Pennington Publishing Blog

District administrators and teachers are digging into the newly adopted Common Core State Standards and finding some unexpected buried treasure: the Language Strand. Of course, one’s pirate’s treasure can be another’s curse; nonetheless, this particular treasure seems here to stay, so we might as well figure out how to invest its resources into the lives of our students.

This treasure is English grammar. Now, by grammar we have lumped together a whole slew of things about how our language works: words and their component parts, rules, usage, word order, sentence structure, parts of speech, mechanics, and even spelling. Yes, language is probably a better catch-all term. Even better yet, syntax.

Specifically, the writers of the Common Core Language Strand do not advocate a specific instructional approach and I would argue that the writers go out of their way to affirm teacher autonomy with respect to the hows of instruction. “By emphasizing required achievements, the Standards leave room for teachers, curriculum developers, and states to determine how those goals should be reached…” http://www.corestandards.org/assets/CCSSI_ELA%20Standards.pdf (Introduction).

However, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that many of us are going to have to teach grammar differently, given the Standards levels of rigor and specificity. For example, Use a comma to separate coordinate adjectives (e.g., It was a fascinating, enjoyable movie but not He wore an old[,] green shirt). L.7.2. How many of us knew or taught coordinate adjectives before these Standards?

Much of the burden of grammar instruction is now in the hands of elementary teachers. However, secondary teachers do not get off easily. Although the number of language standards decreases in middle school and high school, the Standards clearly mandate recursive instruction (review), as well as differentiated instruction. “Teachers will continue to devise lesson plans and tailor instruction to the individual needs of the students in their classrooms” http://www.corestandards.org/assets/CCSSI_ELA%20Standards.pdf (Introduction). Review has always been a given in grammar instruction, but differentiated instruction will be a new approach for many teachers.

Following is a brief analysis of the four most common means of current grammar instruction. Teachers will tend to agree with my summary and analysis of the three instructional approaches that they do not employ, yet disagree wholeheartedly with my characterizations of the one approach that they favor. Afterwards, I will identify and offer a rationale for the one approach that seems most conducive to helping students master the new grammar standards.

1. Do Nothing

Many teachers simply do not teach grammar. Some play the blame game and argue that previous teachers should have done the job. Some do not see the importance of grammar to reading, writing, listening, and speaking and argue that grammar instruction takes away time from more important instruction. Some are simply afraid of the unknown: they never learned it, don’t know how to teach it, and argue that they “turned out alright.” Some teachers just don’t like grammar.

2. Writers Workshop/Writing Process

Many teachers went “whole hog” after the whole language movement and constructivism in the 1980s and have remained loosely committed (although many are about to retire). These veteran teachers wield some influence; however, most will honestly admit that their cherished notions that grammar should best be relegated to a mere editing skill in the last stage of the Writing Process or to a small collection of mini-lessons (should the needs of their student writers so indicate) have simply been pipe dreams. Results of state standard exams and the SAT/ACT clearly attest to this failure. Freshman college writing instructors bemoan the lack of writing skills exhibited by students exposed to this whole to part instructional philosophy.

3. Drill and Kill

Some teachers do have the set of grammar handbooks, the four file-drawer collection of grammar worksheets pulled from an old copy of Warriner’s, or the online resources of Grammar Girl and OWL (the Purdue University Online Writing Lab) saved in their Favorites. These teachers teach the grammar skills via definition and identification and then drill and kill. “Tonight’s homework is to complete all the odd problems on pages 234-235.” These teachers do “cover” the subject’ however, student writing generally indicates little transfer of learning and test scores reflect only minimal gains.

4. Grammar Openers

Most teachers have adopted the Grammar Openers approach. Widely known as Daily Oral Language, there are many instructional variations. However, the basics are the following: a quick lesson targeting review of previously “learned” language skills (usually grammar and mechanics) in which students examine short examples of writing riddled with errors. Students practice error identification and the teacher interactively helps students analyze these errors via brief discussion and “reminders” of the rules. Clearly, this approach has significant problems: grammar instruction can’t be relegated to “error fix-a-thons” (Jeff Anderson), review without deep-level instruction is ineffective, the hodge-podge lack of an instructional scope and sequence reflects a shotgun approach that is incongruous with standards-based instruction, the lack of application of these skills in the contexts of reading and writing, and more… See Why Daily Oral Language Doesn’t Work.

So which of the four is most conducive to helping students master the Common Core State Standards in grammar? The Grammar Openers instructional model seems to offer the most promise. Teachers teach from what they know. Teachers are by nature eclectic and prefer tweaking, rather than starting over. And since the predominant means of grammar instruction is the Grammar Openers model, it seems practical to build on this foundation and encourage such tweaking.

Here are the positives of the Grammar Openers model:

• It’s consistent. Many teachers cram in huge chunks of ineffective grammar instruction before standardized tests or as intensive grammar units of instruction. Any chance of transfer to writing or oral language developments is doomed by such an inconsistent approach. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Grammar Openers offers the little-at-a-time instructional approach, which does happen to have the best research-base.
• It’s quick. Drill and Kill teachers get so wrapped up in the grammatical complexities, that grammar instruction consumes an inordinate amount of instructional time. All instruction is reductive. We do have other Standards to teach. Grammar Openers provide quick-paced instruction, two or three days per week.
• It’s interactive. Teachers can help students access prior knowledge and teachers can assess levels of whole-class competence through the back-and-forth design of Grammar Openers. The interactive approach can be engaging and does require some levels of accountability. Also, the interactive process can promote exploration, not just practice.
• It involves direct instruction. Writers Workshop/Writing Process purists will simply have to admit that the rigor and specificity of these Common Core State Standards necessitates some of this approach. Whole to part instruction just won’t do this job.
• It does involve review. Teachers have long recognized the recursive nature of instruction, particularly in grammar and mechanics. Those teachers who only teach grade-level standards have their heads firmly planted in the sand. Grammar is especially dependent upon scaffolded skills. Students will not learn what an adverbial clause is and how to use it in the writing context without first mastering adverbs and adverbial phrases.

Necessary Tweaks to the Grammar Openers Model

• Establish a meaningful scope and sequence of instruction aligned to the Common Core State Standards Language Strand, including a comprehensive review of the asterisked review mandates.
• Move beyond the definition and error identification approach (essential ingredients, by the way) of Grammar Openers to include identification of effective writing skills via Sentence Modeling. There is no doubt that constant exposure to incorrect grammar, mechanics, and spelling reproduces the same in student writing. For example, how many teachers have found themselves questioning how to spell their after years of seeing this spelling mistake in student writing?
• Change the focus of Grammar Openers to interactive discussion and writing application. For example, try using simple sentence diagrams, sentence revision, sentence combining, and writing openers during the Grammar Openers, with sentence dictations as formative assessments. A balance of contrived and authentic writing practice/application makes sense.
• Require systematic application of the grammar skills learned in Grammar Openers within the writing context. Students should be required to use what they have learned in their own writing during the Grammar Openers lesson and should be held accountable for applying these skills in short writing strategy practice, as well as on writing process papers.
• Provide connected reading resources that demonstrate how mastery of the specific grammar skills adds depth and meaning to what the author has to say. Identification of the grammar is not sufficient. Recognition of how the grammar affects meaning is necessary and provides a meaningful purpose for grammar instruction.
• Establish formative assessments to inform and adjust instruction.In addition to the direct instruction provided in Grammar Openers, teach to specific diagnostic data and differentiate instruction accordingly. Rather than relying upon solely implicit assessment of what students know and do not know, add on explicit, whole-class diagnostic assessments and teach relative weaknesses via small group or individualized instruction. Here, targeted grammar handbook, online, or worksheet practice (Drill and Kill) in conjunction with writers mini-conferences (Writers Workshop) certainly does make sense.

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Teaching Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics (Grades 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and High School) are full-year, traditional, grade-level grammar, usage, and mechanics programs with plenty of remedial practice to help students catch up while they keep up with grade-level standards. Twice-per-week, 30-minute, no prep lessons in print or interactive Google slides with a fun secret agent theme. Simple sentence diagrams, mentor texts, video lessons, sentence dictations. Plenty of practice in the writing context. Includes biweekly tests and a final exam.

Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics Interactive Notebook (Grades 4‒8) is a full-year, no prep interactive notebook without all the mess. Twice-per-week, 30-minute, no prep grammar, usage, and mechanics lessons, formatted in Cornell Notes with cartoon response, writing application, 3D graphic organizers (easy cut and paste foldables), and great resource links. No need to create a teacher INB for student make-up work—it’s done for you! Plus, get remedial worksheets, biweekly tests, and a final exam.

Syntax in Reading and Writing is a function-based, sentence-level syntax program, designed to build reading comprehension and increase writing sophistication. The 18 parts of speech, phrases, and clauses lessons are each leveled from basic (elementary) to advanced (middle and high school) and feature 5 lesson components (10–15 minutes each): 1. Learn It!  2. Identify It!  3. Explain It! (analysis of challenging sentences) 4. Revise It! (kernel sentences, sentence expansion, syntactic manipulation) 5. Create It! (Short writing application with the syntactic focus in different genre).

Get the Diagnostic Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics Assessments, Matrix, and Final Exam FREE Resource:

Grammar/Mechanics, Writing Common Core Grammar, daily oral language, DOL, English grammar, grammar curriculum, grammar openers, grammar skills, grammar standards, grammar worksheets, language standards, Mark Pennington

Sentence diagramming can be a useful visual tool to teach students how to identify the different parts of sentences, understand how these parts function, and see how these parts relate to

other parts of a sentence. Most students find that the visual image helps them better understand and remember grammatical terms, the parts of a sentence, and the basic rules of grammar. Sentence diagrams take the abstract components of English grammar and make them concrete. With practice, writers can use diagramming to diagnose their own grammatical errors and fix them.

Objectives: Students will learn the how a sentence diagram depicts the subject, predicate, direct object, and indirect object of a sentence. Students will learn the definitions of these parts of the sentence. Students will apply proper nouns, action verbs, common nouns, and object case pronouns to their diagrams.

Lesson #1      Introduction

1. Draw a simple horizontal line and write a subject on top to the left. Make the subject a proper noun and define the word as “the do-er” of the sentence.
2. Draw a vertical line after the subject and extend it just under the line.
3. Write a predicate on top of the horizontal line, just to the right of the vertical line. Make the predicate a present tense action verb that will easily lead to a direct object without an article (a, an, and the). Define the predicate as “the action” of the subject and “what the ‘do-er’ does.”
4. Have students replicate the lines and then insert their own subjects (proper nouns only) and predicates (present tense action verbs only). Share examples and discuss, making sure to use the exact language of instruction.

Lesson #2       Building onto the Lesson #1 Diagram

1. Draw another vertical line after the predicate, but don’t extend it under the horizontal line.
2. Write a direct object on top of the horizontal line, just to the right of the second vertical line. Make the direct object be a common noun that doesn’t need an article. Define the direct object as the word that answers “What?” or “Who” from the predicate.
3. Have students add the second vertical line on to their Lesson #1 Diagram and insert their own subjects, predicates, and direct objects (common nouns only). Don’t allow students to use articles at this point. Share examples and discuss, making sure to use the exact language of instruction.

Lesson #3       Building onto the Lesson #2 Diagram

1. Draw a vertical line down from the horizontal line below the predicate.
2. Write an indirect object to the right of the vertical line. Make the indirect object be a pronoun. Define the indirect object as the word that answers “To or For What?” or “To or For Whom” from the predicate.
3. Have students add the vertical line on to their Lesson #2 Diagram and insert their own subjects, predicates, direct objects (common nouns only), and indirect objects (pronouns only). Don’t allow students to use articles at this point. Share examples and discuss, making sure to use the exact language of instruction.

Lesson #4        Parts of Speech Practice

Download (sent via email) the Sentence Diagramming and Parts of Speech Practice lessons (see below) and get Lessons #s 1-3 diagrams and eight diagrams for your students to apply the lessons to the parts of speech absolutely FREE.

Hints for Down the Road

On the Horizontal Baseline*

-Place all parts of the predicate verb phrase on the horizontal line between the subject and direct object (has been said).

-If the object is a predicate noun or adjective, draw a backslash ( \ ) slanting toward the subject (He | is / Tom) (He | is / nice).

-Place implied subjects in the subject place within parentheses, for example (You).

-Place appositives after the subject or object within parentheses (Tom (the man in red)).

*After the first three lessons, it is best to refer to the horizontal line as the baseline because more advanced sentence diagrams may have multiple horizontal lines.

Expanding the Baseline

Compound subjects (Tom and Sue) and compound predicates (talked and shopped) are drawn as multiple horizontal lines stacked vertically and are joined at each end by a fan of diagonal lines. The coordinating conjunction (and) is placed next to a dotted vertical line that connects the left ends of the horizontal lines.

Below the Baseline

-Modifiers

Modifiers of the subject, predicate, or object are placed below the baseline. Adjectives (including articles) and adverbs are placed to the right of forward slashes (/), below the words they modify.

-Prepositional Phrases

Prepositional phrases (under the tree) are also placed beneath the words they modify. Prepositions are placed to the right of forward slashes (/), below the words they modify and the forward slashes are connected to the horizontal lines on which the objects of the prepositions are placed.

-Compound Sentences

Compound sentences (Tom walked home, and Sue followed him) are diagrammed separately with the verbs of the two clauses joined by a vertical dotted line with the conjunction written next to the dotted line.

-Subordinate (Dependent) Clauses

Subordinate (dependent clauses) (Although Tom walked home, …) connect the verbs of the two clauses with a dotted forward slash next to which the subordinating conjunction is written. Subordinate (dependent) clauses form their own subject-verb-object baselines.

-Participles and Participial Phrases

A participle (practicing…) is drawn to the right of a backslash, except that a small horizontal line branches off at the end on which the suffix er, _ing, _en, _d, or _ed is written. With a participial phrase, the additional word or words are placed after a vertical line following the participial suffix (practicing soccer).

-Relative Clauses

Relative clauses (whom I know) connect the subject or object of the baseline with a dotted line to the relative pronoun (that, who, whom, which) which begins its own subject-verb-object baseline.

Above the Baseline

-Gerunds and Gerund Phrases

Gerunds (Running) are placed on a horizontal line, connected to a vertical line descending to the baseline. The _ing is written to the right of a backslash at the end of the horizontal line. With a gerund phrase (Running effortlessly), the additional word or words are connected to the backslash on another horizontal line.

-Interjections

Interjections (Hey), Expletives (There), and Nouns of Direct Address are placed on horizontal lines above the baseline and are not connected to the baseline.

-Noun Clauses

Noun clauses (What you should know) branch up from the subject or object sections of the baseline with solid lines and form their own baselines with subject-verb-object vertical lines.

Get the Sentence Diagramming and Parts of Speech Practice FREE Resource:

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Teaching Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics (Grades 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and High School) are full-year, traditional, grade-level grammar, usage, and mechanics programs with plenty of remedial practice to help students catch up while they keep up with grade-level standards. Twice-per-week, 30-minute, no prep lessons in print or interactive Google slides with a fun secret agent theme. Simple sentence diagrams, mentor texts, video lessons, sentence dictations. Plenty of practice in the writing context. Includes biweekly tests and a final exam.

Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics Interactive Notebook (Grades 4‒8) is a full-year, no prep interactive notebook without all the mess. Twice-per-week, 30-minute, no prep grammar, usage, and mechanics lessons, formatted in Cornell Notes with cartoon response, writing application, 3D graphic organizers (easy cut and paste foldables), and great resource links. No need to create a teacher INB for student make-up work—it’s done for you! Plus, get remedial worksheets, biweekly tests, and a final exam.

Syntax in Reading and Writing is a function-based, sentence-level syntax program, designed to build reading comprehension and increase writing sophistication. The 18 parts of speech, phrases, and clauses lessons are each leveled from basic (elementary) to advanced (middle and high school) and feature 5 lesson components (10–15 minutes each): 1. Learn It!  2. Identify It!  3. Explain It! (analysis of challenging sentences) 4. Revise It! (kernel sentences, sentence expansion, syntactic manipulation) 5. Create It! (Short writing application with the syntactic focus in different genre).

Get the Diagnostic Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics Assessments, Matrix, and Final Exam FREE Resource:

Grammar/Mechanics, Writing English grammar, grammar worksheets, Mark Pennington, parts of speech, parts of speech sentence diagrams, sentence diagramming, sentence diagrams

Simply put, any language’s grammar is the attempt to organize and systematize how its oral and written language works. A grammar provides a common language of instruction. It helps us understand how words function and how words are put together in a sentence to communicate effectively. It also provides rules for proper word choice, inflections, and usage.

