1. Parents’ Information Evening
Grammar and Spelling
Headlands
Paul Lomas
Kirklees Learning Services

2. I take it you already know Of tough and bough and cough and dough
I take it you already know Of tough and bough and cough and dough? Others may stumble, but not you, On hiccough, thorough, lough and through? Well done! And now you wish, perhaps, To learn of less familiar traps? Beware of heard, a dreadful word That looks like beard and sounds like bird, And dead: it's said like bed, not bead For goodness sake don't call it deed! Watch out for meat and great and threat (They rhyme with suite and straight and debt).
A moth is not a moth in mother, Nor both in bother, broth in brother, And here is not a match for there Nor dear and fear for bear and pear, And then there's dose and rose and lose - Just look them up - and goose and choose, And cork and work and card and ward, And font and front and word and sword, And do and go and thwart and cart - Come, come, I've hardly made a start! A dreadful language? Man alive! I'd mastered it when I was five!

3. We all spell and use grammar everyday!
How do we use grammar?
When do we spell?

4. Can you help me with my homework please ?
We will consider:
how children learn the skills of spelling and grammar.
ways in which you can help your child with their spelling and grammar.

5. How did you learn to spell? When did you learn about grammar?
Talk about:
your earliest memory of spelling and grammar.
your experience of spelling and grammar at school.

6. Spelling Discussion: What is a good speller? Am I a good speller?
How do I try to spell?

7. Am I a good speller or a safe speller?
Auditory … does it sound right?
Visual … does it look right?
Learning … I use its meaning and prior knowledge
Am I a good speller or a safe speller?

8. Key Elements 85% of our spelling system is predictable.
The issues we have are that the spelling patterns we have are based on other languages
A balanced programme contains 5 main elements;
Understanding the principles of word construction
Recognising how far these apply to each word in order to spell the word
Practising and assessing spelling
Applying and proofreading
Building confidence and self-belief

9. Learning ABOUT words Knowledge of the spelling system
Spelling lists…..can we learn every word?
Learn the rule not the word
Learning and practising spelling
strategies
Application of spelling in writing
- This is the real test of whether a word is known

10. Activity Look at the words. The second phoneme is ‘o’.
Some of the words have the grapheme ‘o’ and some have the grapheme ‘a’.
Can you sort them?
What do you notice?
Can you generate a rule?
When an /0/ sound follows the letter w it is frequently spelt with the letter a – wander, wallet, wash. (year 2)

11. How often can you correctly write a word in thirty seconds?
SPEED WRITING
How often can you correctly write a word in thirty seconds?
interest
(year 3 / 4 statutory spelling list)

12. Mnemonics OULD: oh you lucky duck
Island: an island is land surrounded by water
necessary: 1 collar and 2 sleeves are necessary
business: going by bus is good business
accommodation: 2 cats, 2 mice and 1 dog accommodation
because: big elephants can always understand
small elephants

13. SUS Study the word Underline the difficult part(s)
Say the word carefully
E.g. physical

14. Identifying phonic elements and tricky elements
Most words contain some phonetic elements.
Where are the phonic elements?
Which areas are not phonetic?
How could we remember the tricky elements?
where
said
temperature
parliament
language

15. Syllables / chunks Break the words into parts Clap the sounds
Wednesday: wed / nes / day
returned: re / turn / ed

16. Colours Use different colours for each letter Or
Write the word 3 times in different colours
Write the word and then go over the vowels in blue
Use the word
excited

17. Spelling Strategies
The average literate person has a vocabulary of about 50,000 words.
Generally, about 48,000 of these can be spelt correctly
If we planned to teach children every word they would need to spell …
And we tried to teach 10 words per week …
And we had about 40 weeks per school year …

18. How many years would it take?

23. Why doo wee need too spell write?
Cos the spell cheque dose not all ways work.
“Eye no!”

24. The grammar skills for writing
Word classes: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, determiners and conjunctions
Sentence structure: phrases, clauses and different sentence types
Punctuation: full stop, comma, apostrophe, semi-colon, colon, speech punctuation etc.

