Some people are math people. Numbers work in their lives -- they count them, they crunch them, they add, subtract and multiply them. Those same people, however, may chew their nails when asked to take a test on sentence structure. Even if your child is not a strong math student, she may still be struggling in English class, saying it just doesn't make sense to her. It's not impossible, however, to make a numbers guy comfortable with adjectives and adverbs or a child that you love more comfortable with the parts of speech. It may just take a little perseverance and some one-on-one instruction.

1

Familiarize your student with established rules for using adjectives versus adverbs. Granted there are always exceptions to every rule, but teaching your student a basic rule may carry her far toward answering most questions on a test correctly. One such rule states that when "ly" is added to an adjective, it becomes an adverb. There is much confusion because adverbs and adjectives are so closely related. Using a word processing program or pencil and paper, provide your student a written sample sentence, such as "The bad casserole was immediately fed to the dogs." Explain that the word "bad" is an adjective modifying the noun "casserole." Then provide another sample sentence: "The casserole was cooked badly, so it was immediately fed to the dogs." Explain how the word "badly" becomes an adverb by adding the "ly."

2

Instruct your student on when adverbs are used versus when adjectives are used. Have her memorize what questions are answered by adverbs and what questions are answered by adjectives. Explain that "how?" "when?" "where?" and "why?" are adverb questions. Provide the sample sentence "The children skipped merrily to the park." Ask her the question, "How did the children skip to the park?" And when she answers "merrily," explain to her that since "how?" is an adverb question that the word "merrily" is an adverb in the sample sentence. Explain that adjective questions ask "which one?", "what kind?", and "how many?" Provide the sample sentence "Her ruffled dress was blowing in the wind." Explain that since the question "what kind of dress?" is answered by the word "ruffled," then, of course, "ruffled" is an adjective.

3

Teach a young student that many adjectives come immediately before the noun they are modifying. Be careful not to teach this as a hard-and-fast rule because as sentence structure becomes more complex, the adjective will follow the verb, such as in the sentence "The casserole was bad." For early elementary English, however, teaching "bad dog," "yellow hat" or "happy clown" is one way to get a young child to recognize adjectives. Explain that adverbs may be positioned most anywhere in the sentence. Give sample sentences, such as "They carefully smelled the casserole, afraid it was bad." and "They smelled the casserole carefully, afraid it was bad." in support of your explanation, reminding your student again of the adverb questions.

The best way for a child to learn grammar is to have him write out the sentences and examine the parts of speech.

If you are not comfortable with adjectives and adverbs, don't try to teach them. Both you and your child benefit from tutoring simultaneously.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/537/02/