1. Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPAG)
Friday 2nd October
Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPAG)
Mrs Triglia and Miss O’Donnell

2. What do SPAG lessons involve?
Talk amongst yourselves and add your ideas to the sugar paper

3. What do SPAG lessons involve?
Spelling rules and exceptions
Punctuation
Grammar (Tenses)
Vocabulary (adjectives, adverbs)

4. Aims of today… Explain the 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

5. Punctuation Pit Stop

6. Grammar Gap

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

8. New Curriculum
The importance of SPAG. There is a separate test to assess their knowledge
Children are expected to be fluent in reading, writing and their spoken language.
Editing and proofreading has a bigger focus so this year we are continuing to use independent writing books.
Higher expectations for all year groups
All year groups using writing passports across the curriculum

9. Writing Passport

10. Key Stage 2
The new national curriculum will be assessed for the first time in May 2016
The current Year 6 children will be the first to sit these papers
The key stage 2 English grammar, punctuation and spelling test is designed to assess grammar, punctuation, language strategies and spelling

11. Now you get to try a sample!
Here is an example of a SPAG progress test that the children complete at the end of each half term.

12. Renewing our subject knowledge
The children will need to know 8 main word types:
Nouns Determiners
Verbs Prepositions
Adjectives Pronouns
Adverbs Conjunctions

13. Some subject knowledge for yourselves… The following slides will be on the website for you to refer to.

14. A noun is the name of a person, place, animal, thing or idea.
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
They can be proper (Alsatian), common (dog),
collective (team), or abstract (justice). Abstract nouns (Lv6) are those that you cannot see/touch and can be emotions.
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 a noun phrase

15. 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.

16. The most common determiners are
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 ( what other category ?)

17. 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.

18. Adverbs Adverbs modify the verb.
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.

19. 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.
See how many of these words you can use, in sentences relating to your poster.

20. Adjectives
Describing words? How many adjectives can you find in this highly descriptive passage?
The storm had ripped violently through the village, uprooting houses and leaving possessions strewn across the valley. Pots, pans, tables, chairs, household items of all kinds had been abandoned in the mud. No children played in the playground, but a teddy –bear lay against the roundabout, staring blankly at the scene.
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.

21. 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 used in the draft/sample test material).
For example …because, so, while, for, and, but, or, yet, even though, provided that….

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

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

24. Helpful website