ABSTRACT
It’s easy to spew abstract terms when explaining grammar. But telling primary or intermediate writers to add adjectives to narrow or limit a noun would only confuse them. Even saying, “Adjectives describe” is abstract. It may be true that adjectives describe, but how does that nugget of information delineate adjectives from any other part of speech? And the best way to show adjectives at work is to read a text which uses them, so we lift a few sentences with adjectives for students to study. If children don’t see adjectives, we rewrite the sentences without them, like on the far-right column in this chart of excerpts from Jen Bryant’s Six Dots. Looking at both versions, we ask students, “What changed?” Students compare and contrast the original version containing adjectives with the revised version without them.
