Research Question and Students

¶ … Headline Diagram This Headline in One Minute, If You Can. the requirements for EDUC 594 The purpose of the study by Landecker (2009) was to show that the sentence diagramming can be an fun, interactive, competitive and engaging exercise to help students learn the parts of speech and how they fit together in a sentence. Landecker (2009) uses the observational method to gather data on her sample: a classroom of students under the direction of professor Lucy Ferriss.

24 students between the ages of 19 and 21 were "so excited about diagramming" thanks to the teaching methods the 55-year-old instructor employed in the classroom (Landecker, 2009, p. 10). The question that Landecker posed at the beginning of the study was whether or not students could actually find diagramming to be an interesting subject to which they could apply themselves and from which they could learn. As Landecker (2009) finds through direct observation, the answer is yes: the students were "infected with a zeal to get it right" (p. 10).

Participants Participants in this study were 24 students between the ages of 19 and 21 -- both male and female -- in the English class taught by Lucy Ferriss. The class was a basic university-level English grammar class. Landecker (2009) observes that the course was a "half-credit course at Trinity College" (p. 10). Methodology Participants were selectively chosen rather than randomly: Lucy Ferriss's students were specifically chosen for observation for this study because of the reputation that Ferriss had established for herself in the academic world regarding teaching grammar and diagramming.

The data collection tool employed by Landecker (2009) is the direct observation method. She physically immersed herself in the actual classroom environment where Ferriss taught her students in order to see with her own eyes how the students took to the method. The date chosen for observation was a day in which the students were participating in a diagramming contest: one side of the classroom against the other side in a race to see which side could correctly diagram the other side's 100-word sentence.

This was, according to Landecker (2009), the "course's main event -- a sentence diagramming 'slam'" (p. 10). Landecker silently took notes, recording observations of the proceeding over the course of one-hour. The study was qualitative in nature, with Landecker (2009) highlight specific themes and activities in order to show to what extent the method of teaching diagramming was successful. Results The question of Landecker (2009) regarding whether students could be engaged by sentence diagramming lessons was answered via analysis of the data gathered by direct observation. The data indicated that all.