KISS Grammar



The Teachers’ Guide to Book 1 Unit 1

Identifying Sentences

of The KISS Grammar Books

|[pic] |[pic] |

|Soeurs |Alone |

Both by

Theophile-Emmanuel Duverger

(1821-1901)

The study of grammar is a science.

The teaching of grammar is an art.

© Dr. Ed Vavra

Revised: September, 2017

Other KISS Instructional Materials are available for free at .

Contents

For Parents and Teachers 3

Introduction to the KISS “Ideal” Workbooks 3

Introduction to the Workbook for Grade One 7

Codes and Colors for Analysis Keys 10

Unit 1 – Identifying Sentences 12

What is a Sentence?—A Note for Teachers 12

Ex. 1 - Based on “A Christmas Tree” [AK] 12

Ex. 2 - Based on “A Christmas Tree” [AK] 13

Ex. 3 - Based on “A Christmas Tree” [AK] 14

Ex. 4 - Based on “A Christmas Tree” [AK] 15

“You” as Understood Subject 16

Ex. 5 – From Old-time Stories [AK] 16

Ex. 6 - From Bunny Rabbit's Diary [AK] 17

Punctuating Sentences 18

Ex. 7 - Based on “The Ugly Duckling” [AK] 18

Ex. 8 - Based on “The Ugly Duckling” [AK] 18

Ex. 9 - Creating an Exercise on Subjects and Verbs [Note] 19

Ex. 10 - Just for Fun: Riddles 19

For Parents and Teachers

An introduction in the middle of a book is not normal, but this book is set up in this way so that teachers and parents can print the first part of the book–in as many copies as they need–for students. This second part includes introductions and explanations for teachers and answer keys for the exercises. The exercises in Part One are numbered such that you can find the corresponding answer key in Part Two. Instructional material for students is often included in the exercises. Where longer explanations are required, you will find it in the green sub-headings in the table of contents. Note that frequently several exercises are based on the same literary text, and those texts are indicated in blue in the table of contents.

Part Two begins with a basic introduction to KISS, and then an introduction to this second grade workbook. These are followed by the “Code and Color Key” for the answer keys to the exercises. Among the analysis keys, you will find short explanations of each of the twelve sections of this book.

Introduction to the KISS “Ideal” Workbooks

Because this is the first workbook in the KISS grade-level sequence, some comments are in order about what KISS is and how it works. KISS is a specific set of grammatical terms (concepts) and a sequence for teaching them such that students will be able to use them to understand and intelligently discuss how any English sentence (including their own) works.

KISS is heavily based on 1) research, 2) theory, 3) logic, and 4) common sense. This book, however, focuses on the practical. But to achieve KISS objectives, parents and teachers should have at least a minimal understanding of the theories that KISS is built on. These are discussed in more detail in the separate Introduction to KISS Grammar and in the instructional books for each of the five KISS levels, so the following are simply short explanations.

Some Crucial Pedagogical Concepts

Vygotsky’s “Zone of Proximal Development”

Lev Vygotsky, a famous educational theorist, argued that any educational sequence should be based on what he called the “zone of proximal development.” He visualized this with two concentric circles. The inner circle symbolizes knowledge that the child has already mastered. The area between the two circles is the “zone,” and the area beyond the outer circle represents concepts that the child simply will not be able to understand until the material within the zone has been mastered. In math, for example, multiplication makes no sense to a child who cannot understand addition, and algebra makes no sense to a student who cannot understand multiplication.

KISS is built on this concept. The major problem in almost all current instruction in grammar, for example, is that students are taught what subjects and verbs are, but they are not taught how to identify subjects and verbs in real sentences, including those that they write. Subjects and verbs are the core of English sentences, and thus students who cannot identify them have little chance of understanding more advanced questions of grammar. Within KISS, a clause is defined as a subject/verb/complement pattern and all the words that modify it. Students who have not mastered the ability to identify subjects, verbs, and complements, will find clauses to be unreachable.

