Gretchen,

Can your students find the subject in a simple sentence? Can they find
two subjects in a sentence with two clauses? It seems that the way to
differentiate a conjoined set of two sentences from a sentence with a
compound verb or compound predicate would be to look to see how many
subjects there are. Also, you could have them test to see if they can
rewrite the sentence, repeating the subject (for sentences with compound verbs).

I have a trick for finding subjects in simple sentences (one-clause
sentences). It works best with short sentences, and they have to be
declaratives. I think I got this from Noguchi's book. Have the students
construct a tag:

The children bought candy at the store.
The children bought candy at the store, didn't they? (tag)

The pronoun in the tag ('they') refers to the subject of the base
sentence. I have my students rephrase the base sentence, using the
pronoun in the tag:

They bought candy at the store.

Whatever string of words 'they' replaces is the complete subject: The children.

This is a tad complicated, but once they get the hang of it, it works
well for my students.

I'd be interested to know if this will work with younger students.

Best,
Johanna
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Johanna Rubba   Assistant Professor, Linguistics
English Department, California Polytechnic State University
One Grand Avenue  • San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Tel. (805)-756-2184  •  Fax: (805)-756-6374 • Dept. Phone.  756-259
• E-mail: [log in to unmask] •  Home page: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
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