Teaching Grammar: What Really Works (2010)

Part I. The Fundamental Things Apply

Chapter 2. Sentence Slots

Synonyms for time slot include scheduled hour, scheduled time, appointment, slot and time. Find more similar words at wordhippo.com! Various mechanisms were developed to define the range of a slot, default values, etc. However, even in these early systems there were procedural capabilities. One common technique was to use 'triggers' (similar to the database concept of triggers) attached to slots. A trigger is simply procedural code that have attached to a slot.

A schedule is a plan of things to be done and the time when they will be done. It is the thing you write down in your planner. If you're a student, you probably have your class schedule memorized within the first few weeks of school. The time slot or frequency band vacated by the diverted signal need not necessarily be reoccupied by another signal. 1 A long, narrow aperture or slit in a machine for something to be inserted. ‘he slid a coin into the slot of the jukebox’. More example sentences. ‘This user-friendly machine has a tiny slot for inserting the bank-notes and the service provided is free.’. ‘I inserted a CD into the insert slot on the machine and it pulled the CD inside.’.

A sentence follows a formula. We’ll call the formula a sentence pattern. Linguists distinguish among eight or more sentence patterns. In the interest of simplicity, we’re collapsing these into the three most basic, general patterns. We’ll be talking only about declarative sentences.

Every sentence is required to have a subject slot. A noun plus its modifiers, or a pronoun, goes into the subject slot. The subject slot tells who or what the sentence is about. Every sentence is also required to have a verb slot. The verb determines whether or not any other slots are required and what those other slots will be called. The verb is the boss. The sentence patterns dance to the tune of the verb.

Many people find that sentence diagrams help to clarify sentence structure. Sentence diagramming gets many people excited, many upset, and many just curious because they never learned it. They wonder what it’s all about. We’re going to keep it simple, and we hope it serves its intended purpose, which is clarification.

We can teach the essentials of grammar—the skeletal structure of a sentence—by using the visual of the slots.

Pattern 1: Subject + (action) Verb

The simplest kind of a sentence is a two-word sentence such as these: Dogs bark. Time flies. Telephones ring. It rained. The diagram for these is shown in Figure 2.1 on page 14.

We’ll call this Pattern 1. This pattern has two required slots: the subject and the verb. Nothing else is required to make a Pattern 1 sentence complete. We could add all kinds of modifiers to put flesh on the bones, but we’re concentrating in this chapter only on the skeletal structure of the three sentence patterns.

Figure 2.1 Pattern1:Two Slots

If you want to introduce the term intransitive verb to name the kind of verb that requires no further words (or slots) to complete it, you can certainly do so. Technically, an intransitive verb is a verb that does not require a direct object. You can define an intransitive verb as a verb that a writer can put a period after.

Teaching Procedure: Observe and Report

Start by simple observation. Show students the diagram, with no words in it, and ask them to describe what they see. You want them to notice that the diagram consists of a horizontal line bisected by a vertical line. Then, show how a sentence is actually diagrammed: The subject fits into the subject slot; the verb, into the verb slot. Use these terms as you demonstrate. Point out that the subject and the verb go above the horizontal line. Point out also that the first word of the sentence is to be capitalized on the diagram, as it is in the sentence; the diagram also includes the period at the end of the sentence.

Grammar-Math Connection: Sentence diagramming uses the language and visuals of mathematics. This connection can strengthen students’ understanding of both subjects.

This procedure will seem extraordinarily easy, so easy that you and the students may wonder why you are bothering to do it. But by going so slowly, you’re actually teaching students a powerful paradigm about grammar, so don’t worry if it seems too easy right now. The ease of the task is counterbalanced by the newness of some of the terminology that you will introduce as you go.

If your students are ready, you can include helping verbs in the diagram. (You may remember from your diagramming days that the helping verb fits right on the line with the main verb).

Through the sentence diagrams you may be able to introduce the term and concept of subject-verb agreement. If you ask students to turn the plural dogs into the singular a dog, they will see immediately that the verb has to change. (At this point, don’t worry about diagramming modifiers, which would be diagrammed on diagonal lines below the words they modify.) You won’t expect them to say, “Hey, wait a minute. You can’t make a plural noun singular and expect the verb not to react! We have to create subject-verb agreement between a singular or plural subject and its verb form!” But you can expect them to notice that same phenomenon and try to put it into words, and then you can help them name the concept.

The best way to teach helping verbs is simply by listing them as members of a club. The two “co-presidents” of this club are have and be. Other members (called modal auxiliaries) are would, should, could, will, shall, may, might, must.

Teaching Procedure: Feel the Patterns

Use “wordstorming” to have students feel each of the patterns, beginning with this one. Propose a topic. Have students generate as many two-word sentences as they can within a given amount of time. This activity melds a grammar lesson with a vocabulary lesson, both of which can emanate from a reading experience and then feed right into a writing task. What you’ll end up with, as a class, is a cache of nouns and verbs that are relevant to the given topic and that serve to reinforce a grammatical pattern.

Pattern 2: Subject + (action) Verb + Direct Object

A Pattern 2 sentence, as shown in Figure 2.2, is bossed around by a verb that requires a direct object. Such verbs are called transitive verbs. You may or may not want to introduce the term transitive verb. If you do, make the connection to related words: transit, transportation, transition, transcontinental.

Again, spend some time on observation. Students should notice that the difference between Patterns 1 and 2 is that Pattern 2 has three slots and that the third slot has a vertical line that does not cut through the horizontal line. This is because the bisecting line is a firewall between the subject and the predicate, while the direct object occupies a slot that belongs to the predicate. The verb announces the relationship between the subject and the object.

Figure 2.2 Pattern 2: Three Slots

Teaching Procedure: Understand Direct Objects

The purpose of this activity is to have students understand the relationship between subject and direct object and how that relationship is announced by the verb.

Give one student a sign that says “Jamie” and another a sign that says “the ball.” Have “Jamie” and “the ball” stand next to each other, leaving space for another student to walk through. Give several other students signs that have action verbs on them. The verbs may be in any tense. Then, invite the “verbs” to walk through “Jamie” and “the ball,” thus demonstrating exactly how the Pattern 2 sentence works: There’s a relationship between the subject and the direct object, and it is the verb that announces that relationship.

Teaching Procedure: Feel the Pattern

Apply the teaching procedures that you used with Pattern 1 to Pattern 2.

Pattern 3: Subject + (linking) Verb + Subject Complement

Slots Definition Sentence Structure

Pattern 3