kitchen table math, the sequel: Martha Kolln's 10 core sentences

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Martha Kolln's 10 core sentences

Tips for Teaching Grammar: Sentence Diagramming (pdf file)

4 comments:

Crimson Wife said...

A good, inexpensive workbook for teaching sentence diagramming is this one from Mark Twain Media.

TerriW said...

Crimson Wife:

I checked out that link -- the only diagramming resource I currently have at home is Mary Daly's First Whole Book of Diagrams, though I suspect (?) it'll come up some time later in the Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind series that we're working through. (I seem to recall them saying in the WTM book something along the lines of "We don't think diagramming sentences should be optional.")

Anywhoo, I noticed that the text on the page described the book as being "for visual learners" -- if only that could be a way to worm its way back into the schools!

"My child's learning style is Visual, you will need to accommodate him by diagramming sentences."

Ha, ha. A girl can dream.

Crimson Wife said...

TerriW- the FLL series does do sentence diagramming in either the 3rd or 4th grade book (or both, can't remember). However, I found the FLL series too repetitive for my oldest. It's a solid program, just not a good "fit" for her.

The sequence that seems to work best for her is alternating Michael Clay Thompson's LA materials with Don Killgallon's applied grammar/sentence-writing books. But neither of those teach diagramming, so I had her work through the Mark Twain Media workbook.

Anonymous said...

Terri,

The two books by Genevieve Walberg Schaefer (I might have the last two names misspelled and switched) also have diagramming throughout. The main one I used was Steps to Good Grammar. It teaches diagramming along with the grammar. I watered down the sentences for my gradeschoolers back in the day, but I used the books straight out with my middle schooler

Also, TWTM had mentioned one called Our Mother Tongue by Nancy Wilson which had diagramming in it. I think that was the name of it. It's been a while since I've done any of that. I didn't use much of that book, but I did the other two.

SusanS