Attempts to graphically represent a grammar are usually called diagramming. Most grammatical diagrams are designed to represent the sentence, since the sentence, by definition, is the

shortest representation of a complete thought. Alonzo Reed and Brainerd Kellogg first published the graphic depictions that we call sentence diagrams in their book, Higher Lessons in English, in 1877. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentence_diagram Linguists have always used sentence diagramming, albeit with different versions. For example, Noam Chomsky developed his own X-bar diagramming system in 1970. However, the Reed-Kellogg system has remained the most popular method because of its simplicity.

Why Teach Sentence Diagramming?

Proponents argue that sentence diagramming is a useful visual tool that allows teachers and students to identify the different parts of sentences, understand how these parts function, and see how these parts relate to other parts of the sentence. Most students find that the visual image helps them better understand and remember the parts of a sentence, grammatical terms, and the rules of grammar. Sentence diagrams make the abstract components of English grammar concrete for English speakers and writers. With a bit of practice, writers can use diagramming to diagnose their own grammatical errors and fix them.

Why Not Teach Sentence Diagramming?

Opponents argue that constructing sentence diagrams is not authentic writing; it is analysis. Understanding the parts of sentences and how they relate to one another does not necessarily mean that a student can apply this understanding to construct meaningful sentences. Correct sentences are not the same as coherent sentences. Furthermore, sentence diagramming does not go beyond the sentence level and so does not deal with connected thought, that is the paragraph level, or by extension, a unified essay. Lastly, any instructional practice is reductive—it takes away instructional time. Students learning to write benefit more from authentic writing practice, than from sentence diagramming analysis.

Does Sentence Diagramming Make Sense?

Effective writing instruction melds both analysis and practice. Students need the deductive apply-the-components/rules-of-grammar approach and the inductive practice-the-meaningful-communication of ideas-with-feedback approach to become effective writers. Some sentence diagramming does make sense: not too much to take over a writing program, but just enough to do its job. I advocate more recognition practice and less application practice. In other words, providing a sentence diagram with one or two missing words, say the direct and indirect objects, and having students identify and place those two missing parts of the sentence, achieves the instructional objective just as well as taking the time needed for students to construct the whole sentence. If you’re studying a leaf, you don’t have to draw the whole tree.

Find out How to Teach Sentence Diagramming in three 10-minute lessons. Sentence diagramming can be an effective instructional ingredient in a comprehensive standards-based grammar curriculum.

*****

Teaching Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics (Grades 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and High School) are full-year, traditional, grade-level grammar, usage, and mechanics programs with plenty of remedial practice to help students catch up while they keep up with grade-level standards. Twice-per-week, 30-minute, no prep lessons in print or interactive Google slides with a fun secret agent theme. Simple sentence diagrams, mentor texts, video lessons, sentence dictations. Plenty of practice in the writing context. Includes biweekly tests and a final exam.

Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics Interactive Notebook (Grades 4‒8) is a full-year, no prep interactive notebook without all the mess. Twice-per-week, 30-minute, no prep grammar, usage, and mechanics lessons, formatted in Cornell Notes with cartoon response, writing application, 3D graphic organizers (easy cut and paste foldables), and great resource links. No need to create a teacher INB for student make-up work—it’s done for you! Plus, get remedial worksheets, biweekly tests, and a final exam.

Syntax in Reading and Writing is a function-based, sentence-level syntax program, designed to build reading comprehension and increase writing sophistication. The 18 parts of speech, phrases, and clauses lessons are each leveled from basic (elementary) to advanced (middle and high school) and feature 5 lesson components (10–15 minutes each): 1. Learn It!  2. Identify It!  3. Explain It! (analysis of challenging sentences) 4. Revise It! (kernel sentences, sentence expansion, syntactic manipulation) 5. Create It! (Short writing application with the syntactic focus in different genre).

Get the Diagnostic Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics Assessments, Matrix, and Final Exam FREE Resource:

Want to try sentence diagramming absolutely FREE? Get lessons sent to your email:

Get the Sentence Diagramming and Parts of Speech Practice FREE Resource:

Grammar/Mechanics, Writing English grammar, grammar worksheets, Mark Pennington, parts of speech, parts of speech sentence diagrams, sentence diagramming, sentence diagrams

Okay. I may have crossed over to the dark side of The Force. For years, I smirked at the grammar fanatics who taught and had students practice the explicit grammatical components of the sentence. I insisted, along with my National Writing Project friends, that any grammar instruction outside of the authentic writing context was at best useless, and at its worst counter-productive. But now the Common Core State Standards have shifted my thinking. The separate Language Strand makes sense to me.

This balanced approach best makes sense of the grammar research. An approach that involves direct grammatical instruction in partnership with plenty of connected reading (sentence modeling) and writing (sentence manipulation). It’s working well with my students.

Here’s a quick summary of the two prominent theories of language acquisition and why I’ve “crossed over” to a balanced approach with grammar instruction.

My university professors taught me that all humans are born with an instinctive language acquisition device (LAD). Noam Chomsky’s “little black box,” tucked away in some corner of our brains, gives us the essential grammar rules and language organization that helps us master our native language. Cool. So all we teachers need to do is provide a literate environment, extensive modeling, and plenty of oral language practice for our students to effortlessly learn to speak and write “conventional” and “correct” English. Since the LAD is a universal grammar, the same instructional methods would work for English-language learners. Simple. Grammar that is caught is better than grammar that is taught.

Much better than the older B.F. Skinner approach that humans acquire language through the environmental interplay of stimulus and response, reward and punishment. With this behavioral model, teaching “conventional” and “correct” English would require learning good language habits. That would mean lots of direct grammar instruction, drill and kill exercises, and extensive teacher feedback (think boxes of red pens for error correction). Lots of work. Have to learn what a predicate adjective is… Grammar that is taught is better than grammar that is caught.

An eclectic approach to language acquisition theory that has gained traction in recent years has encouraged me to meld the above theories in my instructional practice. This interactionist approach posits the idea that “language develops as a result of the complex interplay between the uniquely human characteristics of the child and the environment in which the child develops” (Lightbown and Spada, 1999). In other words, a sort of umbrella approach encompassing Chomsky’s LAD and Skinner’s behaviorism. Now, this makes both instructional and practical sense to me.

In my class, I teach one mechanics and one grammar function at the sentence level. Students tell “what’s right” and “what’s wrong” in an interactive discussion, while they jot down the rules/skills with examples. They analyze how the grammar rule/skill is applied in a model literary sentence and in a student model sentence that I select and display (reading connection). Students complete a simple sentence diagram to see the function of the grammar within the sentence. Students read and analyze a mentor text, which uses the grammar, usage, or mechanics instructional focus. Then students apply what they’ve learned in their own short writing sample. I give dictation sentences that require students to apply the rules/skills and/or manipulate the sentence structure as a formative assessment. Students self-edit and self-correct from my display (writing connection). I often review the grammatical component with a humorous cartoon that focuses on the grammatical skill/rule. It’s working. This instruction takes 25 minutes per session and I teach this strategy twice per week. Much better than D.O.L. or D.L.R. because I have a planned, standards-based instructional scope and sequence. I’m not just “reviewing” what previous teachers purportedly have “taught.”

Oh, I also use a whole-class diagnostic grammar and mechanics assessment and differentiate instruction according to the diagnostic data through targeted worksheets. Shhh! Don’t tell my Writing Project purist friends. But, the extra practice along with my quick writers conferences to review each worksheet’s formative assessment is helping students to finally master (a split infinitive) what teachers have “taught” year after year. And it’s transferring to their writing. I give the students about 15 minutes, twice per week, to work on their worksheets and complete their writers conferences. Students see their own progress on the skills they need.

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Get the Grammar and Mechanics Grades 4-8 Instructional Scope and Sequence FREE Resource:

 

 

 

 

 

 

*****

Teaching Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics (Grades 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and High School) are full-year, traditional, grade-level grammar, usage, and mechanics programs with plenty of remedial practice to help students catch up while they keep up with grade-level standards. Twice-per-week, 30-minute, no prep lessons in print or interactive Google slides with a fun secret agent theme. Simple sentence diagrams, mentor texts, video lessons, sentence dictations. Plenty of practice in the writing context. Includes biweekly tests and a final exam.

Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics Interactive Notebook (Grades 4‒8) is a full-year, no prep interactive notebook without all the mess. Twice-per-week, 30-minute, no prep grammar, usage, and mechanics lessons, formatted in Cornell Notes with cartoon response, writing application, 3D graphic organizers (easy cut and paste foldables), and great resource links. No need to create a teacher INB for student make-up work—it’s done for you! Plus, get remedial worksheets, biweekly tests, and a final exam.

Syntax in Reading and Writing is a function-based, sentence-level syntax program, designed to build reading comprehension and increase writing sophistication. The 18 parts of speech, phrases, and clauses lessons are each leveled from basic (elementary) to advanced (middle and high school) and feature 5 lesson components (10–15 minutes each): 1. Learn It!  2. Identify It!  3. Explain It! (analysis of challenging sentences) 4. Revise It! (kernel sentences, sentence expansion, syntactic manipulation) 5. Create It! (Short writing application with the syntactic focus in different genre).

Get the Diagnostic Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics Assessments, Matrix, and Final Exam FREE Resource:

Grammar/Mechanics, Spelling/Vocabulary, Writing D.L.R., D.O.L., grammar, grammar research, grammar worksheets, how to teach grammar, Mark Pennington, mechanics

Adverbs are tricky. Knowing the definition of this basic part of speech only gets us so far. Yes, we do need to know what we are talking about when we refer to adverbs. Some common language of instruction only makes sense. Even the writing process purists, never proponents of direct grammar instruction, have always agreed that teaching the definitions of adverbs and the other parts of speech is necessary. However, we also need to teach recognition (reading) and application (writing) and adverb are challenging for most students.

Teachers know that students have been taught adverbs in the past, but students rarely retain much of this instruction. Why? We simply need to focus more on student learning, rather than simply covering the subject. Following is an instructional approach guaranteed to interrupt this forgetting cycle. At the end of this article, I will share an instructional scope and sequence for adverbs with clear definitions and examples.

1. DIE AR

(I know. A pretty depressing mnemonic. Not necessarily a subconscious desire to kill off the Accelerated Reader® program… but then again…)

DEFINE Help students memorize the definitions of the key adverbial components. Rote memory is foundational to higher order thinking. Use memory tricks, repetition, raps, and songs. Check out the Parts of Speech Song. Students love this. Test and re-test to ensure mastery.

IDENTIFY Help students identify adverb components in practice examples and real text. Using quality, un-canned and authentic mentor text, such as famous literary quotations and short passages/poetry teaches two necessary components at the same time: identification practice and sentence modeling.

EDIT Help students practice error analysis for each adverb component by editing text that contains correct and incorrect usage. Seeing what is wrong does clarify what is right. But don’t limit your instruction, as in Daily Oral Language, to this step. Students need both mentor texts and writing practice to master adverbial components. Grammar taught in the context of reading and writing translates into long-term memory and application.

APPLY Help students use adverbs correctly in targeted practice sentences. Sentence frames are one solid instructional method to practice application. For example, for adverbs…

________________ (When?) the old man walked ________________ (How)? down the sidewalk and stopped ________________ (Where?) by the fire station. He looked ________________ tired (What Degree?).

Possible response: Earlier (Today) the old man walked slowly down the sidewalk and stopped here (there) by the fire station. He looked very tired.

REVISE Help students understand the importance and relevance of learning adverbs by revising their own authentic writing. Stress using what they have learned about adverb components to improve coherence, sentence variety, author voice, word choice, clarity, and style. Make sure to share the best revisions as mentor texts. Post them on your walls and refer to them often to reinforce definition, identification, and writing style.

2. Assessments

Diagnostic assessments of key grammatical features, such as adverbs, serves two purposes: First, the results inform what to teach and how much time to spend on direct instruction. It may be that one group or class tends to have mastery re: how adverbs, but weaknesses in adverbial clauses. A different group or class may have different strengths and weaknesses. Second, diagnostic assessments provide individual baselines upon which to build learning. The purpose of formative assessment is to identify relative strengths and weaknesses of both instruction and learning. Sharing this data with students is vital. Students need to know what they know and what they don’t know to motivate learning. Students also need to see the personal relevance of the instructional task. Check out an effective multiple-choice diagnostic grammar assessment under Free ELA/Reading Assessments.

Formative assessments need to be designed to measure actual mastery of the grammatical concept. So, a useful formative assessment of adverb components must be comprehensive and include all steps of the DIE AR process. Simply giving a unit test as a summative assessment only satisfies the teacher (and colleagues) that the teacher is covering the subject, i.e. teaching adverbs. Good teachers use data to affect instructional practice. Good teachers re-teach judiciously. Good teachers differentiate instruction according to assessment data.

3. Differentiated Instruction

Differentiated instruction should focus on relative weaknesses. A good recording matrix for formative assessments specifically informs the teacher regarding component mastery and provides the data to inform instruction: how many students need remediation and what skills need (and don’t need) to be addressed. Individual, paired, and small group instruction with targeted independent practice makes sense. A workshop design in which the teacher distributes worksheets, monitors practice, and uses mini-conferences to assess mastery ensures effective remediation. Differentiated instruction doesn’t have to be a planning or management nightmare. The what of differentiated instruction is key, much more so than the how.

Adverbs Instructional Scope and Sequence    

Primary Elementary School

An adverb describes a verb. Find the verb or verbs in the sentence and ask How? If there is a word in the sentence answers that question, than it is an adverb.

Instructional Model

Teacher: Look at this sentence on the board while I read it out loud. Tom walked slowly. Let’s read it again together.

Teacher and Students: Tom walked slowly.

Teacher: Name the verb in this sentence.

Students: walked

Teacher: walked How?*

Students: slowly

Teacher: Yes, slowly is the adverb because it answers How?

*Notice that the teacher should not say “Tom walked How?” because adding on the rest of the sentence does not reinforce the specific strategy used to identify adverbs. Adding the rest of the sentence adds confusion.

Adverb Tips:

The adverb may be found before or after the word that it describes.

The adverb frequently ends in _ly.

Intermediate and Upper Elementary School

An adverb modifies (describes) a verb with how, when, or where.

Examples:

How? Tom walked slowly

When? because he had arrived early

Where? to the place where we were to meet.

Adverb Tips:

Avoid overusing the adverb, very; it usually does not add much meaning to a sentence.

As a matter of good writing style, place specific adverbs before general ones.

Example: It should be exactly where I described, next to the desk, or somewhere over there.

Explanation: The more specific adverbs exactly where and next are properly placed before the more general somewhere over there.

Middle School

An adverb modifies a verb with how, when, where, or what degree.

Examples:

How? Tom walked slowly

When? because he had arrived early

Where? at the place where

What Degree? he knew very well his entire future could be decided.

Adverbial phrases are groups of related words in a sentence with an adverb or adverbs that modify a verb in a connected independent clause. An independent clause is a noun and verb which expresses a complete thought. Usually separate an adverbial phrase from a connected independent clause with a comma. Adverbial clauses are dependent clauses that modify verbs. A dependent (subordinate) clause includes a subject and a verb that does not express a complete thought. An adverbial clause needs to be connected at the beginning or end of an independent clause to form a complex sentence. Place a comma between the dependent and independent clauses.

Example: Walking slowly, Tom enjoyed the scenery.

Adverb Tips:

An adverbial clause left on its own is a sentence fragment.

Signal words beginning adverb clauses include after, as, as if, as long as, as much as, as soon as, because, before, even if, how, if, in order that, once, since, so that, than, unless, until, when, whenever, where, wherever, and while.

As a matter of good writing style, place specific adverbs before general ones.

Example: It should be exactly where I described, next to the desk, or somewhere over there.

Explanation: The more specific adverbs exactly where and next are properly placed before the more general somewhere over there.

High School

An adverb modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb with how, when, where, or what degree.

Examples:

How? Tom walked very slowly

When? because he had arrived extremely early

Where? at the place just right where

What Degree? he already knew his entire future could be decided.

Adverb Tips:

Students often confuse adjectives with adverbs when the words serve as superlative modifiers.

Some long superlative modifiers are adjectives. Adjectives describe a proper noun, a common noun, or a pronoun with How Many? Which One? or What Kind?

Example: Of the many intelligent men in the group, Tom was the most intelligent.

Explanation: The superlative modifier most intelligent is an adjective because it modifies the  noun (a predicate nominative) Tom.