Bruner’s “Spiral Curriculum”

Vygotsky's “zone” is intimately connected to Jerome Bruner’s concept of a “spiral curriculum.” Within such a curriculum, “ideas are first presented in a form and language, honest though imprecise, which can be grasped by the child, ideas that can be revisited later with greater precision and power until, finally, the student has achieved the reward of mastery.” (On Knowing, 107-8). Within the work for second grade, a simple example of this is the introduction of complements. “Complement” is an inclusive word for predicate adjectives, predicate nouns, indirect and direct objects. To find a complement, all a student has to do is to learn to ask the question “Whom or what?” after a verb, as opposed, for example, to the questions “Where?” “When?” “Why” or “How?” Later, once the students have become comfortable with identifying complements, they can learn how to distinguish the types of complements (predicate adjectives, predicate nouns, indirect and direct objects).

Alternative Explanations

Some people (including some grammarians) believe that there should be one and only one explanation of how any word fits in a sentence. Among themselves, however, grammarians disagree as to what these explanations should be. Within KISS, your students will be learning how to analyze sentences from real texts. In so doing, people will see things differently. Consider, for example, the following sentence from Aesop's "The Ant and the Grasshopper"

I am helping to lay up food for the winter.

Does the prepositional phrase "for the winter" function as an adjective to "food" or as an adverb to “to lay up?” In one sense, it functions as both. Thus, within KISS, some students will explain it as an adjective, and other students will explain it as an adverb. Either explanation should be accepted. The validity of an explanation depends on its making sense to the people who are using it. That includes both the person making the explanation and the people to whom it is being explained.

Exercises Should Be Based on Real Texts

KISS focuses an enabling students to analyze and meaningfully discuss real sentences in real texts. The best way to reach that objective is to create exercises that are based on real texts. Using real texts is important for three reasons. First, if the students are reading the texts as they do the exercises, they will see for themselves that the grammar they are learning clearly relates to what they read and write.

Second, exercises that are created from such texts automatically provide an instructional focus. Which helping verbs, for example, do students really need to know? Most grammar textbooks simply provide a list of helping verbs. Students are expected to learn these with no context provided. But the early exercises in this book, for example, are based on the stories in Mary Frances Blaisdell’s Bunny Rabbit's Diary. The helping verbs “ought” and “dare” simply do not appear in the book. “Can,” “could,” “would,” and “should,” however, appear fairly frequently. If, at the end of second grade, some students still do not recognize “ought” as a part of a verb phrase, is their failure to do so a major problem? I would suggest not. On the other hand, at the end of second grade, every student should be able to recognize “can,” “could,” “would” and “should.”

Another way of looking at this is in terms of Vygotsky's two circles, but in this case consider the center circle to represent the most frequently used examples of the concept. The area between the two circles then represents the less frequently used examples (such as “must” and “need”), and the area outside the circle represents the rarely used examples (such as “dare” and “ought”). As students learn how to analyze real sentences, surely the examples in the inner circle are the most important. In this sense, exercises that are created based on real texts limit the amount of material that the students have to master at a given time.

The third reason for using real texts is to expand the instructional material that students need to master at a given time. A simple example of this is words such as “begin,” “start,” and “stop” as helping verbs. Most grammar textbooks pay little attention to these words, but students will read (and write) these words far more frequently than they do “dare” and “ought.” Thus KISS, again using Bruner’s concept of the spiral curriculum, introduces these words to second graders as “helping” verbs. (For more on this, see the notes for the exercises on helping verbs.)

The “helping” verbs are just one example of how text-based exercises expand instruction. Here again Vygotsky's two circles can help explain what is involved, but in this case the center circle represents the simplest form of a concept, and the area between the circles represents the variations that are found in real texts. In presenting direct objects, for example, most textbooks provide only simple S/V/DO patterns—“I like him.” Exercises based on real texts, however, will include sentences such as “Him I like.”

Ideally, students can read a story or poem and then do exercises that are based on it. They can, of course, also discuss the story or poem as a story or poem, and they can even write about it. My intention is to collect the stories used in this book and some suggestions for writing about them in a separate MS Word document. My guess, however, is that once classroom teachers become familiar with the KISS Approach and objectives, they will replace many of the exercises given here with exercises on other works that their students are reading. Of course the exercises can be done without reference to the texts upon which they are based.

Tell Students that They Are Expected to Make Mistakes

The preceding explanations should have suggested that within the KISS approach, students are almost always expected to make mistakes. As you work your way into KISS exercises, you will see which mistakes students are expected to make, and why. But the pedagogical principle involved needs to be explained here. Learning (as opposed to memorizing) always involves some confusion and thus some mistakes. All native speakers of English taught themselves the language. (How could anyone explain it if the child did not understand the language in the first place?) In doing so, they learned the core concepts first and made mistakes with those in the outer circle. As children, for example, we all said, “We cutted the paper.” Only after we mastered the basic rule (“-ed” for past tense) did we begin to distinguish the irregular cases.

