​Reading comprehension is the key to everything. And sentence comprehension is the key to reading comprehension. To understand and respond to an entire text, students must first comprehend the words and sentences that convey its meaning. And in order to understand  complex words and sentences, students must understand the parts of words and the parts of sentences. To comprehend the whole, you must first understand its parts. Schools have abandoned the systematic teaching of word and sentence structures. The result is tragic: a generation of children who can neither read nor respond to the simplest of texts. 

Decoding Sentence Complexity
Every word or group of words that answers the question: “who or what?” before the verb is either a noun or pronoun. Any word or group of words that answers the question “who or what?” after the verb is either a noun, pronoun, or adjective. The questions are, “who or what verb?” and “verb who or what?”

This is crucial for understanding sentence structure because students are going to see that groups of words can function as subject nouns or as completers—words that complete the sentence after the verb. 

Creating Sentence Complexity
Students should practice using the word “that” after a noun or pronoun and before a noun or pronoun. This use of the term “that” is extremely significant in English sentence structure. They will see that any construction or any group of words in a sentence which begins with the word “that” before or after a noun or pronoun is answering the question: “who or what?”  “That” should also be placed immediately after adjectives to create explanatory clauses. 

Students should practice explanatory or descriptive structures such as adverbs and appositives. In effect, they should discover that there are several ways to add more information about verbs or nouns in a sentence. They will see that some words describe nouns and verbs as well as answer questions about them.

Students should also practice using the words “which” or “who” directly after a noun and directly in front of a verb. When students place the words “who” or “which” directly after a noun, they must necessarily create a group of words that has a verb right after the “who” or “which” word that they have used. This is a great way for students to create complex sentences with adjectival clauses, which begin with relative pronouns. 

Students should also practice beginning sentences with demonstrative pronouns and indefinite pronouns. Words such as “these” or “this” or “anyone” or “everyone” help students to create a variety of sentences especially when a noun is placed directly after any of those words.

Students should also practice combining several ideas into one sentence in order to show how close those ideas are and what the relationship between those ideas are. This is where it is crucial for them to learn how connectors such as conjunctions, and punctuation symbols such as commas, colons, and dashes allow them to embed several statements into one.

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Everything begins with identifying the verb. Then we ask who or what before the verb and who or what after the verb, or we can ask where?, when?, why?, or how? after the verb.

Writers place words before or after nouns to tell us more about the noun. These words or groups of words, called adjectives, give us answers to questions we ask about the noun such as what kind of noun? which noun? or how many nouns? Writers also place words before or after verbs to tell us more about the verb. These words or groups of words, called adverbs, give us answers to questions that we ask about the verb such as when, where, how, or why?

When the sentence is complex, we must find the verb in each clause and determine which clause is independent or can stand by itself as a sentence. This main clause becomes our focal point. Everything around it is interpreted as answering either adverbial or adjectival questions about the main or independent clause.

English sentences consist of a noun and a verb that make complete sense together. Every other word or group of words adds more information by answering questions about the main noun, or the main verb, or the main clause itself.   

Textual complexity refers to the level of difficulty a text poses for its reader based on a combination of challenging vocabulary and sophisticated grammatical structures.

Mastering textual complexity helps students to understand source documents or fundamental and primary writings. It allows them to drink and to think from the fountain of those documents for themselves. Otherwise, they must rely on someone else's interpretation of those documents. Any attempt to rephrase founding documents usually creates a secondary interpretation. The primary becomes secondary.
Imagine a simplified, modernized, dumbed down version of the Declaration of Independence: "We believe the following things--all men are created equal; all men have gifts from the creator; all men have rights that can't be taken away; they are rights such as life, liberty, and the chance to do what you want to do in life."
Jefferson’s poetry becomes third rate prose. 

Textual complexity is a great tool for training young minds to grasp difficult and complex subjects. Students can grow their mental muscles by exercising them on texts that require tenacity, thoughtfulness, and focus. This is the same manner in which young musicians become better by having to work hard at understanding compositions by Beethoven or any of the masters.  Now it should go without saying that complexity must be age-appropriate. No one should be asking a third grader to read Federalist 10 and explain its principles in a comprehensive fashion. However, we should ask students from fourth grade onwards to begin delving in to complex texts so that they can begin developing the skills they need to read those texts. Needless to say, all of this should be done incrementally. But it must be done. Students should be exposed to difficult subjects expressed in complex ways as early as possible. 

​This will also require training in semantics and syntactic analysis as early as possible. Morphology and sentence analysis are the true keys to comprehension. Grammar and vocabulary should not be relegated to the earliest grades in worksheet form: No! They should be taught systematically and intensively and excitingly to students of all ages. We should not ask our students to eat the meat of complex texts without first equipping them with the cutlery of language arts and reading skills. When we equip students with the tools of learning, then they can practice those tools on textual complexity and begin feeding themselves as independent learners.  

