jabuford Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 I am coming to my wits end trying to teach diagramming. I don't know where I have gone wrong. My children still don't know what a verb is and they just keep guessing until they get it right. We started RS this semester (Jan). We are on lesson 8 and it is teaching the simple t with predicate and subject. One of the answers for the verb was - was watching and my daughter 12 yrs. old puts was in the subject place and watching on the verb place. I wanted to scream. We have done diagramming before with Growing with Grammar, but they struggled with that as well. Help before I loose my mind. They are 5th grade level. Any suggestions to get us out of this learning malfunction. I keep telling my husband I am not the right teacher for our children, but he won't do anything about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Felicia Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 I don't know if this will help but we love Analytical Grammar. My oldest just loves it. She looks at grammar like a puzzle to be solved and that helps. My ds is in the 5th grade and we will be starting Junior Analytical grammar next week with him. I love their approach to grammar. It doesn't push it. It takes bite size chunks of grammar and then they want to let the kid's mind "marinate" with what they learned before giving them more. They are self-proclaimed "grammar geeks". They really love it. Here is a website for them: http://www.analyticalgrammar.com/ She has video on there where she explains the entire curriculum and how they look at how grammar should be taught. It is a little different than thinking grammar has to be taught year after year after year. We used BJU for the longest time and my older dc still didn't get grammar. They were starting to hate it. I'm glad I found this program. When I ordered mine I had some questions and called. I actually got to talk to her and she was very helpful. HTH Felicia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siloam Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 I am coming to my wits end trying to teach diagramming. I don't know where I have gone wrong. My children still don't know what a verb is and they just keep guessing until they get it right. We started RS this semester (Jan). We are on lesson 8 and it is teaching the simple t with predicate and subject. One of the answers for the verb was - was watching and my daughter 12 yrs. old puts was in the subject place and watching on the verb place. I wanted to scream. We have done diagramming before with Growing with Grammar, but they struggled with that as well. Help before I loose my mind. They are 5th grade level. Any suggestions to get us out of this learning malfunction. I keep telling my husband I am not the right teacher for our children, but he won't do anything about it. Maybe she is like me. I have the hardest time looking at a sentence and picking out the subject and predicate to this day. Generally if you make me do that I will pick out the first noun and verb (I might think an adverb is a verb too). Last year I started my oldest on JAG, and this is the first program that works for me. The key is the order they work in. You find all the nouns (but not the subject yet), then the articles, followed by adjectives, pronouns and prepositions with prepositional phrases. At that point with all the above eliminated you find the verb and the subject. That works for me. Now I still have moments when I have hard time figuring out what adverbs are modifying, and at times prepositional phrases, but it is a far cry from where I was a year ago. I can diagram the 5 different types of sentences, just don't ask me to find the subject and predicate first. If she knows the other parts of speech, you could try the above order, and see if it works better for her. Heather Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mary in GA Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 AG worked very well for my diagramming challenged ds. You might want JAG for that age. It is very methodical, and the sentences are interesting You also might want to look at something very hands on like Winston Grammar. I used that with ds (I can't remember at what age.) We used AG in 8th and 9th, I think. It seems so long ago! Mary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jabuford Posted January 16, 2009 Author Share Posted January 16, 2009 I had looked at JAG awhile back, but was turned off by the means of parsing. I thought that parsing might confuse them further. Was I wrong in thinking this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pongo Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 We LOVE Shurley English, I have done levels 1-5. Last year we did JAG because as a self proclaimed curricula junkie I had to try something else after 4 years of Shurley. I had her take the test of each Unit in JAG and she ended up starting 3 units in. Other than where to put the little "tree" lines she did not learn anymore than she already knew from Shurley. I popped her back into SE and we have stayed with it. My ds has done levels 1-3 and my youngest is doing SE level 1. It's a great curriculum....one of my favorites!:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deana FL Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 I know this is meant for 4th graders, BUT it is wonderful at teaching diagramming! Last year when I began my 2nd grader in FLL3, I fell in love and pulled my 4th grader from her ABeka and we worked it together. Now, my children work together doing FLL4. My reasoning is that Grammar is one of those subjects that teaches the same thing over and over again in the elementary years. I figure why not teach it correctly from the start, rather than layer confusion upon confusion. Diagramming is taught so effectively, I am learning alongside them. Saddened that as an English Major in College, I am only now understanding these concepts.:w00t: I would suggest thinking about moving backwards just a little in order to establish a strong foundation. My daughter is 11 (5th grade) and I am SO glad for the decision I made! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laughing lioness Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 I love the grammar chatechism in Living Memory- worth the price of the book. I love Our Mother Tongue. Easy, gentle and thorough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bookmomma Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 I highly recommend First language Lessons (3 or 4). My son is in 3rd and he is doing great with the way diagramming is introduced. I have a BA in English and learned to diagram in college! I never saw it before then (and neither did half the class). He actually REQUESTS to do his grammar work and says he loves it. Case closed;0) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deana FL Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 I highly recommend First language Lessons (3 or 4). My son is in 3rd and he is doing great with the way diagramming is introduced. I have a BA in English and learned to diagram in college! I never saw it before then (and neither did half the class). He actually REQUESTS to do his grammar work and says he loves it. Case closed;0) LOL... BA in English here, too.. I just wish I had this book long before I went to College! So thankful that I have it now and my children will have an understanding of the English language that will ultimately help them immensely in writing.:thumbup: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siloam Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 I had looked at JAG awhile back, but was turned off by the means of parsing. I thought that parsing might confuse them further. Was I wrong in thinking this? The only parsing it does is above the sentence (doesn't do the charts, or what ever it is called), and for me I couldn't diagram it till I can "see" the parts written above first. It never occurred to me that some people might do it without. I am a visual spacial learner, so that also might have something to do with it too. Heather Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Felicia Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 I had looked at JAG awhile back, but was turned off by the means of parsing. I thought that parsing might confuse them further. Was I wrong in thinking this? I never did parsing until AG. I wasn't even sure what it was. I'd been taught in the 8th grade to diagram but that was it. I actually like the parsing. Once you get that down, it seems easier to place it in a diagram, imho. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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