Parts of Speech

Building Blocks of Beautiful Sentences

By Amy Nicholson
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it (Proverbs
22:6).
We learn grammar as we learn to speak, so why teach it? To learn the rules. That so-called
sentence illustrates the point. To learn the rules is not a complete sentence. It lacks both a
subject and a verb. You may understand my thought by reading it as an answer to the question
that preceded it, but on its own it does not express a complete thought. A sentence, by definition,
utilizes a subject and a predicate to express a complete thought. I broke a rule of grammar.
It is important to familiarize our students with grammar rules, so that they can learn to
communicate their thoughts to others effectively. We begin with the basics.
The basic parts of a sentence are subjects, which tell who or what the sentence is about, and
predicates, which tell what the subject did or is doing. The central elements of subjects and
predicates are nouns (people, places, and things) and verbs (action words). Nouns and verbs are
two of the eight parts of speech. The other six are pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions,
conjunctions, and interjections.1 If we are required to teach something our students already
inherently know, lets make it enjoyable for both parties.
Music can be an effective teaching tool. I learned the parts of speech that way. As a child, I would
sing Conjunction Junction, whats your function? along with SchoolHouse Rock
(www.schoolhouserock.tv) on Saturday mornings. Unfortunately, its not aired anymore, but the
DVDs can still be purchased. When I teach my children the parts of speech, I often refer to these
videos. The catchy tunes are among the more useful things ingrained in my psyche, and Im
hoping my children will also learn the songs and refer to them.
We can reinforce grammar lessons with workbooks and worksheets in which students are given
sentences and asked to underline the verbs and circle the nouns. When circling nouns in the
subject in red and underlining verbs in the predicate in blue for ten examples in a row, students
can clearly see the pattern. The subject is usually at the beginning of the sentence and the verb
directly after it. We can cover up the rest of the words in the sentence and show that this simple
noun-verb combination comprises a sentence in its most basic form. When the other words are
stripped away, we see the authors point more clearly, and we also see how he adds details to
illustrate his point. Students will naturally imitate this in their own writing.
Once students learn the definitions of the parts of speech, they realize they can give a myriad of
examples. Brainstorm ideas together, writing them on the board as ideas are spoken. Have fun
with it. Move around when you study verbs. My daughter danced around the room as she threw
words at me. I volleyed words back to her to further describe her motions. When you are studying
adjectives and adverbs, change the tone of your voice, or act things out to illustrate how these
descriptive words color our speech.
Diagramming sentences is another way to teach and learn the parts of speech and how they work
in a sentence. (I am one of the few people I know who actually enjoys this.) Diagramming
sentences is particularly useful for students who learn best through physical manipulation. It helps
them see structural relationships they might otherwise miss.2 Some people might be intimidated
by such an exercise, but its really quite simple.
Start with the foundation. Compose a sentence on the board. Draw a horizontal line and a small
vertical line down the center. Find the verb in the sentence and write that to the right of that
vertical line. Determine who or what the sentence is about. That is the subject of the sentence.

Pare it down to the noun (person, place, or thing), which should be written to the left of that
vertical line.
Together, those two words (the noun and the verb that you wrote on either side of the vertical
line) form the sentence in its simplest form. Everything else is extra. Adjectives describe nouns
and are placed diagonally beneath the nouns they describe. Adverbs are also placed below the
words they describe, and so forth.
MadLibs (www.madlibs.com.com) is another fun retro teaching tool. I am happy to say that the
books are still being published. Its a two-player game. One person takes the book and asks the
other person for specific parts of speech needed to complete a story in the book. The person may
be given the theme, but otherwise he has no clue about the story. When all the blanks have been
filled, the two players read the story together. The end result is often wacky but shows that as
long as you have the correct part of speech in the correct place in the sentence, it works.
When children learn the parts of speech, they learn the rules that make our language tick. They
increase their vocabulary as they use the thesaurus to express themselves in different ways, by
using synonyms. They become better writers because they understand how different words
function in the sentence, giving insight into their own thinking and that of others. They are then
able to refine their writing to communicate their thoughts more precisely. Communicating
effectively is a life skill that will aid them wherever they go.
Amy is married to DJ, her high school sweetheart. They have three wonderful childrena
computer genius, an artist, and a princess. When not homeschooling or tending to her chickens or
her husband, Amy enjoys writing. She hopes to make a career of it some daymaybe when the
chickens move out. Amy can be contacted at amylynn.nicholson@gmail.com.
Copyright 2012, used with permission. All rights reserved by author. Originally appeared in the
December 2012 issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, the family education magazine. Read
the magazine free at www.TOSMagazine.com or read it on the go and download the free apps at
www.TOSApps.com to read the magazine on your mobile devices.
Endnotes:
. Lunsford, Andrea and Connors, Robert, The St. Martins Handbook, New York: St. Martins Press,
1989, p. 138.
2. Instructional Fair, Inc., Better Sentence Structure Through Diagramming, Grand Rapids, MI:
Instructional Fair, 1995, p. 1.

Useful Websites
Sentence diagramming examples:
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/diagrams/diagrams.htm
drb.lifestreamcenter.net/Lessons/TS/diagram.htm

Teaching parts of speech (with printable worksheets):

www.teach-nology.com/themes/lang_arts/partsofspeech
havefunteaching.com/worksheets/english-worksheets/parts-of-speech-worksheets
www.abcteach.com/directory/subjects-language-arts-grammar-parts-of-speech-469-2-1