Two comments of a parent (whose child was doing the early exercises in this book) illustrate how this applies to second grade. She noted, for example that her child had a problem with the tenth sentence in Exercise # 7. The sentence is “He melted the snow in the warm hollows.” At this point in instruction, the students are expected to identify only the subject and the verb. As the parent explained, the student “didn't want to mark the verb as ‘melted,’ because he himself didn’t melt. She decided the whole verb had to be ‘melted the snow,’ because without the DO, the verb just didn’t make sense to her.’ If I had been working with this student, I would have said something such as, “That’s very good thinking. Actually, ‘the snow’ is a type of complement, a direct object, and we will be studying them later this year.”

The second comment involved the first sentence in Exercise # 9. The sentence is, “And before long the sound of the axe rang out through the stillness.” Even after the mother explained that “sound” is the subject, the student remained “convinced in her own mind that it was the axe that did the ringing.” As in the previous case, the student’s confusion resulted from a construction that will be studied later in second grade–in this case prepositional phrases. Here again I would have pointed out that her answer made sense, but that “axe” is in a prepositional phrase (which she will be studying later) and thus cannot be the subject.

There is, of course, the question of grading. I have already suggested that most exercises should be reviewed in class, and not be graded. But even if these two exercises were graded, it appears that the student had no problem with nine of the ten sentences in each exercise, and in the sentences that did cause problems, the student got half perfectly correct (in the first, the subject, and in the second, the verb). Thus the student was apparently 95% perfectly correct.

That 5% confusion is, I would argue, a pedagogical necessity. We learn most from examples, not from definitions. But it is very easy to look at simple examples without thinking. Within KISS, exercises provide the most important instruction, and some of the exercises should confuse the students. We are going to be asking these students to analyze randomly selected sentences from real texts, including their own writing. There will be points that confuse them, and the sooner they learn that they are expected to make mistakes, the better off they will be.

Most of the exercises in KISS workbooks include “Answer Keys” followed by “Complete Analysis Keys.” The “Answer Keys” suggest what you should expect from students. They include both mistakes that you should expect and some alternative explanations. The “Complete Analysis Keys” provide the rest of a complete KISS explanation of the text. These are intended to enable you to answer any questions that students may have about other words. (For example, about the sentence “Bobby slept all night,” a student might ask what “night” is. The complete analysis key enables you to say, “’Night’ is a noun that is used as an adverb. You'll be studying those later.”) Of course the complete analysis keys also enable you to use exercises for additional purposes. Thus, for example, you might want to introduce the types of complements before they are introduced in this book. The complete keys will give you the KISS explanations of the complements in the earlier exercises.

Printable Books vs. On-line Versions

KISS books are developed on-line, and are then modified into printable documents. The substance of each “book” is the same, but each version has advantages and disadvantages. In the on-line versions, each exercise, analysis key, original text, and instructional handout is a separate document. Thus teachers and parents can simply choose (and print) what they want. The on-line versions also include hyperlinks from analysis keys to explanations of advanced constructions. Such hyperlinks will not work, of course, in printable versions, so they are eliminated. (If you are interested in these explanations, you can find them all in the instructional materials for the five KISS levels.) The printable versions also make it much easier to come to the web site once, download a book for a specific year, and have everything you need.

A Note on the Graphics

Although not all members of the KISS List favor graphics in the exercises, I find a text-only worksheet somewhat boring, especially when there are so many interesting graphics that can be included. To my knowledge all of the graphics in this book are in the public domain, but since the book is being given away, and not sold, I’m not particularly worried about using any of these graphics. I will, of course, remove graphics if they are found to be copyrighted, but most of them are from out-of-copyright texts. Some I scanned myself; others are from clipart (or art) collections on the web. The only ones I have some question about are the illustrations for Andersen’s Fairy Tales in exercises 84 – 87. They are by Jan Marcin Szancer, are were taken from a Polish site – .

Introduction to the Workbook for Grade One

The Objectives for Grade One

The primary objective for second grade is to make the identification of subjects, verbs, complements, adjectives, adverbs, compounds, and simple prepositional phrases almost automatic. In addition, students should begin to see how all the words within a “sentence” fit together – adjectives, adverbs and prepositional phrases function as modifiers of the words in the S/V/C pattern. This will enable students to more easily understand the more complicated constructions as they are introduced in later years. Given relatively simple sentences, second graders should have little trouble reaching this objective.