Some long superlative modifiers are adverbs. Adverbs describe an adjective, adverb, or verb with How? When? Where? or What Degree? Example: Of the three arguing angrily, Tom argued most angrily.

Explanation: The superlative modifier most angrily is an adverb because it modifies the verb argued.

*****

Teaching Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics (Grades 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and High School) are full-year, traditional, grade-level grammar, usage, and mechanics programs with plenty of remedial practice to help students catch up while they keep up with grade-level standards. Twice-per-week, 30-minute, no prep lessons in print or interactive Google slides with a fun secret agent theme. Simple sentence diagrams, mentor texts, video lessons, sentence dictations. Plenty of practice in the writing context. Includes biweekly tests and a final exam.

Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics Interactive Notebook (Grades 4‒8) is a full-year, no prep interactive notebook without all the mess. Twice-per-week, 30-minute, no prep grammar, usage, and mechanics lessons, formatted in Cornell Notes with cartoon response, writing application, 3D graphic organizers (easy cut and paste foldables), and great resource links. No need to create a teacher INB for student make-up work—it’s done for you! Plus, get remedial worksheets, biweekly tests, and a final exam.

Syntax in Reading and Writing is a function-based, sentence-level syntax program, designed to build reading comprehension and increase writing sophistication. The 18 parts of speech, phrases, and clauses lessons are each leveled from basic (elementary) to advanced (middle and high school) and feature 5 lesson components (10–15 minutes each): 1. Learn It!  2. Identify It!  3. Explain It! (analysis of challenging sentences) 4. Revise It! (kernel sentences, sentence expansion, syntactic manipulation) 5. Create It! (Short writing application with the syntactic focus in different genre).

Get the Diagnostic Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics Assessments, Matrix, and Final Exam FREE Resource:

Get the Grammar and Mechanics Grades 4-8 Instructional Scope and Sequence FREE Resource:

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Adjectives come in many forms in English. Knowing the definition of this basic part of speech only gets us so far. We do need to know what we are talking about when we refer to adjectives. Some common language of instruction only makes sense. Even the die-hard writing process folk, never fans of direct grammar instruction, have always agreed that teaching the definitions of the parts of speech is an essential. Ask English-language arts teachers what they wish their students knew about grammar. Parts of speech will come to their minds first.

But why do teachers have to re-teach adjectives every year? Is it the past teacher’s fault? Or is it simply the way we learn grammar? Following is an instructional approach guaranteed to interrupt this forgetting cycle. At the end of this article, I will share an instructional scope and sequence for adjectives with clear definitions and examples.

1. DIE AR

(Yes, a depressing mnemonic. Perhaps an unspoken wish re: the Accelerated Reader® program?)

DEFINE Help students memorize the definitions of the key adjectival components. Rote memory is fundamental to higher order thinking. Use memory tricks, repetition, and even songs. Check out the Parts of Speech Rap. Test and re-test to ensure mastery.

IDENTIFY Help students identify adjectival components in practice examples and real text. Using quality, un-canned and authentic mentor text, such as famous literary quotations and short passages/poetry kills two birds with one stone: identification practice and sentence modeling.

EDIT Help students practice error analysis for each adjectival component by editing text that contains correct and incorrect usage. Finding out what is wrong does help clarify what is right. But don’t limit your instruction, as in Daily Oral Language, to this step. Students need the mentor texts and writing practice to master their noun components. Grammar taught in the context of reading and writing translates into long-term memory and application.

APPLY Help students their knowledge of adjectives correctly in targeted practice sentences. Sentence frames are one solid instructional method to practice application. For example, for adjectives…

It takes a lot of (idea) ________________ for a (person) ________________ to drive a (thing) ________________ to their (place) ________________.

Possible response: It takes a lot of SELF-CONTROL for a TEENAGER to drive a SPORTS CAR to their (place) to their HIGH SCHOOL.

REVISE Help students understand the importance and relevance of learning adjectives by revising their own authentic writing. Stress using what they have learned about adjectival components to improve coherence, sentence variety, author voice, word choice, clarity, and style. Make sure to share brilliant revisions that reflect these improvements as your own mentor texts. Post them on your walls and refer to them often to reinforce definition, identification, and writing style.

2. Assessments

Diagnostic assessments of key grammatical features, such as adjectives, serves two purposes: First, the results inform what to teach and how much time to allocate to direct instruction. It may be that one class tends to have mastery re: articles but weaknesses in modifiers. A different class may have a different set of strengths and weaknesses. Why so? One of the mysteries of life. Second, diagnostic assessments provide an individual baseline upon which to build learning. Sharing this data with students is vital. Students need to know what they know and what they don’t know to motivate their learning and see the personal relevance of the instructional task. Check out my favorite whole class diagnostic grammar assessment under Free ELA/Reading Assessments.

Formative assessments need to be designed to measure true mastery of the grammatical concept. So, a useful formative assessment of adjectival components must be comprehensive, including all steps of the DIE AR process. The purpose of formative assessment is to identify relative strengths and weaknesses of both instruction and learning. Simply giving a unit test as a summative assessment only satisfies the teacher (and colleagues) that the teacher has covered the subject, i.e. teaching adjectives. Far better to use the data to affect instruction. Good teachers re-teach judiciously and differentiate instruction according to test data.

3. Differentiated Instruction

Differentiated instruction should focus on relative weaknesses. A good recording matrix for formative assessments will clearly inform the teacher as to who lacks mastery over which adjectival components and how many students need remediation. Individual, paired, and small group instruction with targeted independent practice makes sense. A workshop design in which the teacher distributes worksheets, monitors practice, and uses mini-conferences to assess mastery ensures effective remediation. Differentiated instruction doesn’t have to be a planning or management nightmare.

 

Adjectives Instructional Scope and Sequence

Primary Elementary School

An adjective modifies (describes) a proper noun, a common noun, or a pronoun with how many, which one, or what kind. An adjective is usually placed before the noun it modifies.

Examples:

How Many? The five teammates

Which One? took that bus

What Kind? to the old arena across town.

Articles

An article is an adjective placed before nouns and pronouns. Articles include a, an, and the.

The article a is used before a word starting with a consonant sound, for example a tiger; the an comes before a word starting with a vowel sound, for example an anteater.

Intermediate/Upper Elementary School

Simple Modifiers

A modifier describes the meaning of another word or words and makes it more specific or limits its meaning(s).

Example: I ate the big piece. The word big is a modifier, making piece more specific.

Comparative Modifiers

Use er for a one-syllable modifier to compare two things.

Example: big—bigger

Also use er for a two-syllable modifier to compare two things. However, if the word sounds wrong, use or more or less.

Examples: easy—easier, but gracious—more gracious

Adjective Tip: These comparative modifiers are irregular:

good/well—better, bad/badly—worse (not worser ), much/many—more

Superlative Modifiers

Use est for a one or two-syllable modifier to compare three things. However, if the word sounds wrong, use or most or least.

Examples: easy—easiest, but gracious—most gracious

Adjective Tip: Avoid the common mistake of using superlative adjectives to compare only two things.

Example: Problem—Of the two basketball players, James is the most improved. Solution—Of the two basketball players, James is the more improved.

Adjective Tip: These superlative modifiers are irregular. good/well—better— best, bad/badly—worse (not worser)— worst (not worstest), much/many—more worst—most

Determiners

Determiners are adjectives that indicate number, or expand or limit meaning. They come at the beginning of noun phrases, and usually we cannot use more than one determiner in the same noun phrase.

Examples: each, either, every, neither, no, any, some, much, many, more, most, little, less, least, few, fewer, fewest, what, whatever, which, whichever, both, half, all, several, enough

Middle School

Proper Adjectives

Proper adjectives are adjectives that derive from proper nouns. In English, proper adjectives must begin with a capital letter.

Examples: American, Canadian, Mexican, German, Russian

Three-Syllable Comparative Modifiers

Use more or less for a three-syllable or longer modifier to compare two things.

Example: wonderful-more wonderful

Always use more or less for adverbs ending in __ly.

Example: quickly—less quickly

Adjective Tips:

• Some long comparative modifiers are adjectives. Adjectives describe a proper noun, a common noun, or a pronoun with How Many? Which One? or What Kind?

Example: intelligent—The intelligent man was more intelligent than his father.

• Some long comparative modifiers are adverbs. Adverbs describe an adjective, adverb, or verb with How? When? Where? or What Degree?

