Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar workshop (SPAG) Mrs Frost Thursday 25 th February 2016

What does SPAG involve? Spelling rules and exceptions Punctuation Grammar (Tenses) Vocabulary (adjectives, adverbs)

Aims of today… Explain some terminology used within SPAG lessons. Explain what your child is expected to be able to do by the end of Year 6. Support you in your own subject knowledge. Provide you with ways that you can support your child at home.

New Curriculum – New Assessment The importance of SPAG. There is still a separate test from the writing test to assess knowledge. This year it will reflect the higher expectations of the new 2014 curriculum. Children are expected to be fluent in their spoken language, reading and writing and know the grammatical and spelling elements within writing. Editing and proofreading has a greater focus. Higher expectations for all year groups. All year groups have grammar expectations.

What does the test look like? Here is an example of a SPAG test that the children will complete.

Grammar progression in year groups 1 Letter/capital letter Word/ sentence Singular/plural Punctuation: full stop/question mark/exclamation mark 4 Determiner Pronoun, Possessive pronoun (fronted) adverbial (comma after) 2 Noun/noun phrase/adjective/verb/adverb Statement/question/exclamation/command Suffix Tense (past/present) Apostrophe/comma 5 Modal verb Relative pronoun, Relative clause Parenthesis, bracket, dash, Cohesion, ambiguity Expanded noun phrases 3 Adverb/preposition/conjunction (when if because although) Word family, prefix, clause, subordinate clause Direct speech Apostrophe possession with plural nouns Consonant, vowel Inverted commas/speech marks 6 Subject/ object Active/passive Synonym /antonym Ellipsis, hyphen, colon, semi colon, bullet points

Renewing our subject knowledge The children will need to know main word types such as: NounsDeterminers Verbs Prepositions Adjectives Pronouns Adverbs Conjunctions

Nouns Nouns are the biggest word class (everyone and everything needs a name!) A noun is the name of a person, place, animal, thing or idea. Nouns can be singular or plural (no apostrophe) They can be proper (Alsatian), common (dog), collective (team), or abstract (justice). Abstract nouns are those that you cannot see/touch and can be emotions. Expanded noun phrases- a ‘phrase’ takes its name from the overall job that this group of words is doing… So – ‘the big, blue, shiny bicycle’ – is an expanded noun phrase.

Pronouns Pronouns stand in for a noun, I, you, he, she, it, we, they, My, your, his, her, our, their. Pronouns are important for ‘cohesion’. If children overuse them, the reader is not sure who is being discussed. If they underuse them, the writing can sound very repetitive and boring.

Determiners Determiners … ‘home’ you in on the noun. The most common determiners are ‘the’ and ‘a’ Some more determiners: this dog, that dog, all dogs, every dog, some dogs, no dogs, each dog one dog, two dogs his dog, her dog, my dog

Verbs Action words? Find the action word in the following sentences We are enthusiastic teachers Many animals are endangered The boys played football A verb is a ‘doing’ or a ‘being’ word. It tells us what is happening in the sentence. The most common verb in the english language is the verb ‘to be’ A verb can be a single word or a group of words which together form the ‘verb phrase’ The choir will be singing at the village hall. The choir has been singing at the village hall. The choir might be singing at the village hall. The choir would have been singing at the village hall.

Adverbs The lion was staring. How? The lion was staring menacingly. Adverbs modify the verb. They tell us how (adverb of manner), when (adverb of time), or where (adverb of place). Last Thursday, the lion was staring menacingly. Last Thursday, at the Safari Park, the lion was staring menacingly out towards the keepers. Adverbs can move about the sentence, affecting the emphasis, but not the meaning.

Prepositions Prepositions express a relationship of meaning between 2 parts of a sentence, usually to do with space or time. Simple prepositions may include: about, across, after, at, before, behind, by, down, during, for, from, to, inside, into, of, off, on, onto, out, over, round, since, through, to, towards, under, up, with.

Adjectives An adjective describes ( or modifies) the noun. It might nestle close to the noun- or be elsewhere in the sentence.. The silver car stood in the driveway. The car in the driveway was silver.

Conjunctions (Connectives) Sentences can be made longer by joining two clauses or parts of clauses together. Words that link two parts of a sentence together are called conjunctions ( the word ‘connective’ is still used in some documentation). For example …because, so, while, for, and, but, or, yet, even though, provided that….

Common difficulties Using standard English (text speak, writing how they speak.) Homophones (their, there, they’re) Children writing ‘should of’ instead of ‘should have’ and ‘I were’ instead of ‘I was’. Use of first person ‘I’in lower case. Use of apostrophe – correct place for contracted words and possession

Helpful websites and resources CPG books KS2 English: Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling Study Book KS2 English Targeted Question Book: Grammar, Punctuation & Spelling - Year 5

Helpful websites and resources for Year 6 CPG books KS2 English Targeted Question Book: Grammar, Punctuation & Spelling - Year 6 KS2 English SAT Buster - Grammar

Helpful websites pelling_grammar/ pelling_grammar/