PORTLAND, Oregon—With all those tricky rules to remember, grammar can be a vexing subject for young writers. And the challenges of subject-verb agreement or sorting out whether to use "two," "too," or "to" in a given context are even greater for students who are new speakers of English.

Buckman Elementary is an arts magnet school where students enter speaking at least 10 languages. It's also a place where arts-based, multisensory learning happens every day, for every student. In this setting, teacher Michael Scott has found a way to help students master grammar with the use of visual aids, hands-on learning, and computer technology.

"Good Morning Grammar" begins when Scott uses a computer and data projector to display a sentence that contains one or more grammatical errors. Students must not only fix the mistakes, but also explain their reasons for making changes. Their reasoning has to go beyond the simple observation, "It doesn't make sense," Scott says. He wants to hear evidence that they understand the underlying grammatical concepts.

Technology provides a hands-on way for students to participate in the daily exercise. Students take turns at the projection screen, using colored markers to make their editing changes.

"By using the computer, data projector, and a digital whiteboard, we can make changes, erase those changes, and make new changes, all while leaving the original sentence intact," Scott explains. The technology makes it easy to highlight key words or phrases that might require further investigation, such as whether the noun and verb are in agreement. Best of all, Scott says, "students can be in charge of this editing, owning their work."