Teaching Grammar: Sentence Diagramming - Seeing Words at Work v.2

As much as some consider it a thing of the past, sentence diagramming is an oldie but goodie. After trying to teach grammar and writing for years, I came to realize how important it is to have a working vocabulary with which to talk to kids about their grammar and writing. While it is true that there are fortunate kids who learn the structure of our language naturally, much through reading, it is also true that there are those kids who do not. There are those who do not read much. And there are those who read but do not seem to learn grammar through seeming osmosis. Instead of having an either whole language or traditional sentence diagramming view, why not incorporate both into teaching of grammar so that there is differentiation for different students with differing abilities and needs? And, after years of using it as an additional tool for teaching, I am happy to say it works. Teaching grammar through sentence diagramming, instead of worksheets or textbooks that teach it in the abstract as concept, is the way to go. In this document, I break diagramming down, up through clauses and compound-complex sentences, offering explanations that seem to help my students to better understand. My advice to have students label all parts of every diagram and add punctuation is important advice - it is key to kids committing terms to memory.