Example: angrily—She argued angrily, even more angrily than her mother.

Always use most or least for adverbs ending in __ly.

Example: quickly—most quickly

• Some long superlative modifiers are adjectives. Adjectives describe a proper noun, a common noun, or a pronoun with How Many? Which One? or What Kind?

Example: intelligent—Of the many intelligent men in the group, he was the most intelligent.

• Some long superlative modifiers are adverbs. Adverbs describe an adjective, adverb, or verb with How? When? Where? or What Degree? Example: angrily—Of the three arguing angrily, she argued most angrily.

High School

Participles

Participles are verb forms with _ing and _ed endings that serve as adjectives. Generally, participles end in either _ed or _ing.

The _ed ending means that the noun that is modified has a passive relationship with something else in the sentence.

Example: Scared at the noise, the boy hid under the covers.

The _ing ending means that the noun that is modified has an active relationship with something else in the sentence.

Example: Running the bases, the baseball player kept his head down.

Predicate Adjectives

Predicate adjectives follow linking verbs and modify the preceding noun.

Examples: The girls were embarrassed.

The teacher seemed tired.

Compound Adjectives

Compound adjectives often include hyphens and appear before nouns and pronouns.

Examples: The well-known celebrity stopped to sign autographs.

His one-and-only flaw was his arrogance.

Writing Style

Don’t use descriptive adjectives instead of well-chosen nouns and verbs. Especially avoid using adjectives that do not add meaning to a sentence. For example, adjectives such as interesting, beautiful, nice, and exciting do not help your reader understand the nouns or pronouns any better. Be specific as possible with your adjectives. The sympathetic man is better than the nice man.

*****

Teaching Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics (Grades 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and High School) are full-year, traditional, grade-level grammar, usage, and mechanics programs with plenty of remedial practice to help students catch up while they keep up with grade-level standards. Twice-per-week, 30-minute, no prep lessons in print or interactive Google slides with a fun secret agent theme. Simple sentence diagrams, mentor texts, video lessons, sentence dictations. Plenty of practice in the writing context. Includes biweekly tests and a final exam.

Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics Interactive Notebook (Grades 4‒8) is a full-year, no prep interactive notebook without all the mess. Twice-per-week, 30-minute, no prep grammar, usage, and mechanics lessons, formatted in Cornell Notes with cartoon response, writing application, 3D graphic organizers (easy cut and paste foldables), and great resource links. No need to create a teacher INB for student make-up work—it’s done for you! Plus, get remedial worksheets, biweekly tests, and a final exam.

Syntax in Reading and Writing is a function-based, sentence-level syntax program, designed to build reading comprehension and increase writing sophistication. The 18 parts of speech, phrases, and clauses lessons are each leveled from basic (elementary) to advanced (middle and high school) and feature 5 lesson components (10–15 minutes each): 1. Learn It!  2. Identify It!  3. Explain It! (analysis of challenging sentences) 4. Revise It! (kernel sentences, sentence expansion, syntactic manipulation) 5. Create It! (Short writing application with the syntactic focus in different genre).

Get the Diagnostic Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics Assessments, Matrix, and Final Exam FREE Resource:

Get the Grammar and Mechanics Grades 4-8 Instructional Scope and Sequence FREE Resource:

Grammar/Mechanics, Writing adjectives, articles, comparative modifiers, determiners, English grammar, grammar, grammar practice, grammar worksheets, Mark Pennington, modifiers, participial phrases, participles, proper adjectives, superlative modifiers, Teaching the Language Strand

“No part of speech causes more problems for my students than pronouns.” True. And no part of speech requires as much prior knowledge about our language. Adults misuse pronouns frequently and no wonder. Proper pronoun usage can be complicated and often our oral language filter misguides us.

We do need to know what we are talking about when we refer to pronouns. Some common language of instruction only makes sense. We do need to learn how to use pronouns correctly. Even the die-hard “only-teach-grammar-in-the-context-of-writing” folk, who too-often relegate direct grammar instruction to the garbage heap, would agree that teaching the definitions of the parts of speech is a must. Ask any English-language arts teacher what they wish their students knew about grammar. Parts of speech would be the response.

But why can’t students retain what they already have “learned” about pronouns? Is it bad teaching? Is it the nature of grammatical instruction? How can we change the forgetting cycle and ensure mastery? Read on and learn an effective and memorable instructional approach that will help your students master and remember pronoun rules and proper usage. At the end of this article, I share an instructional scope and sequence for pronouns with clear definitions and examples.

1. DIE AR

(Not the best mnemonic, but effective. Perhaps a comment on the popular Accelerated Reader® program?)

DEFINE Students should memorize the definitions of the key pronoun definitions and proper usage. Rote memory is key to higher order thinking. Use memory tricks, repetition, and even songs. Check out the Parts of Speech Rap. Your students will love it. Test and re-test to lead students to mastery.

IDENTIFY Students should identify pronouns in practice examples and real text. Using quality, un-canned and authentic mentor text, such as famous literary quotations and short passages/poetry provides model sentences and identification practice.

EDIT Students should practice error analysis for each pronoun definition by editing text that contains correct and incorrect usage. Finding out what is wrong does help us understand what is right. But don’t limit your instruction, as in Daily Oral Language, to this step. Students need the mentor texts and writing practice to master pronouns. Grammar taught in the context of reading and writing transfers to long-term memory and correct application.

APPLY Students should apply pronouns correctly in targeted practice sentences. Sentence frames are one solid instructional method to practice application. For example, for the he/him/his/himself pronouns…

________________ gave ________________ ________________ old fishing rod, but ________________ ________________ kept the new one.

Correct response: He gave him his old fishing rod, but he himself kept the new one.

REVISE Students should understand the importance and relevance of learning pronouns by revising their own authentic writing. Stress using what they have learned about pronouns to improve coherence, sentence variety, author voice, word choice, clarity, and style. Make sure to share student revisions that reflect these improvements as your own mentor texts. Post them on your walls and refer to them often to reinforce definition, identification, and writing style.

2. Assessment

Diagnostic assessments of key grammatical features, including pronouns, serves two purposes: First, the results inform what to teach and how much time to allocate to direct instruction. It may be that one class tends to have mastery in subject case pronouns, but has weaknesses in object case pronouns. A different class may have a different set of strengths and weaknesses. Diagnostic assessments inform instruction.  Second, diagnostic assessments provide an individual baseline upon which to build learning. Sharing this data with students is important. Students need to know what they know and what they don’t know to motivate their learning and see the personal relevance of the instructional task. Check out whole class diagnostic grammar assessment under Free ELA/Reading Assessments.

Formative assessments need to be designed to measure mastery of the grammatical concept. So, a useful formative assessment of noun components must be comprehensive, including all steps of the DIE AR process. The purpose of formative assessment is to identify relative strengths and weaknesses of both instruction and learning. Simply giving a unit test as a summative assessment only proves that the teacher has covered the subject, such as pronoun definitions, rules, and proper usage. Good teachers re-teach as needed and differentiate instruction according to formative test data.

3. Differentiated Instruction

Differentiated instruction should focus on relative weaknesses and eliminate repetitive instruction on what students have already mastered. A good recording matrix for formative assessments will clearly inform the teacher as to who lacks mastery re: pronouns and how many students need remediation. Individual, paired, and small group instruction with targeted independent practice makes sense. A workshop design with targeted worksheets, monitored practice, and mini-conferences to assess mastery will ensure effective remediation. Differentiated instruction doesn’t have to involve impossible planning and impossible instructional implementation.

Pronouns Instructional Scope and Sequence

Primary Elementary School

• A pronoun is a word used in place of a proper noun or common noun.
• First person pronouns take the place of the one speaking. These pronouns include the singulars I and me and the plurals we and us.
• Second person pronouns take the place of the one spoken to. The singular and plural pronouns use the same word: you.
• Third person pronouns take the place of the one spoken about. These pronouns include the singulars he, she, it, him, and her and the plurals they and them.
• Possessive pronouns placed before a noun show ownership. These pronouns include my, your, his, her, its, our, and their.
• Possessive pronouns with no connection to nouns also show ownership. These include mine, yours, his, hers, ours, and theirs.

Pronoun Tip: Make sure the possessive pronouns his and their are not combined with self or selves.

