The parts of speech are to language what the four operations are to maths. Becoming familiar with each part helps us to better understand and construct language. Ultimately, mastering the parts of speech enables us to play and be creative with language use. The following books take learners on a journey from introducing the parts of speech to practise exercises to more advanced diagramming of sentences.
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Word Play
by Adam Lehrhaupt (Author), Jared Chapman (Illustrator)
Review: This colourful book introduces the main parts of speech to young learners in a child-friendly way. Children will enjoy reading along as they follow the exploits of Verb, Adjective and Interjection. Engaging drawings illustrate each character’s role. A helpful introductory page aimed at older learners/adults, explains the different roles that verbs, nouns, adjectives and adverbs have in speech. Each explanation is accompanied by a short sentence highlighting the part of speech. Overall, this is a vibrant, inviting introduction to the main parts of speech.
Suggested Reading Age: 4 to 8 years old. In my opinion, this book is better suited to the younger end of this age range.
Nonfiction Nuggets Teaching Tip: Parts of Speech Sentences: Read the author’s dedication.“For Kerri, my adjective noun. I verb you adverb adverb.” Decide which adjective, noun and adverbs he may be referring to. Inspired by the dedication, ask students to write some parts of speech sentences of their own. Swap with one another. Can they decode each other’s sentences?
Meet The Parts of Speech
by Coert Voorhees
Review: Wonderfully explained, this series of books does a great job of making the parts of speech accessible and fun. Appealing illustrations and easy-to-understand text ensure that grammar is approachable for everyone. Readers effortlessly learn about the parts of speech as they join Nelson the Noun, Roger the Pronoun, Jake the Adjective, Benny the Adverb, Lil Pete the Preposition and friends. A useful distinction is made between action and linking verbs. This collection of books is highly engaging and is sure to be turned to over and again.
Suggested Reading Age: 6 to 11-year-olds.
Nonfiction Nuggets Teaching Tip: Let’s Create: Ask students to write and act out a skit or short story that features the parts of speech as characters. They can focus on one or multiple parts of speech at once. Remind them that the story must illustrate/explain what the part of speech does.
Goofy Mad Libs: World’s Greatest Word Game
by Roger Price & Leonard Stern
Review: Make practising the parts of speech fun with this Mad Libs book. Part of an extensive series, readers use their knowledge of the parts of speech to create funny stories. The book begins with instructions as to how to complete the Mad Libs followed by a reminder of the different parts of speech. Children begin by writing a list of nouns, verbs, and adjectives as instructed by the book. They then use these to fill in the blanks in a story. This is an entertaining and addicting way to learn and practise the parts of speech. Other books in the series include Mad Scientist Mad Libs, History of the World Mad Libs and Diary of A Wimpy Kid Mad Libs, to name a few.
Suggested Reading Age: 7 to 11 years old
Nonfiction Nuggets Teaching Tip: My Mad Libs: Invites students to write their own Mad Libs. Begin by writing short sentences. Remove a noun, verb, adjective, etc. Ask a friend to provide the appropriate part of speech without them having seen the sentence. Build up to writing a paragraph and eventually a short story.
Barron’s Painless Grammar
by Rebecca Elliott Ph D.
Review: Barron’s Painless Grammar successfully takes the sting out of learning grammar. This well-laid-out book explains grammar terms clearly and succinctly, backing them up with multiple, helpful examples. Icons dotted throughout the text highlight handy tips, areas where mistakes tend to be made and useful reminders. Starting with the parts of speech, this book also explores building and punctuating sentences, agreement and word usage. There are also chapters on editing text and writing emails. Written in a light, friendly manner, this book works well as an introduction to grammar and as a revision tool.
Suggested Reading Age: Teens. In my opinion, some of the grammar addressed would also work for upper primary aged students.
Nonfiction Nuggets Teaching Tips: The More the Merrier: Students create a personalised grammar toolkit by noting down the definitions and grammar rules that they want/need to revise. Ask them to provide their own examples to illustrate the term recorded.
Diagramming Sentences
by Deborah White Broadwater
Review: For those who are unfamiliar with this practice, diagramming sentences is a visual way to represent sentence construction. It is a great tool for those learners who benefit from visual cues to better understand, embed and review learning. Less popular than it once was, this is still a worthwhile skill to add to learners´ language toolkits. Diagramming Sentences is suitable for more advanced learners. An answer key at the back enables readers to easily self-check their attempts. This book would work best for those with some existing knowledge of sentence diagramming.
Suggested Reading Age: Teenage and beyond
Nonfiction Nuggets Teaching Tip: Watch and Practice: Watch videos on how to diagram sentences, then have a go. The video below by Maggie Thompson gives a succinct, clear explanation.
Parts of Speech Resources
When exploring resources to support language learning, the items listed below caught my eye.
Nouns Verbs and More: Game Cards
Sentence Diagrams of Great Literary Openers: 24 Postcards
Happy Reading!
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