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Beginner Sentence Diagramming- Let's Learn the Parts of Speech!

In this 8 week FLEX course, students will learn about sentence structure, punctuation, and the parts of speech through sentence diagramming, which assigns a function to all words in a sentence.
Ms. Shannon Johnsen
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5.0
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(93)
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What's included

16 pre-recorded lessons
8 weeks
of teacher support
1 year access
to the content
Homework
1-2 hours per week. Each video with accompanying sample sentences should take students about a half an hour to complete. This might go a little faster if students catch on quickly. Diagramming the sentences should take about a half an hour as well once we get into more complex sentences. The work will be very quick for the first week. The optional enrichment activities could take students anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour, depending on how much time and attention they would like to give to each task. Each of the four unit quizzes will take students about a half an hour to complete as well.
Assessment
There are four units in this course. There is a quiz at the end of each unit. Students can either check their answers themselves or they can send it to the teacher for review.
Grading
I would be happy to assign a student a grade as long as the parents request a grade from the time the student starts the course. It will be easier to assign grades to the student's work along the way instead of going back at the end of the course to review everything.

Class Experience

US Grade 4 - 7
Beginner Level
*New to Outschool? Take $20 off your first class with code MsShannonJ20

I must admit, I don't think I truly remembered what the parts of speech were or how to identify them until I took a Linguistics class as a freshman in college where I learned how to diagram sentences. When I learned diagramming, something finally clicked, and I understood many patterns and rules of the English language that I had never fully comprehended before. Fortunately, you don't have to be a college freshman before you learn sentence diagramming. Diagramming starts out very basic with two word sentences, and you build on the sentences and add new parts of speech from there. 

When I tried to teach 8th grade language standards to the students I worked with in public school, they had no idea how to explain or identify gerunds or how to use verb moods because they didn't know what a noun and a verb were! We started at the beginning with sentence diagramming, and within a few weeks my students could identify nouns, verbs, articles, adjective, adverbs, prepositions, coordinating conjunctions, and compound sentences. It was amazing to see the progress they made through diagramming sentences for 5-10 minutes at the start of each class. 

In this course, students will have access to two diagramming lessons per week. Each lesson will consist of a video introducing a new part of speech or aspect of diagramming and some bullet points with the essential information from each video. In each video, I will spend a few minutes lecturing and showing students examples on Google Slides. Then, students will have the opportunity to practice diagramming sample sentences on their own. I will encourage them to pause the video while they try the sentences on their own, and then I will display the correct answers so they can check their work. Students are welcome to send their work to me for review if they are enrolled as self-paced.

Each lesson has an optional enrichment activity. Students may complete the enrichment activities and send me their work for feedback if they are enrolled as self-paced. At the end of each unit, there is a required quiz for students to complete. 

Students do not need any prior experience to join this class. Even if students understand what a noun and a verb are, they will still benefit from the slow but steady progression of adding other parts of speech and learning about important grammar rules. 

I am actually very excited about sentence diagramming! I know how much it helped me, and I have seen it work with many students.  Though it may be a dry topic to some, I think your learner will feel my enthusiasm throughout our lessons. I cannot wait to see them learn and grow!
Learning Goals
Students will learn how to set up a sentence diagram and how to assign each word in a sentence a part of speech. We will cover the following:
- nouns / subjects
- verbs
- helping verbs
- adjectives
- adverbs
- articles / determiners
- prepositions
- prepositional phrases
- coordinating conjunctions
- fixing run-on sentences
- compound sentences
- linking verbs
- predicate adjectives and nominatives
- direct objects
- indirect objects
learning goal

Syllabus

4 Units
16 Lessons
over 8 Weeks
Unit 1: The Basics
Lesson 1:
What Is a Sentence?
 In this lesson, students will identify the essential components of a sentence. Students will cover the definitions of subjects and verbs. Students will learn the base of a sentence diagram and practice diagramming 2 word sentences. 
1 assignment
Lesson 2:
What Is a Helping Verb?
 This lesson will begin with a recap diagramming 2 word sentences to ensure that students remember how to start a diagram. Students will then define helping verbs and discuss verb tense. Students will learn how to diagram sentences with helping verbs. 
1 assignment
Lesson 3:
What Is an Adjective?
 Lesson 3 will start with a discussion of article words, A, An, and The. Students will be shown examples to help them determine the appropriate rule for using “A” vs. “An.” Students will first practice diagramming sentences with articles before defining adjectives. Students will then discuss and practice adding adjectives into their sentence diagrams. 
1 assignment
Lesson 4:
What Is an Adverb?
 Lesson 4 will begin by defining adverbs and examining them as a modifier for verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. Students will really start to see their diagrams grow with the addition of adverbs. 
Students will have time to practice all that they have learned so far. After this lesson, I will post a quiz for students to complete and send to me for feedback. This is the end of unit 1. 
1 assignment

Other Details

Supply List
Students should have a notebook to diagram in and use for note taking.
External Resources
Learners will not need to use any apps or websites beyond the standard Outschool tools.
Joined August, 2022
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93reviews
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Teacher expertise and credentials
Minnesota Teaching Certificate in English/Language Arts
Master's Degree in Education from University of Missouri
I am a licensed English teacher for students in grades 5-12. I spent 4 years teaching in a public school, and I used sentence diagramming with the students I taught!

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Self-Paced Course
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$15

weekly or $120 for all content
16 pre-recorded lessons
8 weeks of teacher support
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1 year of access to the content

Completed by 24 learners
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