In this four part humorous series, middle school students learn the essential elements of grammar as a foundation for writing properly.
Talk about a subject with a bad reputation – grammar just can’t catch a break in modern education. Most researchers can’t even decide what’s the best way to teach it! Let’s face it; nobody likes grammar. Kids just can’t wait to forget about every possessive pronoun and gerund they learn, which is why it needs to be practiced over and over again. Teachers constantly need to bring in to the discussions the lessons that have come before, and to show the connections among what is being learned. We shouldn’t forget that the common name for an elementary school is a ‘grammar school,’ so somebody must have thought that grammar was pretty important!
While there are hundreds of thick books crammed with grammar definitions and skills and drills, this series presents a boiled-down, just-the-facts-mam kind of grammar lesson that just might stick with some middle schoolers. With that in mind, let’s begin with the parts of speech.
Parts of Speech
The Noun. As you know, a noun is a person, place, thing, or idea. There are two categories of nouns: proper/common, and collective:
Proper nouns are names of people, geographic locations, business, etc. These indicate that there is only one of a special kind of noun. (e.g., President Washington was a great guy!)
Common nouns are the regular things filling the rest of the world. (e.g., Grammar books are really wonderful!)
Collective nouns are singular nouns used to indicate a group of persons or things. They use a singular verb when the noun shows the group acting as one (e.g., The team IS playing well today). They use a plural verb when the noun shows members of the group acting alone (e.g., The team ARE playing different positions). (Hint: if you can plug in the word “members” before the verb meaning that each member is doing something different, use the plural verb.)
The Pronoun. A pronoun is a word that stands in the place of a noun. Remember: Pros always stand up for one another! Anyway, there are many different forms of pronouns. A subjective pronoun is used in place of a noun as a subject of a sentence (e.g., The boy ran home…HE ran home). An objective noun is used in place of a noun as a predicate of a sentence (e.g., The boy hit the ball…The boy hit IT). Pronouns are used with all six parts of the verb “to be,” I am, you are, he, she, or it is, we are, you are, they are. There are also possessive pronouns that show possession (e.g., my, your, his, etc.). Reflexive pronouns end in “self,” or “selves,” (e.g., myself, ourselves, himself, etc.). Relative pronouns start adjective clauses (later in this workbook…). These pronouns are that, which, who, whose, whom, where. The interrogative pronoun is used when asking questions: who, whom, what, which. There are other forms of pronouns, but the last one we will discuss here is the demonstrative pronoun: this, that, these, and those. Be sure to use them as pronouns, and not as adjectives: (e.g., THIS article in Suite101 is great! In this example, THIS is an adjective ---- THIS is great! In this example, THIS is a pronoun).
The Adjective. This one is pretty straightforward. An adjective modifies, or portrays a noun or pronoun (e.g., A RED ball is attractive). For the record, the articles: a, an, and the are also adjectives! Yes, really.
Nobody said that learning grammar was going to be fun, but hopefully this summary can help middle school students learn some of the topics along the way to writing well. In the next installment of Middle School Grammar Basics, we will continue with the Parts of Speech.