Intermediate/Upper Elementary School

Subject Case Pronouns

Use the subject case pronouns, which include the singulars I, you, he, she, and it and the plurals we, you, and they in these grammatical forms:

• when the pronoun is the sentence subject. The sentence subject is the “do-er” of the sentence.

Example: She and I attended the concert.

• when the pronoun is a predicate nominative. A predicate nominative follows a “to be” verb (is, am, are, was, were, be, being, been) and identifies or refers to the subject.

Example: The students who got into trouble are they.

• when the pronoun is part of an appositive, such as after than or as. An appositive is a noun or pronoun placed next to another noun or pronoun to identify or explain it.

Example: Marty is smarter than I.

Pronoun Tip: When compound subjects are joined by or or nor, the pronoun that refers to the subjects agrees in number with the antecedent closer to the pronoun. Example: Neither water nor sodas did their jobs quenching my thirst.

Pronoun Tips: To test whether the pronoun is in the nominative case, try these tricks:

• Rephrase to check if the pronoun sounds right.

Example: The last one to arrive was he. Rephrase—He was the last one to arrive.

• Drop other nouns or pronouns when there is a compound subject and check if the remaining pronoun sounds right. Remember that English is a polite language; the first person pronouns (I, me, ours, mine) are always placed last when combined with other nouns or pronouns.

Example: John and I play video games. Drop and check—I play video games.

Object Case Pronouns

Use the object case pronouns, which include the singulars me, you, him, her, it and the plurals us, you, and them in these grammatical forms:

• when the pronoun is the direct object. The direct object receives the action of the verb.

Example: The challenge excited him.

• when the direct object is described by an appositive phrase (a phrase that identifies or explains another noun or pronoun placed next to it).

Example: The teacher yelled at two students, Rachel and me.

• when the pronoun is an indirect object of a verb. The indirect object is placed between a verb and its direct object. It tells to what, to whom, for what, or for whom.

Example: Robert gave him a king-size candy bar.

• when the pronoun is an object of a preposition. A preposition shows some relationship or position between a proper noun, a common noun, or a pronoun and its object. The preposition asks “What?” and the object provides the answer.

Example: The fly buzzed around her and past them by me.

• when the pronoun is connected to an infinitive. An infinitive has a to + the base form of a verb.

Example: I want him to give the speech.

Pronoun Tips:

To test whether the pronoun is in the object case, try these tricks:

• Rephrase to check if the pronoun sounds right.

Example: Joe smiled at all of them. Rephrase—At all of them Joe smiled.

• Drop other nouns or pronouns when there is a compound subject and check if the remaining pronoun sounds right. Remember that English is a polite language; the first person pronouns (I, me, ours, mine) are always placed last when combined with other nouns or pronouns.

Example: She gave Kathy and me a gift. Drop and check—She gave me a gift.

The pronoun who is in the subject case. The who takes the role of the subject.

Example: Who is the best teacher?

Who and Whom

The pronoun who is in the subject case. In other words, it takes the place of a noun acting as the subject of a sentence.

Examples: Who did this?

Who is the best teacher?

Pronoun Tip: Try substituting he for who and rephrase, if necessary. If it sounds right, use who.

The pronoun whom is in the objective case. In other words, it is takes the place of the direct object, the indirect object of the verb, or the object of the preposition.

Examples: Whom did Joan love?

I like whom you gave the award.

To whom does this letter concern?

Pronoun Tip: Try substituting him for whom and rephrase, if necessary. If it sounds right, use whom.

Relative Pronouns

The pronoun that can refer to people or things; the pronoun which can only refer to things.

Use the pronoun that when the clause is needed to understand the rest of the sentence.

Example: The movie that we watched was entertaining.

Use the pronoun which in clauses that provide additional, but not necessary information.

Example: That dog, which is friendly, was easy to train.

Don’t restate the subject with a pronoun.

Example: That dog, which is friendly, he was easy to train. Problem—The he is unnecessary and grammatically incorrect.

Middle School

Indefinite Pronouns

An indefinite personal pronoun does not specifically reference a common noun or proper noun and so can act as a singular or plural to match the verb. These pronouns include: anybody, anyone, anything, each, either, everybody, everyone, neither, nobody, no one, nothing, one, someone, somebody, and something.

Pronoun Tip: Look at surrounding words for singular and plural clues.

An indefinite numerical pronoun does not indicate an exact amount and can act as a singular or plural depending upon the surrounding words. These indefinite numerical pronouns include all, any, half, more, most, none, other, and some.

Examples: in All of the food is wonderful, all is a singular pronoun. In All girls know best, all is a plural pronoun.

Pronoun Tip: When the object of the preposition is uncountable, use a singular pronoun to refer to the object. Example: All of the salt fell out of its bag. When it is countable, use a plural pronoun to refer to the object.

Example: All of the coffee beans fell out of their bag.

Pronoun Tip: The ending word parts body, one, and thing indicate a singular indefinite pronoun.

Reflexive and Intensive Pronouns

Reflexive pronouns refer to the subject, and intensive pronouns emphasize a noun or pronoun. Both are object case pronouns and include myself, ourselves, yourself, yourselves, himself, herself, itself, and themselves.

A reflexive pronoun is essential to the sentence. You could not understand the sentence without the pronoun.

Example: He gave himself a pat on the back.

Intensive pronouns are not essential to the sentence. You could understand the sentence without the pronoun.

Example: I, myself, happen to love eating pizza.

Pronoun Tip: Notice that each has self or selves as the second syllable.

Pronoun Tips: A pronoun that refers to or replaces a previous common noun, proper noun, or pronoun is called an antecedent.

• Make sure antecedents are specific. Otherwise, the pronoun reference may be confusing.

Example: When Bobby asked for help, they asked why.

Problem-Who is they? Get more specific. When Bobby asked for help from his teachers, they asked why.

• Don’t have a pronoun refer to the object in a prepositional phrase.

Example: In Twain’s The Celebrated Frog of Calaveras County, he uses political humor. Problem—Who, or what, is he?

• Make sure that the singular pronouns this and that and the plural pronouns these and those specifically refer to what is intended. Keep these pronouns close to their references.

Example: He made an egg, put the dog food in its bowl, and put this on his toast to eat. Problem—What is this?

• Don’t have a pronoun refer to a possessive antecedent. A possessive is a common noun, proper noun, or pronoun that shows ownership.

Example: In San Diego’s famous zoo, they treat their zoo-keepers well. Problem—Who are the they and their?

Demonstrative Pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns refer to nouns close to or away from the speaker. These pronouns include this, that, these, and those. The words this (singular) and these (plural) refer to nouns and pronouns close to the writer (speaker). The words that (singular) and those (plural) refer to nouns and pronouns away from the writer (speaker).

High School

Possessive pronouns can connect to gerunds (verb forms ending in “ing” that serve as a sentence subject).

Examples: His cooking is not the best. Their cooking the dinner is not the best idea.

Pronouns and Writing Style

English is a polite language. Place others before yourself. For example, She and I enjoy a walk in the park, not I and she enjoy a walk in the park.

When use of a pronoun will create confusion, repeat the noun and omit the pronoun. For example, Eating their dessert caused the boys to lose their focus is more clear than Eating their dessert caused them to lose their focus.

Don’t use first and second person pronouns in essays. Focus on the subject, not the author or reader in essays.

*****

Teaching Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics (Grades 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and High School) are full-year, traditional, grade-level grammar, usage, and mechanics programs with plenty of remedial practice to help students catch up while they keep up with grade-level standards. Twice-per-week, 30-minute, no prep lessons in print or interactive Google slides with a fun secret agent theme. Simple sentence diagrams, mentor texts, video lessons, sentence dictations. Plenty of practice in the writing context. Includes biweekly tests and a final exam.

Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics Interactive Notebook (Grades 4‒8) is a full-year, no prep interactive notebook without all the mess. Twice-per-week, 30-minute, no prep grammar, usage, and mechanics lessons, formatted in Cornell Notes with cartoon response, writing application, 3D graphic organizers (easy cut and paste foldables), and great resource links. No need to create a teacher INB for student make-up work—it’s done for you! Plus, get remedial worksheets, biweekly tests, and a final exam.

Syntax in Reading and Writing is a function-based, sentence-level syntax program, designed to build reading comprehension and increase writing sophistication. The 18 parts of speech, phrases, and clauses lessons are each leveled from basic (elementary) to advanced (middle and high school) and feature 5 lesson components (10–15 minutes each): 1. Learn It!  2. Identify It!  3. Explain It! (analysis of challenging sentences) 4. Revise It! (kernel sentences, sentence expansion, syntactic manipulation) 5. Create It! (Short writing application with the syntactic focus in different genre).

