Sentence Diagramming
As Mrthoth (2007) shows in his YouTube video, one of the best ways to understand writing is to understand grammar—and one of the best ways to understand grammar is to understand sentence diagramming. I did not receive much sentence diagramming instruction in my time at school, but I did learn it on my own because I was interested in it as a concept and thought it was fun to do.
I think sentence diagramming as Mrthoth (2007) explains can be used to help students understand grammatical structure because it allows you to diagram the parts of the sentence—i.e., the grammar—just like a builder would diagram the parts of a house or a biologist would diagram the parts of the body. The grammar can be visually depicted with each of the words performing a role, either acting as the subject or verb or as a modifier or object or so on.
I would like to use this method to help teach grammar because I believe it can be very helpful and useful in that students like to see how sentences are constructed. The diagramming technique is a good way to reinforce how words operate. You can see that syntax is important because phrases and words will modify other phrases and words and so everything is ultimately connected. A badly written sentence will have words and phrases with no defined role or purpose, and this type of exercise can help students see that. A properly written sentence will be able to be diagrammed fully so that you can show how every single word is being used. I would have students do this with sentences that they write so that they can practice seeing how they are doing in their sentence construction. The class would diagram one another’s sentences on the board, and there would be races too to keep the activities fun and engaging. The more time spent diagramming the more likely students are to fully acquire grammatical skills
(Echevarria, Short & Powers, 2006) References Arriaza, G. (1997). Grace under Pressure: Immigrant Families and the Nation-State. Social Justice, 24(2), 6+. Borko, H. (2004). Professional development and teacher learning: Mapping the terrain. Educational Researcher, 33, 3-15. California Department of Education, Educational Demographics Unit. (2004). Statewide Stanford 9 test results for reading: Number of students tested and percent scoring at or above the 50th percentile ranking (NPR). Retrieved January 5, 2007, at http://www.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/ Echevarria, J.,
Brevity is also necessary because reading for content and for linguistic problem solving is the focus" (Kruger). In contrast to the brevity of the intensive program the extensive program "consists of longer selections, that are assigned to be read outside of class, like novels or short stories" (Kruger). Of course a major goal of the program was English language knowledge and reading comprehension, but "Vocabulary building is an intrinsic part
Teaching ESL Students At least 3.5 million children every year are identified as possessing limited English proficiency and require additional support before they are mainstreamed into the regular classroom environment (Miller & Endo 2004: 786). Approaches to ESL instruction run the gamut from total immersion to fostering a largely bilingual approach to education for this group of students. The two typical program approaches are that of a transitional bilingual education
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School-Wide Assessment Plan Schoolwide Devlopment Plan Assessing the Context or Input As a certified teacher in Special Education and capable to teach English to English Language Learners, I plan to create an assessment plan to measure abilities of students in high need areas in my school to read and write. Since I am equipped with a robust background and the essential skills to teach in these areas and to assess the needs
This article is of value to the present research for its identification of some critical research promoting the integration of vocabulary acquisition strategies into more traditional modes of language development instruction. Laufer, B. & Rozovski-Roitblat, B. (2011). Incidental vocabulary acquisition: The effects of task type, word occurrence and their combination. Language Teaching Research, 15(4), 391-411 This article by Laufer & Rozovski-Roitblat (2011) adds to the recurrent discussion -- often featuring contributions