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Chunking and Modification

Complexities in S/V/C Patterns and Prepositional Phrases

A Focus on Style

Passages for Analysis - Sentences with Quotations

Appendix A -- Additional Exercises for Review

Introduction and Objectives

     To paraphrase T. S. Eliot's Prufrock, some obstacles raise questions about how we should begin. In order to be able to explain almost every word in a short text, students are given three preparatory exercises.
     Many early readers include dialog, and that means quotation marks, voice markers, direct address, and subordinate clauses. For an example, consider the following sentences from Ben and Alice:

Technically, "Mother, you can read to me" is a subordinate clause that functions as the complement (direct object) of the voice marker "she said." But first grade is way too early to introduce subordinate clauses. By this point in their work, however, students should easily recognize "she said" as a subject and verb. 
     And, since they have regularly been identifying complements, they will easily see that the words in quotation marks answer the question "She said what?" They are therefore told simply to put a "C" over every opening quotation mark to indicate that the quotation is the complement of the subject and verb. Then they analyze the words inside the quotation marks as they would any other sentence.
     Two exercises are devoted to handling quotation marks and voice markers in this way, thereby enabling the students to analyze the relationship between the voice marker and the quotation without introducing subordinate clauses. A third exercise addresses the simple question of Direct Address, illustrated in our example by "Mother." Together, these three exercises prepare students to do two short exercises on complete passages--the story "In the Garden" from Ben and Alice. The text is, of course, very simple, but there is no other approach to grammar that enables first graders to do this. 

     The second "half" of the year focuses on punctuation, parts of speech and three simple constructions, always, of course, including the identification of subjects, verbs, complements, and prepositional phrases. An exercise on apostrophes is followed by one on punctuating a sentence. Six exercises then focus on nouns and pronouns. Then comes a "General" punctuation exercise--replacing the "lost" punctuation and capitalization from a short text. These are followed by six exercises on adjectives and adverbs. Four exercises then focus on Nouns Used as Adverbs, Interjections, and Direct Address. After three more punctuation exercises, the book concludes (except for the final Assessment) with nine short exercises in which the students are invited to analyze the complete texts of two short stories--"Come to My Party" and "The Party in the Garden" from Ben and Alice. The directions for these are:

1. Place parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline the verbs twice, their subjects once. (Write in any understood "you.")
3. Write "C" above any complements. (For quotations, put a "C" above the opening quotation mark.)
4. Write "DirA" over each word that functions as Direct Address, "NuA" over Nouns Used as Adverbs, and "Inj" over Interjections.

Review

A Review of Basic Punctuation

Person, Number, Case, and Tense

Passages for Analysis

Statistical Stylistics - Math in English Class

Appendix A -- Additional Exercises