Walkergate Community School Literature Works Grammar Group 19th June 2015

Talk for Reading Activate Prior Knowledge Predict Clarify Questions Summarise Likes and dislikes

Enquiry Could we improve children’s understanding of grammar – in particular using the correct verb tense - through the Literature Works approach?

Enquiry contd. My Target To get 70% pupils in Year 5 to a level 4 in SPAG Baseline test

Enquiry contd. Results Out of 27 children 16 got N – less than 25/70 11 scored 4 – 3C 3 – 3B 3 – 3A 1 – 5C

Enquiry contd. Writing baseline Gaps – couldn’t use a consistent past tense Eg. We went to the shop, I give him 50p. I walked to school, I seen my friend. I woke up and et my breakfast, then I go to the park. Lack of imaginative vocabulary READING – generally poor fluency and inference No stamina!

Example

What we did We decided not to “teach” Grammar. We decided to “teach” reading instead.

Walkergate Community School Every child in school, every term, gets a class text to read and take home. We chose

Page 1 – Iron Man Features of the language Adjectives “describing word”

They drew him from this description…

What does he look like at the bottom of page 6?

Other examples Close reading strategies Used as guided reading text for everyone Collecting examples of verbs and thinking of our own Collecting vocabulary and finding synonyms and antonyms

Outcomes Pupils: did we get 70% to a level 4? No! But massive improvement in SPAG results. By May test – 27scored 4 - 2A 3 - 3C 3 - 3B 9 - 3A 2 - 4C 3 - 4B 1 - 4A 1 -5C 1 - 5B

Outcomes School – Year 1 and 6 also successful in their approach. Feedback to staff And most importantly… I get to read lovely writing now!

Mckenzie – example independent work