Spelling, Punctuation & Grammar One stop workshop Years 3- 6

Aim of the session Explain the spelling system & why the home investigation is so key Give you an overview of P&G expectations for each year group Explain how SPaG is assessed in the school Define a couple of the trickier terminologies!

Spelling It’s about spelling patterns, their rules & exceptions rather than discrete spellings The aim is to give children skills that they can use based on their knowledge & understanding of how spellings work, in order to have a decent go at any spelling…

Eg. Patterns that make a ‘shun’ sound: NEVER made by ‘shun’ except in the word shun/shunned/shunning…. The actual true suffixes are -ion or -ian . The clues about whether to put t, s, ss or c before comes from the last letter(s) of the root word: -tion is the most common spelling. It is used if the root word ends in t (invent) or te (hesitate) -ssion is used if the root word ends in –ss or –mit (omit- omission/ possess – possession) -sion is used if the root word ends in d or se (comprehend – comprehension/ tense - tension Exceptions: attend – attention, intend – intention, nation -cian is used if the root word ends in c or cs (music- musician, politics - politician

How it’s taught in class… Spelling pattern & rule introduced in class. Investigation begun Homework – further investigation – trying out words with the sounds & the patterns – seeing which fits best - checking in a dictionary. This is key as it’s their chance to try out the structures in class independently Bring spellings back into class. Share findings, make a short list of spellings from these for next week’s test (not Y6) alongside ‘unseen’ words Practise for homework Test & new investigation in following week’s session. Morning work once or twice a week

Punctuation & Grammar Handouts show content from Years 3-5. In year 6, teachers refresh it all and add a little more. Trickiest bit – the terminology 2nd trickiest bit – sometimes something can be more than one thing….

How it is taught Discreet ‘teaching’ sessions where a specific SPaG area is looked at Embedded within writing sessions Independent homework activity to consolidate once every 3 weeks

How it’s all assessed Spelling, punctuation and grammar are assessed within writing – to be age expected, children must be writing in correct sentences, with no significant spelling weaknesses Standalone 3 termly assessments for SPaG – involving spelling test, and short answer P& G questions (eg circle the noun, find an antonym, put the correct punctuation into the sentence)

Some of the nastier ones…..

Perfect form… Can either be present perfect, past perfect or either combination with progressive (meaning action in process) Uses has/had/ have (dependent upon whether it’s past or present Eg She has played the piano (present perfect) She has been playing the piano (present perfect progressive) She had played the piano (past perfect) She had been playing the piano (past perfect progressive)

Progressive form Alongside the ‘perfect’, the progressive form can also be a simple past or present to signify events in process : Eg. Leah is dancing (present progressive) He was working (past progressive)

The use of the subjunctive verb Subjunctive form uses the verb in its simplest form, which makes it sound very formal. It often talks about something in the future: If I were to make a prediction The travellers were advised to be aware The driver advised that she be taken directly to the station