Suggestions for Using this Book

Some of the instructional material in this book is included within exercises. In addition, exercises are at least paired, and in most cases several similar exercises follow in sequence, all aimed at the same objective. For example, the first three exercises are all on “What is a sentence?” Parents and teachers may want to go over the first exercise with students and then assign the second, third, etc.

Some exercises (such as five and six) focus on punctuation, but then the focus returns to the identification of subjects and verbs. There are thousands of verbs in English, and it will take students a fair amount of practice to be able to identify them. The KISS Approach, however, is cumulative – students will always identify the subjects and verbs in the sentences they are analyzing. Thus there is no major problem in moving on in the sequence if some students in a class are still having problems. Because some students will need more practice than others, there is no “ideal” number of exercises on a specific focus that can be included within a book. But once you see how the KISS Approach works, you can go to the web site for additional exercises, or, better yet, have students create exercises for each other.

The Importance of the Different Types of KISS Exercises

Identification exercises are the heart of KISS grammar. If students cannot identify subjects, verbs, prepositional phrases, etc. in real sentences, then anything else they are taught is meaningless – the students will be unable to apply it effectively to the sentences that they read and write. ID exercises are short, and should take students not more than five minutes to do. KISS punctuation exercises are also short, and almost always consist of real texts from which the punctuation (and capitalization) has been stripped. The students are asked to “fix” the text, after which you can show them the original and discuss why the original is punctuated as it is. In Recipe Rosters, students are asked to write sentences that include specific constructions; in Treasure Hunts, they need to find sentences that contain specific constructions within either a variety of different texts or in one text. Treasure Hunts will take more time on the students’ part, but they are very important because they make the students see that what they are learning applies to all the texts that they read.

Sentence-combining and/or manipulation exercises become more frequent in later grades, but even in second grade they can often help students learn to revise what they have written. It is not uncommon to see second (and third) graders write something like “I live in a big house. It is brown. It is on Maple Street.” One reason for this type of writing is that the students are searching for things to say. As each idea pops into mind, it gets written down as a separate sentence. Combining exercises can thus help students revise this into “I live in a big brown house on Maple Street.” Note that you can create additional combining exercises simply by taking sequences of sentences from your students’ writing. Students can also be asked to create such exercises for each other.

Once students have a basic ability to identify a construction, perhaps the most useful and important exercise for second graders is to have them create an exercise. Give them a short text and have them create an exercise comparable to the exercises that they have just been doing. See, for examples, exercises 10, 20, 40, 61, 79, 83, and 110 in this book. Note that exercises 21 and 22 in this book consist of having students make an answer key for their exercises (22), and then doing each others’ exercises (23). I have not repeated these exercises because you can obviously apply them to any student-created exercises. These exercises are important for several reasons. First, we learn most when we teach, and these exercises make the students the teachers. Second, the students will here also be making a connection between what they read and the grammar that they are learning. Third, teachers can use these exercises to replace many of the exercises in this book. (Remember that a KISS assumption is that students will be doing exercises based texts that they are actually reading. Ultimately, this book itself is just an example of what can be done and suggestions for doing it.)

The ten “Assessment” quizzes are intended for use at the end of the year, but you can, of course, use them at any time. Note that the format of these quizzes differs from that of other exercises. In assessment quizzes, students are asked to identify the words in the subject / verb / complement pattern and then to explain how other words in the sentence connect to the words in that pattern. This is the standard format of all KISS assessment quizzes. For second grade, students will be working with isolated, and very simple sentences. At this level of instruction, the difficulty in creating these quizzes is in finding sequential passages that do not include advanced constructions. In upper grade levels, more of the assessment quizzes are based on a single, real paragraph. (In the upper levels of KISS, the difficulty in creating assessment quizzes is in finding paragraphs that do include advanced constructions.)

The Sequence of Instruction

The exercises in this book are spread across twelve instructional objectives. Students should probably do two or three exercises a week. Note that instruction should be spread across the entire school year. Otherwise, students will forget what they have previously learned. (Use it, or lose it.)

