Spotlight on grammar Primary teaching and learning English newsletter

Ensuring clarity when teaching by using clear and concise definitions and explanations will be essential; this relies on good subject knowledge. Three individuals the English team often turn to for support are David Crystal, Debra Myhill and Helen Lines. We recommend using text-based activities as much as possible, exploring the grammar alongside composition to understand how grammar creates and changes meaning. When planning engaging lessons that build children's understanding and interest there are key principles to remember:

• grammatical terminology is always explained through contextual examples

• links are made between the feature introduced and how it might enhance writing in the genre being studied

• discussion is essential to explore language and effects

• to offer model patterns for pupils to 'play' with and then use in their own writing

• to use 'real' texts, allowing children to understand how authors have used grammar to create effect

• to actively encourage language play, experimentation, risk-taking and games

(D.Myhill, S. Jones, A. Watson & H.Lines) Teachers need to show children first and foremost how grammar works in real books. Not as an abstract concept or a series of exercises in a workbook. A playful exploratory approach will be the best way to ensure that children both enjoy their learning and improve their writing.

With the introduction of the Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation Test and the increased emphasis on grammar in the new curriculum, teachers are investigating how to teach grammar conventions in more interesting and engaging ways. Current research suggests that a playful, embedded approach to the teaching of grammar, in the context of real writing and reading, is the most successful way of improving children’s sentence construction, developing vocabulary and improving the quality of writing. The children will then not only understand grammatical terms (and successfully complete a test on them) but they will also be able to use these terms to make their own writing better, as well as appreciate and comment on their effective use in others’ writing.

In this issue:

• Grammar starter: strange word combinations

• Grammar: discrete or embedded teaching?

• Take one book • Grammar to support

instructional writing • Classroom example of

making connections between a grammatical structure and a writing context

• Teacher booklist

Grammar starter - strange word combinations

A really good game for loosening up the mind and getting words flowing…

Take a noun e.g. dog. Write it in the centre of the whole-class white board. Write a list of adjectives to the left and verbs to the right. The adjectives and verbs do not have to be associated with the dog!

Then have fun forming the most unlikely combinations e.g.

The red dog whispers. The silent dog meows.

Taken from: Jumpstart Literacy Games and activities for ages 7 -14 Pie Corbett ISBN1-84312-102-6

shaggy angry slim hot fat red

silent

runs meows snarls snaps

bounds cries

whispers

dog

Grammar – discrete or embedded teaching? What are your views about the teaching and learning of grammar? Should it be learned through osmosis? Should we have discrete grammar lessons ensuring a secure knowledge of terminology and structures, or should we teach grammar skills in context using good quality mentor texts? This is certainly a discussion taking place in staff rooms around the country at the moment. I am sure what we would all like to know is, what works best?

The message seems to be that children do need to be taught grammar, they do need to know the terminology but most importantly they need to know why they would use it and where and how it would be most effective. ‘Knowing about grammar’ means studying how we construct sentences, and in particular how we manipulate the parts of a sentence in order to give satisfactory expression to whatever meaning we have in mind. It also means studying how we use sentences, and how our choice of sentence affects other people’. Crystal, David, 2004, Making Sense of Grammar, Pearson Longman). Another useful tool is Deborah Myhill’s Cyber Grammar homepage where, among other things, you can test your own grammatical knowledge. www.cybergrammar.co.uk/index.php

Deborah Myhill has recently completed further research into the teaching and learning of grammar and it seems her approach is rapidly gaining public approval. Her research team have found that children who ‘play’ with grammar become better writers. They were encouraged to experiment with grammatical techniques for effect, for instance, developing characters, emotions, providing detail etc. The outcome was accelerated progress in standards of writing and as we would expect, teacher subject knowledge was a major influence on success.

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Take one book!

Take one good book (classic or current) and use it well. That’s the advice I give to teachers grappling with too many texts and / or extracts. When you know of or have an excellent piece of text, squeeze as much out of it as you can. Keep it real, keep it relevant and make it come alive for the children. If this is achieved then boredom will cease to exist! In my experience it is children’s ability to make connections with texts presented to them that matters. Through connection comes meaning and through meaning comes relevance. If texts are relevant to our pupils, then they will be inspired and this is what is needed to develop a life long love of reading and an ability to think creatively as a writer. There are some excellent themes emerging from recent Ofsted reports and case study publications relating to the teaching of the reading. The one that I connect to the most goes something like this: The design of programmes to meet the very particular needs of its own pupils - ensuring the relevance of texts to pupils’ lives outside the classroom. There are many ways in which we can look at this as children’s lives outside the classroom can be tackled on many levels and layers. The potential is huge!

hobbies family immediate environment local environment culture and diversity race and equality religion

the news the law safety conflict celebration. world/travel/ overseas links economy

The list goes on!

