1. Welcome to our Writing Week “The Aliens have landed!”
5th June 2013

2. Aim:
To give you further understanding of how we teach writing in school and what expectations there are within the primary phase.
To enable you to better understand how writing develops in primary school and support learning at home.

3. How the morning will run
9.15am overview
9.45am Time in classes
10.45am Back to hall for refreshments and questions
11.30am finish (latest!)

4. Why don’t you do it the way we were taught?
From the early 90s schools have had less choice about what to teach with the introduction of the National Curriculum
Followed in Literacy Strategy in 1999
Then the Literacy Framework in 2006
And at some point soon we are promised a New National Curriculum… but we’ve been on that promise for 4 years now!!

5. How we teach it… Talk for writing Oral rehearsal Drama
Planning for writing
Real life issues/ Writing with purpose
Using tried and tested models and investigating texts for success
Teach skills
Application

6. How we assess it… Assessing Pupil Progress Careful analysis of work
Identifying needs and gaps
Addressing class / group and individual needs
Setting targets

7. FOCUS ON GRAMMAR…

8. What is Grammar? Grammar is the study of how we make sentences.
If we can develop a feeling for grammar in our pupils, we develop their ability to express meaning clearly and coherently.
The purpose of teaching grammar is not simply naming parts of speech or providing rules for “correct” English. It is about making children aware of key grammatical principles and their effects, to increase the range of choices open to them when they write.

9. Sentences, Clauses and Phrases
Children are taught that a sentence is ‘a group of words that go together to make sense.’
Within the sentence there are smaller chunks of sense –clauses
Sentences are made up of one or more clauses
A clause is a group of words that express an event. A clause has a subject and a verb.
Clauses are made up of phrases.
Phrases are made up of words
Simple sentence   consists of one clause including a subject and just one verb or verb chain. eg The big dog was barking.
The big dog was barking in the garden.

10. · A main clause is one that is self-contained
· A main clause is one that is self-contained. It can stand alone as a simple sentence.
eg The dog barked in the garden.
·  Compound sentences are sentences or main clauses joined by co-ordinating conjunctions such as and, but, or. In compound sentences the clauses on either side of the conjunction have equal weight because they are both main clauses.
eg The dog barked and it woke the baby.
Complex sentences consists of one main clause, which can make sense on its own and one or more subordinate clauses, which are linked to the main clause.
eg When I arrived, the big dog was barking because it was lonely
‘The big dog was barking’, is the main clause, it has a subject (the big dog) and a verb (was) and it makes sense on its own.
When I arrived is the subordinate clause, it has a subject (I) and a verb (arrived) but it doesn’t make sense on its own, it needs to be linked to a main cause in order to make sense

11. Different terminology for the same grammatical feature
Different terminology for the same grammatical feature. We need to be consistent
Relative clauses [sometimes we use embedded clause/ ‘drop in’ clause here] : include who, which, whom, whose, that The man, who had a nasty expression on his face, crept into the house The tree, which stood at the edge of the village, was beginning to shed its leaves. Subordinate clause relates to the main clause and cannot exist on its own (can be moved around within the sentence to create different effects) You’ll hurt yourself if you’re not careful. If you’re not careful, you’ll hurt yourself. Non-finite clauses (incomplete verbs) (can be moved around within the sentence to create different effects) - a feature of mature, fluent writing Smiling quietly to herself, the old woman read her book. Encouraged by the response, he decided to sing another song.

12. Conjunctions
A word used to link clauses within a sentence. 2 types: Co-ordinating conjunctions (and, but, or and so) – these join 2 clauses of equal weight = compound sentence
Subordinating conjunctions (e.g. when, while, before, after ,since, until, if because, although, that) These go at the beginning of a subordinate clause = complex sentence
Connectives A connective is a word or phrase that links clauses or sentences. Connectives can be conjunctions (previous slide) or connecting adverbs (e.g. however, then, therefore)

13. Noun Phrases
A wider term than a noun. It can refer to a single noun (money), a pronoun (it) or a group of words that functions in the same way as a noun in a sentence:
a lot of money my younger sister
a new car
the best team in the world

14. Pronouns and determiners Pronouns are used in place of the noun.
Me/mine, You/yours, He/him/his, She/her/hers etc: He is my brother.
I saw him yesterday.
This is hers.
Determiners are words which occur before nouns to show whether they are plural, singular, definite etc. A /an, the, some: This is a book.
Have you got the book?
Here is some water.
Wow! An orange!
SOME CHN GET RID OF THE SENSE WITH TOO MANY HE…they…it

15. Modal Verbs
They allow pupils to express degrees of probability, possibility, certainty, necessity, obligation and willingness and enable pupils to predict, speculate and make deductions
They are used particularly in persuasive texts and in responding to higher order reading comprehension questions.
May, might, can, could, will, would, shall, should, must and ought are the modal verbs
I wish if someone find me that game.” (that someone would find me) “His mum then told me I can (could) have the game”
Pupils achieving levels 3 and 4 can enrich their texts by being helped to understand and use a wider range of modal verbs.

16. Adverbs and Adverbial Phrases
Adverbs and adverbial phrases describe how, where and when things happen.
They left yesterday (adverb)
They left a few days ago (adverbial phrase)
She looked at me strangely (adverb)
She looked at me in a strange way (adverbial phrase)

17. Adverbial Phrases How: Shouting loudly, the man ran down the road.
Where: In the distance, a warm light shone through the trees.
When: At the stroke of midnight, the door creaked open. The mouse scuttled around the corner.I heard a strange voice calling me.The phone rang.

18. Active and Passive Sentences Most sentences are SUBJECT/VERB/OBJECT i
Active and Passive Sentences Most sentences are SUBJECT/VERB/OBJECT i.e. the thing carrying out the action does the action on the thing receiving it. These are active. The dragon guarded the cave. Norah consumed the enormous apple pie. The Saxons hoarded the gold. Passive sentences have the word order changed. (OBJECT/VERB/VERB/SUBJECT) and the ‘doer’ of the action is at the end or even hidden. It is considered more formal or more technical. The cave was guarded by the dragon. The cave was guarded. The enormous apple pie was consumed by Norah. The enormous apple pie was consumed. The gold was hoarded by the Saxons. The gold was hoarded.

19. Useful and reliable websites http://learnenglish. britishcouncil

20. See you at 10.45am for refreshments
Enjoy!