Lesson 191 of FLL-identifying parts of speech of a paragraph. Ds can't-at all!

[Catherine]

He has never done very well recalling the memorized definitions of parts of speech. As in, he has not once been able to remember the definitions without heavy prompting from me. Nouns are the only part of speech he can reliably identify, most of the time. Honestly, these "memorized" phrases are meaningless for him. I know later they will be meaningful, but not yet.

 

Should we back up, or is he pretty much where a 7 yo finishing second grade should be? He'll be 8 soon.

[abbeyej]

I don't think it's a disaster or anything, but I would work more with him (playing simple "games" and such) to help him learn what those parts of speech really *are*.

 

If he can't remember what a verb is, having him recall the definition. Home in on that word "action". Can he demonstrate an "action"? Call out various actions for him to perform. Run! Sing! Eat! Fall! Stand! Sit! Roll over!

 

Make sure there's giggling involved. ;) Then immediately have him come and you write down some sentences with some of the *same* verbs in them. Have him identify those. If he needs some silly reminders, perhaps *you* could demonstrate the action in the sentence. Ask him, "Who is this sentence about? Okay, what is that person *doing*?"

 

Later, do something similar with adverbs. Have him walk slowly, quickly, sadly, crazily, ferociously, etc... Write some sentences using the same adverbs. Have him find them. Give some more sentences with similar yet different adverbs.

 

Help him to make connections between the memorized definitions and the words in real use.

 

Mad Libs can be fun, useful practice too...

 

I don't think it's terrible -- but I wouldn't just let it go either. He should, at this age, be capable of identifying the simplest forms of the basic parts of speech...