Get the Diagnostic Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics Assessments, Matrix, and Final Exam FREE Resource:

Get the Grammar and Mechanics Grades 4-8 Instructional Scope and Sequence FREE Resource:

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“A noun is a person, place, or thing.” Well… partially right, but there is much more. And knowing the definition of this basic part of speech only gets us so far. We do need to know what we are talking about when we refer to nouns. Some common language of instruction only makes sense. Even the die-hard writing process folk, who relegated direct grammar instruction to the pedagogical garbage heap in the 1980s, always agreed that teaching the definitions of the parts of speech is an essential. Ask English-language arts teachers what they wish their students knew about grammar coming into their classes in the fall. Parts of speech will be their first, and perhaps only, answer.

But why do teachers have to re-teach nouns every year? Is it the previous teacher’s fault? Is it the cyclical nature of instruction? Is it something in the water? Following is an instructional approach guaranteed to interrupt this forgetting cycle. At the end of this article, I will share an instructional scope and sequence for noun components with clear definitions and examples.

1. DIE AR

(Admittedly a depressing mnemonic. Perhaps a subconscious wish re: the Accelerated Reader® program?)

DEFINE Help students memorize the definitions of the key noun components. Rote memory is fundamental to higher order thinking. Use memory tricks, repetition, and even songs. Check out the Parts of Speech Rap. Test and re-test to ensure mastery.

IDENTIFY Help students identify noun components in practice examples and real text. Using quality, un-canned and authentic mentor text, such as famous literary quotations and short passages/poetry kills two birds with one stone: identification practice and sentence modeling.

EDIT Help students practice error analysis for each noun component by editing text that contains correct and incorrect usage. Finding out what is wrong does help clarify what is right. But don’t limit your instruction, as in Daily Oral Language, to this step. Students need the mentor texts and writing practice to master their noun components. Grammar taught in the context of reading and writing translates into long-term memory and application.

APPLY Help students the noun components correctly in targeted practice sentences. Sentence frames are one solid instructional method to practice application. For example, for common nouns…

It takes a lot of (idea) ________________ for a (person) ________________ to drive a (thing) ________________ to their (place) ________________.

Possible response: It takes a lot of SELF-CONTROL for a TEENAGER to drive a SPORTS CAR to their (place) to their HIGH SCHOOL.

REVISE Help students understand the importance and relevance of learning the noun components by revising their own authentic writing. Stress using what they have learned about noun components to improve coherence, sentence variety, author voice, word choice, clarity, and style. Make sure to share brilliant revisions that reflect these improvements as your own mentor texts. Post them on your walls and refer to them often to reinforce definition, identification, and writing style.

2. Assessment

Diagnostic assessments of key grammatical features, such as noun components, serves two purposes: First, the results inform what to teach and how much time to allocate to direct instruction. It may be that one class tends to have mastery re: proper nouns, common nouns, and noun phrases but weaknesses in abstract nouns, concrete nouns, and noun clauses. A different class may have a different set of strengths and weaknesses. Why so? One of the mysteries of life. Second, diagnostic assessments provide an individual baseline upon which to build learning. Sharing this data with students is vital. Students need to know what they know and what they don’t know to motivate their learning and see the personal relevance of the instructional task. Check out my favorite whole class diagnostic grammar assessment under Free ELA/Reading Assessments.

Formative assessments need to be designed to measure true mastery of the grammatical concept. So, a useful formative assessment of noun components must be comprehensive, including all steps of the DIE AR process. The purpose of formative assessment is to identify relative strengths and weaknesses of both instruction and learning. Simply giving a unit test as a summative assessment only satisfies the teacher (and colleagues) that the teacher has covered the subject, i.e. teaching the noun components. Far better to use the data to affect instruction. Good teachers re-teach judiciously and differentiate instruction according to test data.

3. Differentiated Instruction

Differentiated instruction should focus on relative weaknesses. A good recording matrix for formative assessments will clearly inform the teacher as to who lacks mastery over which noun components and how many students need remediation. Individual, paired, and small group instruction with targeted independent practice makes sense. A workshop design in which the teacher distributes worksheets, monitors practice, and uses mini-conferences to assess mastery ensures effective remediation. Differentiated instruction doesn’t have to be a planning or management nightmare.

Noun Components Instructional Scope and Sequence

Primary Elementary School

• Common Nouns, such as teenager, high school, sports car, freedom
• Proper Nouns, such as Mary, Pinewood Elementary School, Microsoft Word®
• Compound Nouns, such as baseball, playground, cartwheel
• Single Nouns, such as desk, Ms. Brady, group
• Plural Nouns (with spelling rules), such as books, churches, lives

Intermediate/Upper Elementary School

• Abstract Nouns (nouns that cannot be sensed), such as freedom, patience, thoughts
• Concrete Nouns (nouns that can be sensed), such as ice cream, velvet, movie
• Nouns as Simple Subjects, such as George left town.
• Nouns as Compound Subjects, such as George and Sam left town.
• Nouns in Compound Sentences, such as George left town, and Sam left, too.
• Complete Nouns/Noun Phrases, such as Crazy George and his best friend left town.
• Nouns as Objects of Prepositional Phrases, such as George and Sam left town for the vacation of a lifetime.
• Collective Nouns (nouns that refer to groups with members), such as That herd of sheep was in the pasture.
• Nouns to Avoid (things, stuff, etc.), such as The thing is… I already have that stuff.
• Nouns as Abbreviations, such as I love the U.S.A.
• Nouns as Acronyms, such as We had a guest speaker from N.A.S.A.
• Hyphenated Nouns, such as English-language arts is my favorite subject.
• Irregular Plural Nouns, such as deer-deer, child-children, foot-feet

Middle School

• Noun Clauses, such as Whenever I studied, I passed my tests.
• Greek and Latin Noun Plural Formations, such as cactus-cacti, crisis-crises, appendix-appendices
• Nouns as Direct Objects, such as I left my wallet.
• Nouns as Indirect Objects, such as I gave John my wallet.
• Nouns as Gerunds, such as Smoking is hazardous to one’s health.
• Nouns as Appositives, such as That nice couple, Juan and Tasha, brought us cookies.
• Mass (non-count) Nouns (These nouns don’t form plurals and are usually abstract), such as mud, insurance, music

High School

• Nouns as Nominative Absolutes (a separate phrase or clause that modifies the main noun and verb), such as “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed (Second Amendment to the United States Constitution).”
• Nouns as Predicate Nominatives (a noun or pronoun following a noun and a linking verb that defines or re-names the noun), such as Joe is a murder suspect.

*****

Teaching Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics (Grades 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and High School) are full-year, traditional, grade-level grammar, usage, and mechanics programs with plenty of remedial practice to help students catch up while they keep up with grade-level standards. Twice-per-week, 30-minute, no prep lessons in print or interactive Google slides with a fun secret agent theme. Simple sentence diagrams, mentor texts, video lessons, sentence dictations. Plenty of practice in the writing context. Includes biweekly tests and a final exam.

Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics Interactive Notebook (Grades 4‒8) is a full-year, no prep interactive notebook without all the mess. Twice-per-week, 30-minute, no prep grammar, usage, and mechanics lessons, formatted in Cornell Notes with cartoon response, writing application, 3D graphic organizers (easy cut and paste foldables), and great resource links. No need to create a teacher INB for student make-up work—it’s done for you! Plus, get remedial worksheets, biweekly tests, and a final exam.

Syntax in Reading and Writing is a function-based, sentence-level syntax program, designed to build reading comprehension and increase writing sophistication. The 18 parts of speech, phrases, and clauses lessons are each leveled from basic (elementary) to advanced (middle and high school) and feature 5 lesson components (10–15 minutes each): 1. Learn It!  2. Identify It!  3. Explain It! (analysis of challenging sentences) 4. Revise It! (kernel sentences, sentence expansion, syntactic manipulation) 5. Create It! (Short writing application with the syntactic focus in different genre).

Get the Diagnostic Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics Assessments, Matrix, and Final Exam FREE Resource:

Get the Grammar and Mechanics Grades 4-8 Instructional Scope and Sequence FREE Resource:

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