SO, we reviewed the parts of speech and then put our knowledge to the test with Lewis Carroll's "Jabberywocky" from Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. After a brief intro to the background of the text, I read it a couple of times to the student. We discussed how they understood the meaning even though the poem is mostly made of nonsense words because of their understanding of the parts of speech and sentence structure.
Still, they were pretty nervous about identifying the parts of speech of this ridiculous diction- they didn't know what they were capable of, and frankly, I was pretty nervous too. We did the first stanza together as a class, and then I let them have class time to work together on decoding the rest of the poem. So ultimately, when we went over it as a class, we were all pretty happy with ourselves. It was the perfect way to show me their understanding AND to show themselves.
@MrsC_Robertson How interesting "Jabberwocky" was in my crossword puzzle today...coincidence?
— John O'Hurley (@ImJohnOHurley) April 1, 2016
I think not...