This daily language mechanics program powerfully spirals students to mastery. With a careful plan, they learn parts of speech, capitalization, and punctuation – in just ten minutes a day!
Ms. Sneed Compacts Instruction with a Daily Language Mechanics Program
Our favorite fourth grade teacher, Ms. Sneed, sat in a summer professional development meeting. “This daily language program lets you mechanics in a meaningful way,” said the presenter.
Ms. Sneed squinted at the small print on the document displayed on the screen. Hmm. It looked a bit like the sentence diagramming she did in middle school.
“Each week,” the presenter continued, “you will focus on three new concepts: one part of speech, one punctuation, and one capitalization. Your students will analyze a few sentences each day. Then you will discuss them. The short, focused bursts help kids process and internalize English language rules. Most teachers only spend about ten minutes per day on the program.”
Ms. Sneed studied the documents on the screen. Then she tapped her pencil in thought. Yes, this would be a great way to teach daily language. She daydreamed about her cramped English Language Arts block. So much time was needed for reading and writing. Layering mechanics in a brief session each day really made sense.
“This type of program makes use of several effective teaching strategies,” the presenter said. “First, material is compacted. This saves time. Second, it’s scaffolded. Beginning with very simple concepts, it slowly moves kids to new heights. Third, it spirals. Every week, the sentences include concepts from the weeks before.
“Any teacher can create a program like this. The sentences don’t even need to be written in advance. However, to make your life easier, we do offer a published set.”
Parts of Speech
A new slide appeared, and the presenter continued:
“Let’s take a look at the daily language program schedule for parts of speech. As you can see, we begin with basic concepts. Most fourth or fifth grade students already know about nouns and verbs. However, the program explains them clearly and concisely, cementing their understanding. Sentences for this first week are super simple.
“The following week, we address subjects and predicates. Again, the sentences are short. Easing in like this is comfortable for kids.
“Each set then adds a part of speech. By the end of the program, however, things slow down. Why? It gets really though for kids. Therefore, they need much more time to practice. Remember, because it’s a spiral, they’re now dealing with all of the parts of speech they previously learned too.”
Ms. Sneed jotted down the entire list:
- nouns, verbs
- subjects, predicates
- conjunctions
- articles
- adjectives
- review and assessment
- simple subjects and predicates
- pronouns
- sentence types
- adverbs (modifying verbs)
- adverbs (modifying adjectives and adverbs
- review and assessment
- prepositions
- prepositions
- prepositions
- prepositions
- interjections
- review and assessment
Capitalization
The next slide listed capitalization concepts. “This slide shows that capitalization in the daily language program is handled similarly. Whenever possible, the concept ties in with the parts of speech kids are studying.”
Ms. Sneed studied the list and chuckled. In her experience, fourth graders struggled with these capitalization. If they could master even half of this, their writing would greatly improve. Again, she copied down the list:
- proper nouns
- days of the week and months
- product names
- geographic names
- proper adjectives
- review and assessment
- rooms
- relatives’ names
- direct quotes
- groups, religions, and languages
- what not to capitalize
- review and assessment
- titles
- holidays
- time periods and historical events
- celestial objects
- documents and laws
- review and assessment
Punctuation
Again, a new slide appeared. “In this daily language program, punctuation is handled in the same way,” the presenter said. “One new concept at a time.”
Again, Ms. Sneed copied down the list:
- abbreviating honorifics
- commas in dates
- commas in series of nouns or verbs
- commas in addresses
- commas in series of adjectives
- review and assessment
- commas in longer series
- commas before coordinating conjunctions
- commas and quotation marks in direct quotes
- commas with appositives
- possessive nouns
- review and assessment
- punctuating titles
- commas after introductory phrases
- comma rules for dependent clauses
- colons and semicolons
- punctuating interjections
- review and assessment
Daily Language Mechanics – 18- or 33-Week Program
“Most teachers organize this program over 33 weeks,” said the presenter. “Instructional sets take two weeks. Review and assessment only require one week. So, for example, you would spend six days teaching and practicing the three skills. The next three days would be used for mixed practice, and the tenth day for assessment.
“However, if your students are advanced – or you have limited time – you could teach one set of daily language per week. That way, you’d get it done in 18 weeks.
“If you’re interested, you can try the first week for free. Just use this link.”
Enjoy Teaching Daily Language Mechanics
As Ms. Sneed studied the components, she noticed that the concepts were grouped together logically. For example, in the fifth set, kids learned to identify adjectives, capitalize proper adjectives, and use commas in series of adjectives. A slow smile spread across her face. “If we can do daily language in just ten minutes each day,” she thought, “my ELA block will be golden.”