1. Mind the GaP Teaching Grammar and Punctuation
Gill Matthews & Stephanie Austwick
The Professional Literacy Company

2. Key principles Use games and kinaesthetic approaches
Use problem solving and investigative approaches
Use correct terminology
Teach across the school from YR
Teach in context through reading and writing

3. Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchins
YR – Y2

4. Sentences
A sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark
A sentence contains a verb

5. Verbs tell us about actions
The hen walked across the yard.
Verbs tell us about actions

6. Sentence types Statement : The hen walked across the yard. Question
Command
Exclamation

7. Verb tenses
Past
Present
(you are here)
Future

8. Progressive past and present tenses
Progressive past – The hen was walking across the yard.
Progressive present – The hen is walking across the yard.

9. To be Present tense Past tense I am I You are You He/she/it is
We are We
You are
They are
They

10. Nouns The hen walked across the yard. Top tip
If you can put a, an or the in front of a single word – it’s a noun!

11. Adjectives and expanded noun phrases
The little fat hen walked across the yard.
Adjectives give us more information about a noun

12. Adverbs tell us how something happens
The little fat hen walked slowly across the yard.
Adverbs tell us how something happens

13. Determiners The little fat hen walked slowly across the yard.
Determiners go in front of nouns (and their adjectives) to tell us which person or thing the sentence is about or how much or how many of them there are

14. Prepositions The little fat hen walked slowly across the yard.
Prepositions link nouns to other parts of a sentence. They often tell us about position or direction

15. Conjunctions link words or groups of words
The little fat hen walked slowly across the yard but she didn’t see the fox.
Conjunctions link words or groups of words

16. Pronouns are used in place of a noun.
The little fat hen walked slowly across the yard but she didn’t see the fox.
Pronouns are used in place of a noun.

17. A model sentence
The little fat hen walked slowly across the yard but she didn’t see the fox.
Determiner adjective adjective noun verb adverb preposition determiner noun conjunction pronoun verb verb determiner noun.

18. Grammar – a whole school approach
Oral language, modelling
Extensive exposure to written language
Shared Reading and Booktalk
Shared Writing and Booktalk
Drama and Role Play
Language Games (sentence level and vocab)
Talking about Language (metalanguage)
Regular, enjoyable, purposeful practice

19. Question Time by Michaela Morgan

20. Who?
What?
How?
Where?

21. What does a monster look like?
Well…hairy and scary,
And furry and burly,
And pimply and dimply,
And warty and naughty,
And wrinkled and crinkled ...
That’s what a monster looks like! 

22. How does a monster move? It oozes. It shambles.
It crawls and it ambles.
It slouches and shuffles and trudges.
It lumbers and waddles,
It creeps and it toddles…
That’s how a monster moves!

23. How does a monster eat? It slurps and it burps And gobbles and gulps
It slurps and it burps
And gobbles and gulps
And sips and swallows and scoffs,
It nibbles and munches,
It chews and it crunches…
That’s how a monster eats.

24. What does a monster eat? Slugs and bats. And bugs and rats.
And stones and mud
And bones and blood.
And squelchy squids…
And NOSEY KIDS!
THAT’S WHAT A MONSTER EATS!

25. Where does a monster live?
In garden sheds,
Under beds,
In wardrobes, in plug holes, in ditches.
Beneath city streets,
Just under your feet…
That’s where a monster lives!

26. – in the context of a Writing for Real Unit
Grammar
through a
picture book
– in the context of a Writing for Real Unit
Y3 - 4

27. Teaching Grammar Descriptive, not prescriptive Conventions, not rules
Implicit knowledge will always be greater than, and will always precede, explicit knowledge
Explicit knowledge helps when we want to talk about language
Should enable, not disable

28. The Storyteller’s Gift
Year 5 – Year 6

29. Teaching grammar through reading and writing
Reading aloud
Using Booktalk: Likes, Dislikes, Puzzles, Patterns
Text marking and highlighting
Grammar challenges
Cloze procedure
Messing about with sentences
Create a writer’s toolkit
Shadowing the text

30. Cloze procedure
Leave one or more deletion free sentences at the beginning to give reader an idea of what passage is about
Deletions can be according to a numerical system
Deletions can be particular word class(es)
Make sure there are enough cues left in the text

31. Modal verbs to show degrees of possibility
Each of you will give a 5 minute presentation on your project to the rest of the class.

32. will would can could may might shall should must ought
Each of you will give a 5 minute presentation on your project to the rest of the class.
will
would
can
could
may
might
shall
should
must
ought

33. Why use the passive voice?
When we don’t know who did it or we want to hide that information
To emphasise what happened rather than who did something
The window has been broken.

34. Subject and object A guide led the class into a room.
The subject is the person or thing doing the action. It is the noun before the verb.
The object is the person or thing that is acted on. It is normally the noun after the verb.

35. Active and passive voice
A guide led the class into a room.
(The subject is doing the action)
Passive
The class was led into a room by the guide.
(The subject is having the action done to it)
The class was led into a room.

36. Messing about with sentences
Write up a sentence
Add adjectives
Change the verb
Change the final noun
Add an adverb
Extend the sentence by using ‘because’
Move the end to the beginning
Move the adverb

37. Create a writer’s toolkit
Look at the author’s techniques
What can we borrow?

38. Stumbling blocks
Less and fewer - Use less with uncountable nouns and fewer with countable nouns e.g. We have had less rain and fewer showers this year.

39. Stumbling blocks
I and me when talking about two people e.g. John and me/I went to school. He gave the sweets to John and me/I.
Take out the other person. Which pronoun makes sense?
I went to school. John and I went to school.
He gave the sweets to me. He gave the sweets to John and me.

40. Key principles Teach in context Use games and kinaesthetic approaches
Use problem solving and investigative approaches
Use correct terminology
‘Notice’ when reading
‘Borrow’ when writing

41. Punctuation

42. Comma sense Lists – if the comma can be replaced with and or or
Parentheses – either side of a phrase or clause that gives extra detail but which can be removed leaving the sentence gramatically correct
Introduction to a sentence – adverbs, -ed, -ing words, time, place, condition, frequency, fact

43. Commas in lists The little fat hen walked across the yard.
He has spiky grey hair, piercing blue eyes, a sharp tongue and a dry sense of humour.
I went to the shop and bought bread, milk and cheese.

44. Commas for parenthesis
He stood, as if waiting, by the chair.

45. Suddenly he was falling, and his life went past in small, square pictures, framed in the windows of the cockpit. There were his family; his house; his friends; his wedding; his dog. There were pictures of the Past and pictures of the Future, too – all the things he had meant to do and now never would: bridges, faces, dawns, and sunsets.
Smile by Geraldine McCaughrean

46. Stumbling blocks Its and It’s
It’s stands for IT IS or IT HAS and nothing else
Words ending in s
That is James’ book.
Plurals
Those are the boys’ bags.

47. Learning environment

48. The Professional Literacy Company
Website:
@ProfLitCo