David Didau (2012) would agree as he argues in ‘The Perfect Ofsted English Lesson’ that “because much of what students learn comes from their own and their peers’ experience” we need to be very aware of “culture outside the classroom” and “set up tasks that enable them to connect to new information using prior knowledge”. He provides the following example: “you could begin the study of Romeo and Juliet by getting students to share and explore their own experiences of relationships and family conflict”. This is a brave thing to do, I agree, but when done well and with sensitivity some great lessons can be created.

You will have connected with Didau, who writes in relation to secondary practice, particularly if you teach in upper KS2. However, I’m sure that there are many of you, whatever age group you teach, who plan your Literacy in this way.

Perhaps one of the more challenging links we can seek to make is the one that connects with race, equality and diversity. Below are some titles of texts that can support you in creating connections for your pupils…. sometimes difficult aspects of relevance to open up as dialogue.

‘That’s My Mum’ by Henriette Barkow Mia tells us of her experience of being mixed heritage.

‘My Two Grannies’ by Floella Benjamin

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Take one book! continued

‘Coming to England’ by Floella Benjamin Autobiographical stance taken to tell the story of her journey from Jamaica to England as a young girl. ‘Tusk Tusk’ by David McKee Classic story about prejudice and conflict, using the black and white elephant to tell the tale. ‘Under a Silver Moon’ by Anne Fine Two baby boys born into different backgrounds. ‘Gregory Cool’ by Caroline Binch Looks at differences between cultures and offers opportunities to work on ‘point of view’. There are also a range of popular classics that tackle cultural issues and experiences brilliantly. Take Roald Dahl’s ‘Charlie and The Chocolate Factory’. Now there’s a diverse bunch of folk!

Grammar…to support instructional writing

Less is more! When writing instructions, children need to limit their use of adverbs and adjectives to include only the information that is required. Ask the children to read the following instruction. What advice might we give the writer?

Calmly and steadily press the sky blue button until the beautiful yellow coloured dish flickers into a shimmering glitter of colour.

Now ask them to edit the sentence as they see fit, removing any unnecessary adjectives and adverbs.

Read the edited versions and discuss the changes made. What is the overall effect on our understanding? Which words are essential? Is there a need to change the word order?

(Pie Corbett, “Talk for Writing Across the Curriculum)

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Classroom lesson idea: making connections between a grammatical structure and a writing context

Context: writing fairy tales

Learning focus: the use of simple noun phrases in fairy tales

Connections between grammar and writing: Through discussion and text analysis, the teacher draws out the following characteristics of noun phrases in fairy tales.

• fairy tales draw on oral narrative and written versions retain many of the patterns of oral language. These helped listeners follow and remember the story. Nouns and adjectives are often used very simply

• repetition of adjectives, for example, long, long

ago; far,far away; a dark, dark wood • short noun phrases with just one adjective, for

example, wicked stepmother; enchanted forest; handsome prince; golden apple

• predicatble ‘stock’ of nouns and adjectives, for

example, beautiful; evil; castle; king; forest; princess

Taken from ‘Playful explicitness with grammar: a pedagogy for writing.’ Debra Myhill, Susan Jones, Annabel Watson and Helen Lines.

Teacher booklist: supportive resources to aid the teaching of grammar

‘Twenty Odd Ducks’ by Lynne Truss

In this original and well-illustrated book, Truss makes the case that careless application can dramatically change meaning. To prove her point, she provides contrasting examples of the same sentence, punctuated in different ways. In all cases, the examples are thought provoking and often very amusing.

This text can be used with a guided writing group to reinforce the ‘danger’ of sloppy punctuation, with the whole class, or simply as an independent reader for interested pupils. The children could then be set the challenge to find their own examples of incorrect punctuation either in their own work, or from wider sources

(newspapers, signage etc) and then asked to draw a set of pictures to represent the contrasting meanings. A range of good examples of grammatical gaffs are easily accessible through a google search on the internet.

Other books in the series include:

‘Eats, Shoots and Leaves: Why commas really do make a difference’ by Lynne Truss ‘The Girl’s Like Spaghetti: Why you can’t manage without apostrophes’ by Lynne Truss

‘The Perfect Punctuation Book’ by Kate Petty & Jeanie Maizel Basic grammatical facts addressed in a refreshing and appealing way, utilising flaps, pulls, tabs and pop-ups. Children won’t be able to resist gravitating towards it to explore further. Can the children make their own version for younger classes to enjoy?

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Teacher booklist continued

We also recommend…

and for the teachers… www.cybergrammar.co.uk Debra Myhill’s website. University of Exeter, Graduate School of Education. Aimed at improving teacher’s subject knowledge, this is a very useful reference guide for grammatical terminology. It also offers some interactive practice activities and, most importantly, considers the ‘Teaching Implications’ behind the understanding of the grammar.

Courses this autumn

13ENG/028P Year 3 and 4 grammar: the fine detail and application 14th October 2013

13ENG/032P Year 5 and 6 grammar: the fine detail and application 5th November 2013

13ENG/037P Teach your grammar 26th November 2013

13ENG/038P Improving writing through improving sentence construction

26th November 2013

For further information about our courses please contact Tara Catt, email tara.catt@hertsforlearning.co.uk, or telephone 01438

844863