“ I’ve never known a person who wasn’t interested in language.” -Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct

1. Engaging Grammar: Practical Advice for Real Classrooms Presented by Amy Benjamin www.amybenjamin.com Part Three: Teaching the Parts of Speech “ I’ve never known a person who wasn’t interested in language.” -Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct

2. Two Categories of Words in English Form Class Words: Noun Verb Adjective Adverb Structure Class Words: Prepositions Conjunctions Determiners (aka articles: a, an, the) Intensifers Pronouns Interjections

3. Morphology Chart It’s easier to teach parts of speech than you think. Simply use the cues above. Use the morphology chart to illustrate how a word can change its forms, adapting itself to more than one part of speech. Not all words follow the same morphology. It’s interesting to see how words morph into different forms. The morphology chart is great for grammar lessons, vocabulary expansion, and spelling.

4. Morphology Chart It’s easier to teach parts of speech than you think. Simply use the cues above. Use the morphology chart to illustrate how a word can change its forms, adapting itself to more than one part of speech. Not all words follow the same morphology. It’s interesting to see how words morph into different forms. The morphology chart is great for grammar lessons, vocabulary expansion, and spelling.

5. www.amybenjamin.com Why Teach Verbs? 1. Strong verbs energize writing. 2. Writers must decide on a consistent verb tense. 3. Writers must decide whether to use active or passive voice. 4. Errors in verb usage are highly stigmatized: Incorrect form of irregular verbs (*I seen, *brung, *brang, *have went, *have sang, etc.) 5. Whether we have an action verb or a BE verb determines pronoun case use and adjective/adverb use.

6. Base form: walk, sing Progressive form: walking, singing Past form: walked, sang Participial form: (have) walked, (have sung) Hanout, 11 Verb Land, USA TO BE: I am,was We are,were You are ;were He, she, it isThey are,were Active Voice: I stole the cookie from the cookie jar. Passive Voice: The cookie was stolen from the cookie jar by me. (BE + Participial form= passive voice) Sense Verbs: feel, look, sound smell, taste Also: seem, become, appear grow “Where We Find Out the Action of Things” ACTION TOWN Verbals: 1. Participle: (acts as adjective) the dancing bear; the stolen cookie 2. Infinitive: (acts as noun) Let us never fear to negotiate. 3. Gerund: (Acts as noun) Teaching makes me happy. BE TOWN ACTION verbs are modified by adverbs:She sings happily. ACTION verbs take objective case pronouns as objects: We saw him steal the cookie from the cookie jar. “Where We Find Out the Nature of Things” BE verbs are completed by adjectives: He is happy. BE verbs take subjective case pronouns as complements: It was I who stole the cookie from the cookie jar. Auxiliaries: Have: creates the perfect tenses (has sung, etc.) Be: creates the progressive tenses (am singing, etc.) Modal Auxiliaries: Would Will Should Shall Could May Can Might Must Auxiliaries and modal auxiliaries combine with action verbs to create various tenses. www.amybenjamin.com

7. Kinds of Information Verb structures: What is its action? What is its nature? Noun Phrases: Who? What? Adverb structures: Where? When? Why? In what manner? How often? Adjective Structures Which one? What kind? How many?

8. Morphology Chart

9. This “Morphology Kit” is a great way to expand vocabulary because most of the words created by these suffixes express abstract ideas. Morphology Kit Adverb-making suffix: -ly 5

10. The expandable, shrinkable nominal (noun + its modifiers)

11. The expandable, shrinkable nominal IT standing over the fish bowl the on the bookshelf, curious little looking hungrily at the rainbow fish pink

12. Order of adjectives: cute two little these Himalayan well-trained

13. Prepositions Suggested teaching methods: 1. Hidden Pictures (see directions in your handouts) 2. Somewhere ______ the rainbow 3. “Any place a mouse can go” (These devices produce only those prepositions that indicate location. Prepositions can also indicate time (at night, after dinner, before lunch, etc.), type (Queen of Hearts) and relationships (with me).

14. On top of the cornstalk Over the dragonfly In the brick walkway Within the picture somewhere Above the roof Below the roof

15. Six Reasons for Teaching Prepositions: 1. Prepositions add time and place detail to sentences 2. Students can vary their sentence structure and set the stage for a sentence by beginning some sentences with prepositions. 3. Students can add power to their writing by ending paragraphs with a prepositional phrase. (Conversely: Students can avoid ending sentences with prepositions so that their sentences are not weak or too informal.) 4. Students can avoid subject-verb agreement errors by recognizing prepositional phrases that intervene between the subject and the verb, as in “A box of matches (is, are) on the kitchen table.” 5. Students can create parallel structure by repeating prepositional phrases deliberately. 6. Students can select the appropriate pronoun case as the object of a preposition. (between you and me; for Joe and me)

16. Noun Determiners (aka Noun Signals or Noun Markers) These are words that announce that you are at the beginning of a noun phrase: Most common: the, a, an Also: this, that, these, those, any possessive pronoun

17. Subjective Case: Singular Plural 1st person: I we 2nd person: you you The Yankees 3rd person: he, she, it they who Objective Case: Singular Plural 1st person: me us The Sox 2nd person: you you 3rd person: him, her, it them whom Pronoun Case

18. Subjective Case: Singular Plural 1st person: I we 2nd person: you you The Yankees 3rd person: he, she, it they who Pronoun Case Used for 2 functions: I. Subject: Judy and I are friends. (We are friends.) He and I are to be married in June. (We are to be married in June.) He and she are to be married in June. (They are to be married in June) Who is to be married in June? (They are to be married in June.) II. Predicate Nominative (the pronoun that follows TO BE form to complete the sentence): The culprit is she. The culprits were proven to be they. The guilty party was I. Who was the guilty party? (She was the guilty party.l)

19. Objective Case: Singular Plural 1st person: me us The Sox 2nd person: you you 3rd person: him, her, it them whom Pronoun Case Used for 3 functions: 1. Direct object: Ask Joe or me (Ask us.) 2. Indirect object: We sent Joe and him invitations (We sent them invitations) 3. Object of preposition: This is between you and me. (This is between us.) Who/Whom: Who/whom do you trust? We trust him (whom). Who/whom stole the cookie from the cookie jar? He (who) stole the cookie…

20. Common Hitching Devices Coordinating Conjunctiions Subordinating Conjunctions Conjunctive Adverbs Relative Pronouns That Which Who, whom What Where Why How Whichever Whatever, etc. As, although, after While, when Until Because, before If, since AAAWWUBBIS However Moreover Therefore Furthermore And But So Or/nor Can join clauses Warning: Many sentence fragments begin with these words. Usually, you must hitch these words and the clauses that they introduce to your previous sentence. Can join two independent clauses to make a compound sentence. Warning:You must use a comma with these when they join independent clauses. Can hitch up to an independent clause, creating a subordinate (dependent) clause, forming complex sentence. Can appear after main clause (no comma) or before main clause (needs a comma) Can move within own clause; Requires commas on both sides Warning: If you wish to use these to join clauses, you must use a semicolon.