Rod and Staff users

[mama26]

I am still considering HOD for next year, just tweaking some of the extras. I have always used Easy Grammar which uses the labeling method of parts of speech identification. For those of you that have used Rod and Staff my question is: Would this program work if you used the labeling method or would it only work if you did the diagramming method which they teach. In my mind, you are basically doing the same thing only getting there by using a different method. However, I could be wrong since I have never seen Rod and Staff.

Thanks for your response,

[pjdobro]

I'm unfamiliar with the labeling method. It would certainly be possible to do R&S and not do the diagramming. That is just one small part of the program. I suppose you could substitute labeling for diagramming when it is used. You might find though that R&S makes diagramming so easy and approachable that you decide to do it. It really isn't the intimidating ordeal that I remembered from middle school the way that R&S presents it.

[my3sons]

I think you'd find the labeling method works with diagramming too. Essentially, dc are mentally labeling the parts of each sentence in their minds before organizing them on paper within diagramming. R & S English makes teaching diagramming fairly easy. You could begin with labeling, as that is what your dc are familiar, and then consider transitioning them into diagramming over time. What level of R & S English would you be starting?

In Christ,
Julie

[Carrie]

Diagramming helps a student visually see the parts of the sentence and map out the subject, verb, direct objects etc. providing a mental picture of how the various parts of a sentence fit together. Labeling doesn't lend itself to that type of visual representation, as the sentence remains in its original format with labeling. This is the main difference in the methods.

Diagramming leads students toward being able to rework a sentence, moving phrases and modifiers to form sentences with clearer meanings that more effectively communicate ideas. I was never a proponent of diagramming, and did everything I could to have my boys avoid it, as I thought it was an antiquated way of approaching sentence structure. But through years with Rod and Staff English, I have come to truly see the fruit and purpose of diagramming and realize it is a lost skill that actually is a mental-imaging type tool toward "seeing" how to write better, clearer sentences.

Blessings,
Carrie