Although students should be able to do most of these exercises in less than five minutes, reviewing exercises in class will take longer. Rather than “correcting” these assignments, however, teachers should, as a general rule, review them in class. Not only will this approach save the teacher’s sanity, it will also help students master the concepts. One enjoyable way to do this is to use the KISS Grammar Game. (It is explained in An Introduction to KISS Grammar.) In-class review of exercises, especially using the grammar game, is also an excellent motivator. Currently, most people hate studying (or teaching) grammar. In part, that is because of poor instructional materials. Most students, however, will catch on to the KISS approach rather quickly. And in-class review will show the other students not only that their classmates are “getting it,” but also that they are enjoying it.

Note also that having students do short exercises even after they have mastered the relevant concepts tends to increase students’ enjoyment and motivation. Doing what we can do well is enjoyable, especially if it is something that we are supposed to be able to do and it only takes five minutes. Take the attitude that KISS exercises are short puzzles. Students will be able to solve them, and the more of them they solve, the stronger their confidence will be.

Although some exercises should be done as homework, teachers might want to have students, as a class, do some exercises, especially exercises that introduce a new concept.. Instead of giving each student a copy of these exercises, you can simply make an overhead transparency.

Codes and Colors for Analysis Keys

Because the codes and colors that are used in these keys include every construction that students need to know to explain any word in any sentence, this section is also called:

The KISS Grammar Toolbox

Two KISS Concepts

Compounding – Coordinating Conjunctions

Most grammar texts explain compounding in multiple places (compound subjects; compound verbs, compound clauses, etc.), thereby suggesting that some grammatical constructions can be compounded and that others cannot be. KISS treats compounding as a concept. Any identical parts of speech (such as adjective and adjective) or any construction can be compounded, usually by using "and," "or," or "but"). Once students can be expected to identify the constructions that are being joined, the conjunctions are colored red.

Ellipsis – The Omission of Understood Words

The analysis keys indicate words that are ellipsed by placing them between asterisks – *You* close the door.

KISS Levels One and Two

Subjects and finite verbs are underlined, with subjects colored green and finite verbs blue. Complements are in brown and labeled: PN (Predicate Noun); PA (Predicate Adjective); IO (Indirect Object); and DO (Direct Object).

A (P) after a finite verb indicates that it is in passive voice.

Adjectives are colored green and adverbs blue.

Prepositional Phrases are identified {by braces}. Phrases that function as adjectives are in green; those that function as adverbs are in blue. Adjectives, adverbs and coordinating conjunctions within prepositional phrases are in the color of the phrase because we are more interested in the functions of phrases than in the functions of individual words. Other constructions that appear within these phrases are explained in the notes. Embedded phrases and the phrases they are embedded in are underlined.

KISS Level Three

Subordinate clauses are identified (P) {by red brackets}. | The function {of the clause} follows the opening bracket (DO). | Subordinate conjunctions [Adj. to "conjunctions" that have no other function (DO)] are {in bold red}. A red vertical line "|" identifies the end (DO) {of each main clause}. |

KISS Level Four

Verbals (gerunds, gerundives, and infinitives) are identified by and explained in footnotes.

KISS Level Five – Additional Constructions

The additional constructions that are needed to explain every word in any sentence are identified by bracketed, superscript abbreviations:

Noun Used as an Adverb [NuA]

Interjection [Inj]

Direct Address [DirA]

Appositive [App]

Delayed Subject [DS]

Post-Positioned Adjective [PPA]

Retained Complements [RDO], [RPN], [RPA]

Noun Absolute [NAbs]

Expletives (It and There) [Exp]

In the web version of analysis keys, these abbreviations are links to the relevant instructional material. If you are not familiar with some of the constructions in the Toolbox, you can find the relevant explanations in the KISS Instructional Material books. They are available on the “Printable Books” page of the web site.

Unit 1 – Identifying Sentences

What is a Sentence?—A Note for Teachers

These analysis keys usually include a complete KISS analysis of the text. Students will be told later in this book to identify “complements” with a “C” in parentheses. In Book Two, students learn to distinguish the five types of complements. One of those is the “zero” complement—there is none. The others are predicate adjective (PA), predicate noun (PN), indirect object (IO), and direct object (DO). In this book, where students are told to label complements, expect those to be one of the four codes above.

