, starting with the layers students move through: identify the skill, explain how they know, prove it with evidence, compare choices, and apply it in a new way. I share a sample sentence and the exact questions I ask, from sentence type and structure all the way down to classi
21. When a Word Can Be Multiple Parts of Speech: A Better Question to Ask Your Students (opens the original)
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Episode Summary: Ever had a student point to a word, ask what part of speech it is, and realize the honest answer is "well, it depends"? That same word can be a noun in one sentence, a verb in the next, and an adjective in the one after that. It is one of the trickiest parts of teaching grammar. Most of us learned parts of speech as a list to memorize, not as jobs that words actually do. In this episode, I share a simple shift that makes those slippery words so much easier to talk through with y
20. Teaching Parts of Speech in Upper Elementary: Why It Has to Come First (opens the original)
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Episode Summary Most teachers start the year with subjects and predicates. It feels logical. But year after year, students struggle, and the reason almost always traces back to the same missing piece: parts of speech. In this episode, I share the light bulb moment that changed how I start every school year and walk through exactly why parts of speech have to come before everything else in your grammar sequence. I also break it down by grade level so you know what to prioritize, whether you teach
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