Diagraming Sentences

[ashleymarie81]

Now that we've taken our state tests, I feel like I have had all of the time in the world to do things that I felt like I haven't had time to do in the past....which leads me to diagraming sentences with my 4th graders! I have spent the past two days introducing this to them, using dry erase boards, and they have really seemed to enjoy it. Just wondering....what all do you guys do as far as teaching students to diagram sentences? Any creative ideas would be much appreciated! Thanks...

ps. I'm looping with my students up to 5th grade. I will be teaching lang. arts, and I hope this will help aid them in identifying the different parts of speech next year!

 

[SC]

Have them write their own

I also teach 4th grade. I have my students write their own sentences and require them to use certain things. For example, I may require a subject, predicate, verb, direct object, indirect object, and adjective. Then I have them diagram what they wrote to make sure it has those things. Sometimes they find that what they thought was an adverb was really a preposition or something like that.

When we're diagramming, sometimes students get bored, so I let them come do it in front of the class. I tell them that I'm looking for people who are paying attention to do the next one. That helps keep some focused.

I also use the individual dry erase like you mentioned, and they like it.

 

[maryteach]

I don't mean to be disruptive

but why do you teach your kids to diagram sentences? I'm asking not only what that teaches (it teaches parts of speech) but the WHY behind it. What is it that students will take away from a unit on sentence diagramming? How will they benefit? I teach the parts of speech so that I can speak to them in the language of language, but we spend only a little time on it. What does diagramming teach? What are the reading and writing benefits of being able to recognize, say, an adjective?

 

[1gr81ntheus]

Why Teach It?

I wondered that when I was learning it (which I never did) and didn't realize the reason until I was teaching it. The purpose in my class is to make them better writers and speakers. If they know how to coordinate the parts of speech they can communicate more effectively and impressively orally and on paper. I've also come to realize that they are expanding their vocabulary when they have to find the appropriate word choice. It dramatically improves grammar also. The drawing lines thing that my middle school teacher tried to teach me, I still don't get. However, there is something easier and a lot more fun called the Shurley Method. Now I've learned the parts of speech and their purposes.

 

[ashleymarie81]

you answered your question maryteach

because it flat out teaches the parts of speech...it relates all of the different parts of speech together, rather than separating them unit by unit. diagraming sentences has enabled my students to think specifically what parts of speech are being used. i teach my students that every word has a "home", meaning every word has its place, which forces them to think first as to where they are going to place the word into which category.

bottom line...it's a very VISUAL AID that allows students an easy way to see that each word has a home and its own identity...

it's late and i just came home from a cocktail party, hope i made my point!

 

[maryteach]

thanks for replying

How does diagramming benefit reading and writing, though? Does the ability to say that "to" is a preposition and "he" is a pronoun cause children to be able to read or write better? Let's take an example of a rather obsure word--scintillating. When I say that you are a scintillating conversationalist, is being able to name "scintillating" as an adjective causing me to use the word more effectively than if I did not know what "adjective" meant? Do I have to know a word's part of speech in order to use it correctly? Can it be said that kids become better writers by knowing the parts of speech, or diagramming?

I'm sorry to be the devil's advocate here, but I'm just really curious about the "why" to this. And I was a kid who really liked diagramming in school, and did very well at it. But now, when I think very carefully about the "why" behind everything I do, the "why" to this escapes me. I am in my master's program for the Teaching of Writing, and we have to take a fair amount of linguistics. The "why" doesn't escape me in linguistics. They're studying language, how it's put together, and how the brain actually strings phrases together, etc. So there's a real scientific underlay to this in the field of linguistics, but I don't think that we're teaching this to kids because we, or they, are scientists. It's something that English teachers teach to kids, and as an English teacher, I just wonder "why."

 

[SC]

Shurley

My school actually uses Shurley Grammar, so when I referred to "diagramming," it's not the traditional drawing the lines and writing in the words. It's more of labeling the sentences with the correct parts of speech.

Why? My first year of teaching, I thought students didn't need to know all of these grammar things; they just needed to be able to use them in sentences. I now realize that sometimes when we're talking about writing and how to make it better, they really do need to know how to use prepositions, adjectives, etc. By diagramming (or using the Shurley method), students learn to identify the different parts of speech and make sure they are used correctly.

For example, when my students say "I did good," I can explain to them that the word "well" should be used instead because well is an adverb, and good is an adjective. By diagramming, they can see it on paper, and it helps them understand it better.

I think that by knowing the parts of speech and how they work together, students can use our language correctly. Diagramming is a visual aid that shows how words are linked together and how they should be used.

 

[maryteachq]

Okay

Thanks for your patient replies. I appreciate it.

 

[Rickteach]

I teach 9th grade English, and diagraming sentences is something I spend a great deal of time on (did I just end that with a preposition?)

Diagraming, as one person here said, is a visual way to see the relationship of words in a sentence to each other. Instead of just telling students that an adjective modifies a noun or pronoun, you can place the adjective on a diagonal line beneath it. I saw a marked difference in my students' ability to differentiate parts of speech after we began diagraming. Hitting a concept from different angles helps assure that we're reaching a wide variety of learning types.

I should also say that I teach a great deal of grammar. What's my main argument? I just returned to teaching after a 20-year hiatus and found that student writing stinks. This "just-write-a-lot-and-you'll-learn-to-write-through-osmossis" is a crock. Students will never learn to organize and compose their thoughts if they don't have a set of guidelines. Their writing lacks structure. Nothing says structure like diagraming and rigorous grammar.

 

[maryteach]

Okay, but

you still don't answer my main question: How is knowing that "astonishing" is an adjective cause me to use that word any more effectively than if I don't know that? And who cares, in the real world, if you DID end a sentence with a prepostion? We do it all the time in speech, and yes, in writing. I am sure that you can pick up any published novel, for instance, and find examples of sentences ending in prepositions. I think teaching those prescriptive rules is silly, silly, silly. That's like telling them never to split infinitives--yet splitting infinitives is done very effectively all the time. I think we need to teach kids the living, breathing language that we actually SPEAK and USE. Yes, we do need to be able to write formal essays, but essays are not what the world uses to communicate--actual, authentic language is the way we communicate, and the way kids should be writing.

But why do I have to be able to identify a word's part of speech in order to use it effectively? How does knowing that "into" is a prepostion and not a noun make me a better writer? Why do I even have to be able to define a noun? How does that help me write?

I agree with you that student writing needs focus, but how does parts of speech instruction and sentence diagramming do that? I can see that diagramming would certainly help your students learn the parts of speech--I just don't see what benefits they gain from being able to distinguish an adverb from a pronoun. I think they've been taught something sort of empty.

Why not spend all that time teaching actual writing?