Notes 1. It is O'Donnell, if I remember correctly, who notes young writers' tendency to create lists. I am leaving "dad ... mom ... sister Cyndee and ... me and Crystal, Tara, and Amanda" as unanalyzed until Level Three (Clauses). At this level, however, teachers might want to point out (if students ask) that it might be better to put an "is" after "First." More mature writers, of course, would probably handle these words as appositives, probably with a dash: "seven people in it -- First my dad, then my mom, then my oldest sister Cyndee, and then me and Crystal, Tara, and Amanda ." I would not introduce the concept of the appositive to students before eighth or ninth grade. Doing so probably causes more confusion than help. 2. "Mom is what?" here evokes the answer "28." I would let students consider this as a predicate adjective, should they desire to do so. A bright student might note the conflict with "30" in dad's being "30 years old," in which case I would point out that the second sentence means that mom is 28 years old. Thus, there are two acceptable interpretations. ["Years" is a noun used as an adverb to "old," and "30" (and "28") are adjectives to "years."] 3. Here, of course, is an opportunity to teach the usage question -- "Cyndee and I," noting that "me" doesn't function well as a subject ("Me have blonde hair." will not sound acceptable to the students.) 4. Don't expect students at this level to be able to identify the complement of "day was." If they ask, tell them that the complement is the rest of the sentence, and that it consists of clauses, which they will study later (Level Three). 5. I would lavish rich praise on the details in this sentence. Not only is it more vivid than "We say all the animals," but it also probably reflects the primary way that good writers achieve the clause lengths that are considered syntactically mature. 6. I'd point out that an "and a" would be better before "giraffe." 7. Although "going" is a gerund, students will have no problem recognizing its function as the direct object of "didn't like," I can see no reason for telling them, at this level, that it is a gerund, unless they ask. In that case, I would simply note that it is a gerund, and that they will be studying more about gerunds later. 8. This raises the
question of subject/verb agreement. Some people will say that the verb
"should be" "were." (Indeed, I would have written "were.") I was once asked
how the KISS Approach addresses this problem (since it eliminates expletive
"there.") In my view, the KISS Approach does a better job than the approach
through expletive "there." Since a predicate noun has to be equal to the
subject, then if the predicate noun is plural, the subject has to be also.
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