25. ‘A noun is the name of a person, place, animal or thing.’
Nouns
‘A noun is the name of a person, place, animal or thing.’
common dog
proper Huddersfield
specific poodle
abstract fear
collective pack

26. ‘A verb is a doing or being word.’
Verbs
‘A verb is a doing or being word.’
It expresses:
an action to run
a state I believe
Changing tense: past / present / future
Subject / verb agreement : I am NOT I were
Focus on the verb to be

27. Adjectives
‘An adjective adds more information to the noun. It describes somebody or something.’
Adjectives either come before a noun or after verbs. E.g. be, get, seem, look
‘The big dog.’ ‘The dog was big.’
What lovely shoes.’ ‘Those shoes look lovely.’

28. Activity Decide on 3 adjectives to describe Red Riding Hood.
Change the effect:
She is likeable
She is a bad person
How does this affect the choice of adjectives?

29. Adverbs
‘An adverb adds more information to the verb. It tells us how, when and where.’
how (manner) slowly, fast, still
when (time) yesterday, now, soon
where (place) outside, here, away

30. Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon
“Punctuation, is? fun!”
Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon

32. Why punctuation is important?
dear john I want a man who knows what love is all about you are generous kind thoughtful people who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior you have ruined me for other men I yearn for you I have no feelings whatsoever when we're apart I can be forever happy will you let me be yours gloria

33. Why punctuation is important?
Dear John: I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind, thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we're apart. I can be forever happy--will you let me be yours? Gloria

34. Why punctuation is important!
Dear John:
I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men, I yearn. For you, I have no feelings whatsoever. When we're apart, I can be forever happy. Will you let me be?
Yours,
Gloria

35. Reading the Punctuation.
‘Chasing the Sun’ Edited by Veronique Tadjo Little blue boy did not even pause to breathe. For several minutes he asked them all sorts of questions. Then pleased with himself, he finally stopped. “Well’ are you going to answer me?” he said innocently. “Er, um,” the biggest one began. “Your questions are really too stupid!”

36. Punctuation Heads Use them to remind your child.
Your child can use them to check their written work.

37. How you can support your child
Read to your child. Vary the type of material you read. (Stories, poems, newspapers, factual books)
Listen to them read every day where possible and talk about the books. Talk about word choice and how the author has phrased ideas.
Provide a variety of writing equipment such as coloured paper, gel pens, pencils, envelopes, cards, little note-books etc.
Be interested in words
Be seen reading and writing yourself! Provide a good role model.

38. How you can support your child
Consider where and when you support your child with their work.
What time is it? Is it comfortable? Are you busy with something else?
Provide a special place.
Talk about words and use them in sentences.
Encourage your child to look in a dictionary and thesaurus.

39. How you can support your child
Write about whatever interests your child.
Help them plan and sequence their ideas.
Ask them what they want to say, then find the best way of expressing it.
Don’t dwell on handwriting, presentation and spelling.
Encourage your child to underline words they are unsure of as they write. Encourage them to check afterwards.
Praise your child’s writing and spelling efforts. Prominently display it and demonstrate that you enjoy it and value it.

40. Games to play Create your own board game.
Draw a path of squares with a start and finish.
Write some ‘fun’ action items in some of the spaces.
Create and write your own rule book.

41. Notes
Use a message board / fridge to write messages to your child. (You could even hide them for them to find.)
These can be anything e.g. when you are coming home, what is for tea, things they need to remember etc.
Or words of encouragement or praise e.g. I love you, have a good day, thank you for …
Encourage your child to write notes to you.

42. Memory games / Sequencing
Kim’s Game – remembering objects on a tray. Think of adjectives to describe each object. Create sentences that contain the objects.
Cut up 3 or 4 pictures from comics / magazines and place them in a sequence. make up a story and re-tell the story together.
Look through newspapers and magazines to find words that follow spelling patterns.

43. Grammar and spelling through writing opportunities
Birthday cards for friends and family
Thank you letters
and text friends and family
Write shopping lists and to-do lists
Use the environment to stimulate talk

44. Whatever you do, make sure your children enjoy writing, spelling and grammar.
If they struggle to understand, make mistakes, or get bored: keep calm, make it easier, change the subject, tell them a joke, play football, go to the park …. but please don’t get cross or impatient - you could put them off spelling and grammar for life.