Parts of Sentences
When your students are in “regular school,” they may be asked to identify words in sentences as specific parts of speech. Here is a review of those parts:
Parts of Speech
Words are classified as certain parts of speech, depending on the way they are used in a sentence. The eight parts of speech are: noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection. The tutor can introduce these terms at any point after beginning to have the student read and write sentences, depending on the student’s apparent interest in how sentences are put together.
A noun is the name of a person, a place, a thing, or an idea: Jack, Durant, hat, truth.
Some nouns are proper (naming a person or a specific place, for example) and so begin with a capital letter: Sammy, Durant, Oklahoma.
A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun, and usually refers back to a noun: “Jack sat on his hat.”
A verb expresses
an action: “Jack sat on his hat.”
or a state of being: “Jack is glad his hat is okay.”
An adjective is a word used to describe, or modify, a noun or pronoun:
“Jack’s old hat fell off.”
An adverb is a word used to modify
to modify a verb: “I can run fast.”
or modify an adjective: “Be very good today.”
or modify another adverb: “Jack is the most helpful person I know.”
Description adverbs use words with ly
” I quickly raised my hand.”
” I slowly moved to the front.”
A preposition is a word that connects other words to show a relationship between those other words:
[If a mouse can go there it’s probably a preposition (inside, outside, to, with, up, down…)]
“Jack went to my house today.”
“Jack is sitting inside my house.”
“Sam is with Jack in my house.”
A conjunction is a word that joins words or groups of words:
“Jack and Sam are at my house.”
“Jack likes Sam, but Sam does not like Jack.”
“I will vote for Sam for president.”
An acronym for remembering conjunctions is FANBOYS
For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So
An interjection is a word used to express surprise or emotion: Wow!
Some words can be either a noun or a verb, depending on how they are used in a sentence:
“I will use blue paint on my car.” (noun)
“I will paint my car blue.” (verb)
The lessons now on the site are basic for teaching a student to read. Advanced lessons will be added later, to present information on reading and writing more complex sentences.
Composing Sentences
When students are fairly comfortable with writing sentences that you dictate, start them on making up their own sentences. Begin with short, simple sentences. As they gain confidence with those, ask them to write longer, more complex sentences. Below are examples of the types of assignments that can be given, depending on how skilled your student has become and what he most needs to practice:
1. Write a sentence about a duck. Then write one about a cow. Write another about a mouse.
2. Write sentences in which you use at least 5 of your sight words.
3. Write a sentence that answers this question: What is the weather like today?
(possible answers: It is raining today. The sun is shining.)
4. Use this word in a sentence: (examples: frog, ran, talk, summer, winter, when, before
[Teacher’s choice of whatever words the student needs to learn to use.])
5. Write two sentences. In the first, one boy asks a question. In the other, the second boy answers it. Tell the boys’ names and use quotation marks around what they say.
6. Make up a story of 3 paragraphs, using at least 6 of the following words: kind, mind, music, duet, during, says, answer, radio, band, sing, play.
7. Write a sentence that uses the word didn’t. Make the sentence 6 words or longer.
8. Write a sentence at least 8 words long and use a lot in it. Write another sentence and use a little in it.
9. Write a story (at least 3 sentences) in which you use at least 4 of the following words. Underline these words in your story. boil join voice noise Floyd oil boy toys
10. Write a story of at least 3 sentences about a dog named Chester. Use these words in the story: beg, wet, legs, went.
11. Write a story that contains conversation. In the story, four children (Jane, Tom, Bess, and Pete) are all talking about fishing. When each new person starts talking, begin a new paragraph and use quotation marks around what they say.
12. Write three paragraphs about Halloween. In the first paragraph, tell about different kinds of costumes people wear. In the second paragraph, tell about the symbols people use at Halloween (pumpkins, black cats. skeletons, ghosts). In the third paragraph, tell what people like to do for fun on Halloween. Indent the first line of each paragraph.