Back in my callow youth, we had grammar lessons every day. They included acquiring the skill of diagramming sentences. At the time, diagramming sentences bored me nearly to tears. As an adult, I began to find the structure fascinating. Had I been introduced to parts of speech through visuals and little story snippets that helped me easily understand, maybe diagramming would also have been fun. I have worked on reviving the art of diagramming because I believe that it helps students easily learn how to correctly construct sentences. This practice is something I first began to use when I was teaching Spanish. It helped my students learn the language much more quickly. Simple Diagramming - Nouns & Verbs Write,...
Grammar, phonics, and parts of speech often vie for first place at the very pinnacle of the student boredom scale. I have spent a lot of working time as an adult looking for ways to teach these types of mind-numbing concepts in ways that are not only easy to learn but also hard to forget.
Short vowels and their sounds are often difficult for children. For students who are weak on vowel sound discrimination, spelling tests are torture. It follows that reading is hard for them as well.
All of us enjoy teaching the ABC Song to young children. We get excited when toddlers can sing the song all the way through! And it feels like the first solid step in the process of learning to read. And most children can learn the ABC Song! Most can also recite the ABCs from A to Z. But is that enough?
Visuals, stories, and body motions work wonders in helping children learn to read, but honestly, they are stellar vehicles for teaching anything! One of the best times I've had in the classroom was the day we studied the water cycle in first grade.
