When you get dressed in the morning, do you put your shoes on first and then try to put your socks on over it? Would you teach your child algebra when they have not yet mastered simple addition and subtraction?

The answer to these questions is, of course, no. Unless you’re trying to make a sassy fashion statement that gets your socks dirty or playing a prank on your kid, you wouldn’t do any of these things. For the same reason you put your shoes on after your socks and teach your child to add and subtract before algebra, diagramming is one of the best ways to learn grammar.

When you learn grammar by diagramming sentences, you are introduced to the simplest grammatical elements (subjects and verbs) first, and gradually the more complex elements are built up. Sentence layout follows a logical order (just like putting on shoes!), Naturally building your grammar knowledge. It prepares us to tackle the concepts we are ready for and leaves the more difficult ones until we are ready to tackle them.

This is good news because it means that we can all avoid the inescapable confusion that I found myself in when my teacher was teaching me gerunds while I still had a shaky understanding of nouns and verbs. (If you don’t know what gerunds are, that’s fine. Neither do I. They’re nouns disguised as verbs, those tricky little devils!) It’s very difficult to understand the function of a gerund when you don’t fully understand it. nouns and verbs. It is like a painter who tries to mix the color orange when it does not have yellow or red. Giving a painter this task could be so frustrating that you may never want to paint again. Giving a student this assignment could be so frustrating that they may never want to try it again.

The necessary order of mastery of the subject of diagramming is not only beneficial for the student, but also for the teacher. As a teacher, it can sometimes be very overwhelming to figure out what to teach our students in the best order that will ensure their understanding. The nature of the diagrams dictates the order in which you should teach the topics and ensures that the student masters each concept before moving on to the next.

Oh, and did I mention that laying out sentences is FUN? Seriously. After teaching grammar to a variety of grade levels, I am constantly amazed both by the excitement students radiate when they are making diagrams and by their level of understanding and retention of the concepts covered while making diagrams.

Sentence diagramming presents grammatical elements in a natural and fluid way that will keep students interested and excited about learning. This is revolutionary because it means that we can all learn with ease, retain what we have learned, and have fun doing it. Isn’t that something worth looking at?

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