Ooh! Me, me, me! Pick me!
I'm a bit of a mediocre grammarian, and I think this would be really fun.
When I was in eighth grade, we had "The Shurley Method" for learning grammar (a lot of the kids in the class called it the "Hurley Method"), and there were all these questions that were supposed to help you learn what the parts of the sentence were. The first question
always was "Who, or what, is the sentence about?"
So, going with the sentence you gave as an example, I'd go:
Who, or what, is the sentence about? Clark - subject, proper noun (at least, I THINK a name is a proper noun . . . it might just be a pronoun . . . it's been a while since I did the Shurley Method)
What is being said about Clark? Clark
ran - verb
Clark ran how? fast - adverb describing "ran"
By the by, here's how to tell whether something is an adjective or an adverb:
Adjectives answer the questions:
-What kind?
-Which one?
-How many?
While adverbs answer:
-How?
-When?
-Where?
Okay, here's my sentence:
Perry White did not become the editor of a major metropolitan newspaper because he could yodel.
ETA: JUST KIDDING! I don't think I could even remember all the questions to get the parts of
that sentence . . . but if you want to take a whack at it just for kicks, go right ahead! Here's the REAL sentence:
Lois and Clark made out above the clouds.