Ex. 1 - Based on “A Christmas Tree” [AK]

1. The little pine tree stood near the path.

2. The path led through the woods.

3. The rabbits often sat under this tree.

4. The tree listened to the stories.

5. The birds flew to its branches.

6. Sammy Red Squirrel knew something about this tree.

7. The hole was not very large.

8. He put a piece of bark in the hole.

9. This is a good door for my store-house.

10. I am sure.

Complete Analysis Key

1. The little pine tree stood {near the path}. |

2. The path led {through the woods}. |

3. The rabbits often sat {under this tree}. |

4. The tree listened {to the stories}. |

5. The birds flew {to its branches}. |

6. Sammy Red Squirrel knew something (DO) {about this tree}. |

7. The hole was not very large (PA). |

8. He put a piece (DO) {of bark} {in the hole}. |

9. This is a good door (PN) {for my store-house}. |

Alternatively, “for my house” may be seen as an adverb either to “is” or to “good.”

10. I am sure (PA). |

Ex. 2 - Based on “A Christmas Tree” [AK]

1. Sammy ran to the hole very often.

2. The little red squirrel hunted for nuts under the trees.

3. The holes were empty.

4. The hunting was always good.

5. Then Sammy went to his store-house in the stone wall.

6. At last it became very cold.

7. North Wind blew through the woods.

8. The squirrels slept in their nests.

9. Blacky Crow stayed in the deep woods.

10. He melted the snow in the warm hollows.

Complete Analysis Key

1. Sammy ran {to the hole} very often. |

2. The little red squirrel hunted {for nuts} {under the trees}. |

3. The holes were empty (PA). |

4. The hunting was always good (PA). |

5. Then Sammy went {to his store-house} {in the stone wall}. |

6. {At last} it became very cold (PA). |

7. North Wind blew {through the woods}. |

8. The squirrels slept {in their nests}. |

9. Blacky Crow stayed {in the deep woods}. |

10. He melted the snow (DO) {in the warm hollows}. |

Ex. 3 - Based on “A Christmas Tree” [AK]

1. The squirrels ran up and down the trees.

2. All at once Bunny Rabbit heard a noise.

3. The other rabbits listened, too.

4. It is the dog!

5. Sammy and Bobby were safe in the tree.

6. The man had an axe in his hand.

7. The two children ran along the path.

8. This is a good one.

9. She pointed right at the little pine tree.

10. That is too large for our Christmas tree.

Complete Analysis Key

1. The squirrels ran {up and down the trees}. |

2. All {at once} Bunny Rabbit heard a noise (DO). |

3. The other rabbits listened, too. |

4. It is the dog (PN)! |

5. Sammy and Bobby were safe (PA) {in the tree}. |

6. The man had an axe (DO) {in his hand}. |

7. The two children ran {along the path}. |

8. This is a good one (PN). |

9. She pointed right {at the little pine tree}. |

10. That is too large (PA) {for our Christmas tree}. |

Ex. 4 - Based on “A Christmas Tree” [AK]

1. And before long the sound of the axe rang out through the stillness.

2. I thought so, too.

3. But I have a store-house in this tree.

4. Where is it?

5. I am as hungry as a bear.

6. So am I.

7. Sammy took out a nut.

8. I saw many pretty things.

9. Oh, it was pretty!

10. Then the little sparrow flew away.

Complete Analysis Key

1. And {before long [#1]} the sound {of the axe} rang out {through the stillness}. |

2. I thought so (DO) [#2], too. |

3. But I have a store-house (DO) {in this tree}. |

4. Where is it? |

5. I am as hungry (PA) {as a bear}. |

6. So [#3] am I. |

7. Sammy took out a nut (DO). |

8. I saw many pretty things (DO). |

9. Oh [Inj], it was pretty (PA)! |

10. Then the little sparrow flew away. |

Notes

1. “Long” is not a noun or pronoun. What we have here is a case of ellipsis – the leaving out of understood words – that has become idiomatic. We all understand this to mean “before a long time had passed.”

2. Alternatively, “so” can be explained as an adverb meaning “in the same way.”

3. It is difficult to tell how most grammarians would explain this “so.” Most grammar textbooks do not explain how to analyze real sentences. My guess is that many grammarians would explain it as an adverb, but note how, in the context of the preceding sentence, it functions as a “pro-adjective” – it replaces “hungry.” I would not, by the way, even attempt to explain this to first-graders. I mention it as an example of the difference of the KISS Approach.

