Grammar and language learning. Bringing it altogether
Over the last academic year and within our network we havebeen considering the requirements of the new PoS.
One of the key elements thatwe have begun to address is the need to develop an understanding of how to deliver grammar with our young language learners and how tosupport all teachers who may be delivering primary languages with this.
In KS2,the new DfE POS expects young learners to.....
"understand basic grammar appropriate to the language being studied, including(where relevant): feminine, masculine and neuter forms and the conjugation of high-frequency verbs; key features and patterns of the language; how to apply these, for instance, to build sentences; and how these differ from or are similar to English."
Last week was the first of two Subject Coordinator sessionswhere we brought together what we have learned about Grammar in the context of theprimary learning environment
We want it to be ……..
- appropriate and part of good primary teaching and learning practice
- clear and useful for the age and stage of the learner
- inclusive and offer all the children the chance to make progress and move from usingwords to construction meaningful sentences
- structure and planned for and have clear links with primary focuses on structure and grammar in English
- supportive of their growing knowledge of grammatical structures and terminology
- effective and enable the learners to apply rules to the new target language successfully
- creative and active so that the learning is meaningful andmemorable.
To this end the Grammar Stepping Stones created earlier inthe academic year can help to guide us toward meaningful and stage appropriate explorationof grammar that the class teacher can deliver or support with. The Grammar Stepping Stones are written in thevoice of the child learner to remind us of the developmental stage these youngchildren are at in their own understanding of how languages function.
So the Grammar Stepping Stones can guide us but how do wesupport staff who feel lacking in confidence? Well last week in discussionwith a young coordinator we discussed a post box system. The post box means that staff and children canpost a question or a perhaps the solution they have come to in target languagepost box and receive a clear answer from the teacher or teaching assistant inschool who has a better understanding of the basic grammar conumdrum they have. This certainly works where the subject coordinator takes time to upskill themselvesor has the knowledge already but isn’t teaching in every classroom and yeargroup . This will also work well where avisiting teacher delivers language learning or the school has an FLA. Notevery question and query will happen during direct language teaching and learning. Want to knowmore then have a look here.
We are finding that the grammar learning journey is creative and excitingand supports and underpins children’s growing understanding of the grammar andstructure of English and their other home languages.Have a listen the wizard's potion here
This is our timetablefor Grammar over four years .
It doesn’t mean we don’t touch on the specific areas inother year groups or at different stages but this seems to be developing as our most naturalfit.
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Year 3 /Stage 1
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Year 4 /Stage 2
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Year 5 / Stage 3
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Year 6/Stage 4
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Nouns
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Adjectives
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Verbs
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Adverbs
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Prepositions
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Verbalphrases
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How are we trying to keep it primary, effective and creative?
It’s through games, exploration, meaningful contexts using familiar language and children beinglanguage detectives. Children are demonstrating that they are enjoyingphysically participating and using the visual to find solutions and to showtheir understanding.
So bringing it so far altogether ….Here are some of thetechniques and activities we have used or are trialling this year in thenetwork.Click on the links to read more!
Nouns
Treasure chests (also look at the blog post Ready, Steady, Go!)
Advanced adjective fisherman's trawl ( using verbal phrases)
Creating magic with personalities :Agreementof adjectives when describing a male or a female person
Verbs
Wizard's potion (verb- to have)
Cinderella masked ball (verb- to be )
3D Art ( the verb- to be called)
Personal Pronouns.
Personal Pronoun Photo Shoots
Prepositions
Being creative and playing with structure
Simile silhouette sentences
Moving potentially in Year 6 to talk about events that have happened in the past.
Playing with the simple past tense and watching the world go by
I am sure that we will find more ways of working with thegrammar we intend to cover and will add to this blog as we go along , howeverhopefully the activities above will support teachers in developing primarycreative approaches to the new focus on structure of the target language.