Teaching Adverbs, Noun of Direct Address, and Appositives

One of my favorite ways to teach is to build a sentence.

We began my class with a simple imperative sentence and then added the pieces we are practicing today.

We started with “Sing a song,” which is a simple imperative sentence.

I asked my class, “Who are we asking/commanding to sing a song?”

Someone suggested Lucy, so I added that to the sentence, and we as a class noted that it was a noun of direct address.  Someone added, “Can it be Lucy the dog?”  Sure, I said.  We need an appositive.

Then, I asked the students to add an adverb (an -ly adverb) that answers the question how.  Someone suggested “loudly.”  Then, I asked for a prepositional phrase that is adverbial – that is, it must answer a “where” or “when” type question.  I had several suggestions – such as “at the park,” “near the river,” or “after dark.”  Students wrote down their own ideas on their boards, and I wrote “at the park” on my board.

We also decided to change the verb to “howl” because we were addressing a dog.

Then, I had students take turns coming to the board, and each student added one piece to the diagram.  They knew the words and phrases were adverbs because I had asked them to come up with adverbs – no guesswork.

Students had freedom to vary their sentences on their own boards, but knew how to diagram their own sentences because they fit the patterns on the board.

Here’s a video of the process:

You may also be interested in the Adverb song:

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