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Trouble with AG and Sentence Diagramming
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Ladies, I would love to have some of your input here. This year we started our 8th grade son on Analytical Grammar. He just finished up the first “season” a few days ago. Now, when he started off he was doing great. And he can still “parse” a sentence well. However, he CANNOT diagram a sentence to save his life. He did okay when the concept of diagramming was first introduced, but with each lesson he just seemed to do worse and worse with it. I’ve been debating in my head whether he is simply not getting it or if he just isn’t doing it well. I’m beginning to lean towards just not getting it, but I’m also wondering, is diagramming REALLY necessary? This was not a skill I was taught very much in school, if at all (I say that because I don’t remember how to do it now) and I can still talk and write profeciently (spelling, on the other hand, is a weak spot for me).
If he’s not grasping the concept of diagramming should I continue to try and make him get it, or find a new grammar program for next year? This is our first year homeschooling, and next year we’ll embark on the high school journey, and I would like to have a clearer idea of where we are headed.
I don’t think diagramming is absolutely necessary. It’s a great mental exercise, like algebra or latin. If you’re into the review stage of AG (one every other week or so), you might try having him parse the exercise, then go back to the beginning of diagramming and diagram just a portion of the exercise until he has that part mastered. For example, have him diagram only the subject and verb(s). Once he’s confident with that diagram step, add the prepositional phrases or whatever is next in the lessons he covered.
In other words, go back through the season of lessons and focus on the diagramming part, using the review and reinforcement texts in part and working up to the whole as he’s ready. Does that make sense?
My daughter has been doing the 1st Language Lessons by Jessie Wise and her grasp of grammar and diagramming is simply amazing. She can now diagram a sentence like nobodies business!! She is 8. I do believe that it was the simple way in which diagramming was inroduced in parts and steps that made it clear for her (and I, blush). We are doing level 3 this year and it really focussed on diagramming sentences. I will say this: her creative writing skills have taken OFF because she clearly understands sentence structure now. She has a new confidence in writing down her thoughts nad ideas because she is much more comfortable with the structure of sentences. I would reccomend Level 3 to you to address this diagramming dilemma if you want a fresh path to explore with it. Just a humble little side note for you. -tania
IMO I don’t really think diagramming is necessary either. My dd was a very good writer (lots of narration practice) before we started AG. She does the digramming (I make it optional) but I can’t say it makes any difference in her writing at all. If she were on a HS level I wouldn’t deal with it at all. I neither remember nor use the diagramming skills I learned as a child and I turned out okay!
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