A quick response--I used to do tree diagrams in my
jr. level grammar course, and while I and the students
 really liked the "drawing," I found that many students
had a really tough time making the jump from teeny weeny
pieces of sentences to seeing bigger and bigger chunks
of the sentence and seeing how those chunks functioned.
 
So I jettisoned the trees and initial "naming of the
parts" and started first to focus on how students know
which pieces belong together, and why, and then on how
these pieces relate to each other in specific ways in
the sentence.  We ease into grammar terminology on a
"need-to-know" or "we really WANT to know" basis.
 
I don't that I have the right answer with this, but
students who took me in the tree phase and failed or
bailed came back later and told me how much better I'm
teaching now--and how much better they're understanding,
now that they're not bogged down in those fun trees.
 
Kathryn Gunderson
Department of English
California State University, Hayward
Hayward, CA  94542
Office Phone:  510-885-3245
EMail: [log in to unmask]
 
On Fri, 20 Feb 1998, Amy Benjamin wrote:
 
> My question: Assuming that we need "the language of the language" in order to
> speak about language, how do we convey the working terminology without
> teaching explicit grammar at some basal point?
>
> To me the embodiment of teaching explicit grammar is sentence diagramming.
> This seems to be a procedure whereby the means are more complicated than the
> ends and where the process--drawing the broken lines here, diagonal lines
> there--becomes more tedious than the product. As we know, the transfer of
> knowledge from diagram to sentence-writing is lacking. Is this because we lack
> the teaching skills necessary to make that leap, or is it because the process
> itself is so bogged down with instructions that it falls of its own weight.
>
> What's the thinking about diagramming? Can someone explain whether it's worth
> the considerable trouble? How does the grammar teacher use sentence
> diagramming as the handmaiden of thought?
>