Grammar is the key to success on all standardized tests.
​Grammar comprises the rules and conventions that allow us to communicate clearly. It is the study of how we use the way words function and marks of punctuation to communicate clearly and correctly.

The ACT and SAT (and nearly every standardized test) are filled with complex passages and sentences. These passages test your ability to determine whether the writers are using the agreed-upon rules and conventions of English correctly and whether they are organizing the parts of speech to communicate ideas in the most logical ways. 

What are the parts of speech?
The parts of speech are the eight categories or types of words that we use when we write or speak. They are the eight ways that words or groups of words can function in sentences. For example, "noun" is a word that we use to label every word that names a person, place, or thing. Everything that can be named is categorized as a noun. Pronouns substitute for nouns (he, she, it). Adjectives modify or add more information about nouns (pure water). Verbs are the category for every word that we use to say what we are doing (running, sleeping) or being (am, is, are, was, were). Adverbs modify or tell us more about verbs (ran quickly). Prepositions show position or time (over, under, during). Conjunctions connect words and groups of words (and, for, but, nor, or, yet, so). Interjections convey emotion (wow, ouch!). They are the last of the eight categories and, unfortunately, are relatively useless for comprehension or composition. 

Why is it important to study the fundamental grammatical structures of sentences? Why not just focus on tips, tricks, and shortcuts?
Short term test preparation consists of strategies, tips, and tricks. These are great—if you have mastered the knowledge that is being tested. But they are a complete waste of time if you lack the fundamental grammatical skills you need to understand everything you read. Great piano teachers begin by helping their students to learn notes and scales. They do not begin with seven easy ways to play Tchaikovsky. Success on the ACT and the SAT requires that you understand the notes and scales of the English writing system. The test makers are testing your understanding of the written code that all writers use to communicate. 

But here's the good news: the code is not difficult to understand. There are only eight parts of speech (or eight ways that words or groups of words can function in a sentence). As importantly, the parts of speech have natural relationships with each other: they fit together. For example, the noun-adjective relationship means that adjectives are always talking about nouns. They are connected. Writers place adjectives right next to nouns to show that relationship. "The hot soup filled my empty stomach." Notice that the word "hot" describes soup, and the word "empty" describes the stomach. These are adjectives because they are telling us more about the nouns "soup and stomach." Did you notice, also, that the adjectives and nouns are right next to each other? That is one of the relationships you will see consistently in sentences. Now on the ACT and SAT, this relationship looks more complex because the test-makers use longer strings of words as adjectives, but they're always going to be next to the nouns they are describing or modifying. Both exams will test your ability to judge whether adjectives are near the nouns they are modifying. But if you don't know what an adjective is or what a noun is, then learning a quick tip is meaningless. 

Learning the parts of speech is important because writers create meaning by organizing them in their natural or logical order. Once you learn the basic relationships between the parts of speech, then you can recognize how writers put them together in sentences to make sense. You can decode the sentence puzzle by knowing its parts and how the parts fit together to create the whole meaning. 

The parts of speech are the building blocks of all sentences. They are the tools that writers use to construct meaning. Master these tools, and you will learn how to quickly analyze or take sentences apart to get to the core of the writer's meaning. When you master the parts of speech, you will be able to do what the test makers are requiring: You'll be able to read with a writer's mind by always looking for ways to edit the text for greater clarity, conciseness, and accuracy, and you will be able to write with the reader in mind by always looking for ways to convey ideas more clearly and precisely. Comprehension and composition will become much easier.

​The primary task of Christian homeschoolers is to make sure that their children can read with fluency and comprehension so that they can cultivate godly hearts and brilliant minds by reading the Bible, and the great anthologies about the people, civilizations, and ideas that have shaped the world since creation.  Children who cannot read effectively will have a difficult time studying God’s Word—and anything else—for themselves; and, therefore, will be subject to the minds and motives of others throughout their lives.

What are the parts of speech? The parts of speech are the eight categories or kinds of words that we use to speak and to write. When we communicate, we use words called nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, verbs, and interjections. These are called the eight parts of speech or the eight kinds of words that we use to make sense.
We group our language into these eight categories. For example, all words that name people, places, or things are called nouns. And all words (such as he, she, it, or they) that take the places of nouns in sentences are called pronouns. Words (such as cold, hot, blue, or beautiful) that describe nouns are called adjectives. Words that show action or being (such as run, jump, am, is , are) are called verbs. Words (such as quickly, slowly, or powerfully) that give us more information about verbs are called adverbs. Words (such as and, but, for, nor, or, so & yet) are called conjunctions. And words (such as wow! and ouch!) that help to express strong emotions are called interjections. These are the eight parts of speech.