“You” as Understood Subject

Ex. 5 – From Old-time Stories [AK]

Several of these sentences have compound verbs. Since they have not yet seen “compounding,” praise the students that underline all the verbs.

1. *You* Come {with me}. |

2. *You* Stay {by me} and look out {for the cat}. |

“Look out” is idiomatic for “watch,” so out could be considered as part of the verb phrase, but students have not gotten to that yet. See “Phrasal Verbs.”

3. *You* Put on your very best clothes (DO) and come {with us}. |

“On” means “on your body.” See “Phrasal Verbs.”

4. Now, my dears [DirA], *you* have a good time (DO). |

5. Then *you* keep still (PA). |

6. Oh, *you* see the lovely swans (DO). |

7. O [Inj] grandma [DirA], *you* take me (DO). |

8. *You* Pull the string (DO) and the door will open. |

The instructional material thus far only addresses one-word verbs, but it would not surprise me to see many students underline “will open.” They already understand the underlying grammar.

9. *You* Get ready (PA), | here comes the bride! |

10. Now, Brok [DirA], *you* show your things (DO). |

Ex. 6 - From Bunny Rabbit's Diary [AK]

1. You Look {at that}! |

2. You See my ducks (DO). |

3. You Come back! |

4. You See Mrs. Duck (DO) and all the little ducks (DO). |

5. You Paddle your feet (DO), | You paddle your feet (DO)! |

6. You Show it (DO) {to us} (IO). |

7. You See the fishes (DO) {in the water} [Adj. to “fishes,” or “Adv. to “See”]. |

8. You Don’t go {into that house}. |

9. You Just see the flowers (DO) {after the rain}. |

10. You Flap your wings (DO)! |

Punctuating Sentences

Ex. 7 - Based on “The Ugly Duckling” [AK]

1. The next day [NuA] he went {for a walk}. |

2. to hide under some bushes [NS]

3. He was so ugly (PA). |

4. He put his head (DO) down {to the water}. |

5. And they gave him (IO) bread (DO) and cake (DO). |

6. You have lovely ducklings (DO). |

7. {At night} he came {to an old house}. |

8. A duck made her nest (DO) {under some leaves}. |

9. Soon he saw three white swans (DO) {on the lake}. |

10. The next day [NuA] the mother duck took her ducklings (DO) {to the pond}. |

Ex. 8 - Based on “The Ugly Duckling” [AK]

1. The big, ugly duckling swam, too. |

2. The poor duckling had a hard time (DO). |

3. He is very ugly (PA). |

4. But he was not an ugly duck (PN). |

5. What a noise (DO) the ducks made! |

6. eating a big bug [NS]

7. The ugly duckling was big (PA) now. |

8. And the duckling hid {in a corner}. |

9. But all {of the animals} made fun (DO) {of him}. |

The phrase “of him” could also be processed as an adverb to “made.”

It will be interesting to see how many students underline “animals” as the subject. (This is one reason why KISS introduces prepositional phrases so early

10. An old woman lived there {with her cat and her hen}. |

Ex. 9 - Creating an Exercise on Subjects and Verbs [Note]

Teaching is the best way of learning, so having students create exercises for others is good practice.

Ex. 10 - Just for Fun: Riddles

Note: If you have the students do this in class, you can read each joke and ask for the answer. If no one responds, you can give it to them so that every student will be able to write the sentence.

1. Q: What has four wheels (DO) and flies? |

A: A garbage truck! A garbage truck has four wheels (DO) and flies (DO)! |

Note how the joke depends on the difference between “flies” as a verb and “flies” as a noun.

2. Q: What kind {of driver} has no license (DO) ? |

A: Screwdriver! A screwdriver has no license (DO). |

3. Q: What kind {of building} has the most stories (DO) ? |

A: The library! The library has the most stories (DO). |

4. Q: What animal always breaks the law (DO)? |

A: A cheetah. A cheetah always breaks the law (DO). |

5. Q. What dog keeps the best time (DO) ? |

A. A watch dog! A watch dog keeps the best time (DO). |

6. Q. Four cats were {in a boat}. | One jumped out. | How many were left (PA)? |

A. None. None were left (PA)! | They were all copy cats (PN)! |

“Many” functions here as the subject because it means “many cats.” At this point in their work, I would accept “were” as the verb. Technically, the “left” can be viewed as part of a finite passive verb (and thus underlined twice), or as a predicate adjective.

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