¶ … contacting 6 middle schools in Winchester, VA, where English grammar is taught to 6th graders. Three schools will be identified that teach sentence diagramming to students as part of the teaching methods. Three schools will be identified that do not teach sentence diagramming. Students from the 6th grade classes of these 2 sets of three schools will be selected for the study by delivering participation consent forms to the teachers of the classes. The students who complete the consent forms and have parents' signatures will be included in the study. A sample size of 100 students total will be the target. If fewer than 100 students are obtained for the study, it will proceed regardless but the limitation will be noted in the analysis and discussion portion of the study and how its impact on the hypothesis will be addressed (Elwell, 2013).
How Study is Performed
Support from teachers at the school will be cultivated by explaining to the principals of these schools the objective of this study. If no schools are found where sentence diagramming is taught, the researcher will request of three schools that a practice sentence diagramming course be utilized for the purposes of the experiment. In this case, a diagramming curriculum will be delivered to the three schools. Otherwise, the diagramming curriculums of the schools already in use will be accepted for the study, and these curriculums will be described for the study with any differences or peculiarities noted. The 6 schools will then conduct lessons over a 3-month period. Tests will be administered at the end of every week, with a total of 12 to 15 tests conducted over the course of the study for each school. Test scores will then be compared and differences between those receiving basic grammar lessons and diagramming lessons analyzed. This analysis will be conducted by using a t-test to compare differences in the variable (Mills, Gay, Airasian, 2012).
References
Elwell. (2013). Cheat Sheet Topic: Hypotheses.
Mills, G. E., & Gay, L. R. & Airasian. (2012). Educational research: Competencies for analysis and applications. Boston, MA: Pearson Publishing.
