How often do we, as English teachers, find that as we’ve been lecturing or drilling on subjects, predicates, participles and gerunds, our students have either been tuning us out completely or rushing though the homework - incorrectly? It was happening to me much too often in my first few terms teaching university-level Developmental English, so I was forced to change my methods. I set aside the assigned textbook, I set aside my ideas about diagramming being too elementary, and I turned to the students’ self-identified learning styles
Although it may seem to be a learning activity only for kids, diagramming sentences makes learning or reviewing sentence construction fun and engaging for learners of any age. It’s hands-on, and it allows students the opportunity to step back from the abstract and actually see grammatical patterns in action. Daily diagramming helps students learn to see how words work together, in sentence after sentence, to communicate clearly with a reader.
Visual and Kinesthetic Learners
Once I decided to make a change in the classroom, I informally polled my classes about their learning styles by asking how they think they learn best. The example I gave them was the example of fixing a watch. I asked them if they would ask a watchmaker to tell them how to do it, look at a watchmaker’s pictures and diagrams of how to do it, use trial and error on their own, or use another method. The overwhelming majority of students responded they would use trial and error, and then they would ask a watchmaker to show them pictures and diagrams of how to do it if they couldn’t figure it out. On my simple survey, their answers corresponded most closely to the learning style known as Kinesthetic or Active Learning, with a “back-up plan” of Visual Learning.
In broad terms, Kinesthetic or Active Learners need physical activity during a lesson. At the end of a class, they remember what was done or what took place more so than what was said or shown (Hutton, 2007). Visual Learners learn best by seeing colorful charts, diagrams, and tables. They retain information by taking their own notes or highlighting ideas in a text (Clark, 2011). This is not to say that Kinesthetic or Visual Learners cannot learn to be Auditory or Verbal Learners, those who learn by hearing, speaking, or reading. It means only that they learn best by doing and seeing.
Physically Engaging and Visually Stimulating Lessons
Within the first few weeks of daily diagrams in the classroom as the basis for establishing the patterns of grammar, I noticed a difference. Attendance improved (partially due to the threat of losing out on a daily in-class assignment grade), and students started waking up and paying attention. It wasn’t just that we were diagramming in lieu of drilling exercises from the book, however. I gave them a chance to do and see.
I made the process physically engaging: Students rearranged the classrooms in order to work in groups, drew diagrams on the whiteboard for discussion, stood up and created visual aids to help present patterns of grammar to the class, and even found ways to compete by racing to complete complicated diagrams on the whiteboard. They were allowed to make noise, make messy and colorful mistakes, make friends, make connections between ideas, and come to conclusions on their own. The rules for grammar were “discovered” by the students, then validated in short wrap-up sessions at the end of the lesson. Grammar became an active experiment, a way to visually absorb previously mysterious and complicated rules dictated, in black and white, in a textbook.
Consistency
Additionally, I learned during my first course taught using diagramming as the basis for learning that consistency is also key. Since diagramming is a skill in and of itself, it is important to make the drills and activities a daily activity with short homework assignments as reinforcement. If a student cannot remember how to diagram a simple sentence's subject and predicate, for example, he or she cannot get to the point of diagramming a modifying phrase. That disconnect could be discouraging, so it is vital that students learn proper diagramming techniques.
Although it may seem a lesson most suited to elementary school students, sentence diagramming can be an invaluable resource for students of all ages and levels; it all depend on the learning styles of the students. Lessons involving sentence diagramming are most suited to Visual or Kinesthetic or Active Learners because of the visually stimulating and physically engaging nature of the activity. With repetition and consistency, students can learn to pick out patterns in language use, discover how to properly construct sentences, and learn a new analytical skill in the process.
References
- Hutton, S. (2007). Helping Kinesthetic Learners Succeed. Retrieved from Education.com.
- Clark, D. R. (2011). Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic Learning Styles (VAK) Retrieved from SOS.net.
Amy Lynn Hess - Hess is an Associate Professor of English, a publisher, painter, potter, ukulele learner, dramaturg, and poet.
