The aim of this course was to give us as teachers; a more secure understanding of grammatical terms in the New Curriculum, to understand the function of grammar in the curriculum, and to be able to apply this understanding to teaching across the curriculum.
All of the terms can be found in the back of the New Curriculum book and are required with confident use of terminology for both teachers and students alike.
We need to look at how applicable grammar is cross-curriculum and also which terminology has change recently.
Students also need to be able to understand whats wrong with what they have written, in order to move forward. The aim is that understanding becomes broader and more consistent.
PERSONAL PRECONCEPTIONS
Having spent the past week or so reading my new book 'Primary English, Knowledge and Understanding', I was pleased to see if I could apply what I had learned and what other methods of teaching I can take on board.
Before the course we were asked to tick how confident we all were with grammar. A table list showed the obvious choices; noun, adjective, adverbial, verb, tense, phrases and clause, preposition, conjunction, clauses, and subject/object. I had ticked a few of them at Not Confident, most as Average, and the remaining few as Very Confident. The reasons behind these choices stemmed a lot from what I had recently read and own personal writing experience.
WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT GRAMMAR
The questions given were to test our basic knowledge of grammar. My table partner and I worked through each sentence and decided whether or not they made sense.
The big red bus or The red big bus, was up first and although both make sense (and my opinion was that if you wanted to chose a red or blue big bus you would chose 2nd sentence) but its a given in this country that size comes before colour when adding description. Red is a fact whereas big is an opinion.
The boy kicked the cat or The boy the cat kicked, asks the question of who did the kicking? However the second of the two isn't grammatically correct as a stand alone sentence and either needs to be written as The cat kicked the boy or The boy the cat kicked....with more detail to complete the sentence.
The mans went to the shops. This indicates the incorrect use of plural: men or man.
The girl love her dog. Again, this could indicate incorrect use of plural or change of verb.
It could be either The girls love her dog or The girl loves/loved her dog.
HOW GRAMMAR IS CLASSIFIED
After testing our basic knowledge, the speakers proceeded to talk in depth about pretty much most of the grammatical structures that we as teachers are required to instill in the students, right from Foundation through to Year 6.
Word Classes- was looked at briefly and is what all teachers should be confident in using and the children should also be confident with as well.
Verb, Noun, Determiner, Adverb, Adjective, Preposition, and Conjunctive
NOUNS, ADJECTIVES, ADVERBS
Nouns -Our first table task was to come up with a sentence or sentences that describe what a noun was. We agreed that 'a noun is a place, person or thing'. In the bigger picture this broadens out to the following; common noun, proper noun, concrete noun, abstract noun, collective noun, or countable and uncountable nouns.
There was a lot of debate about countable and uncountable, especially with regards to water, rice and sand, because you count grains of rice/sand or a measure of water for example; a litre a pint, 100ml.
Noun phrases - We need to explicitly teach a noun phrase by using appropriate adjectives
- What is it?
- What's it like?
- What kind is it?
Adjectives- A class of words that modify/change/describe nouns and pronouns.
One of the sheets used for a task had 5 different bags to describe. There were lots of adjectives surrounding them, some give colour, type, size and material. As explained above, their is a Standard English order to follow. Size, colour and type. Opinions always come first because they can be intensified - big, bigger, biggest. Colour and type follow because they generally stay the same for that individual place, person or thing.
Example: The shiny, red, hessian shopping bag.
In fiction, more characteristics are used, whereas with non-fiction, more category words are used.
Adverbs - A class of words used to describe the manner, modifies a verb, time , where and includes adverbial phrases and clauses. More on this later
PHRASES AND CLAUSES
A phrase is defined as a group of related words that does not contain a subject and a verb.
The phrase 'to the shops' does not make sense on its own.
Noun phrase: A big, black dog...
Adverbial phrase/Prepositional phrases: ... in the evening
A clause is defined as a group of related words that contain a verb.
Noun clause: What Mary said was wrong. (subject)
I like what I see. (object)
Adverbial clauses: He drove quickly because he was late.
Relative clause: A python is a snake which constricts its prey.
The word 'it' can substitute for a noun clause.
This was confusing for me even though I have recently read up about it and its now been explained to me. I have some English self learning books which I will catch up on this particular area of grammar.
RELATIVE CLAUSE
These are used to make it clear (modified) who/what (the noun) we are talking about.
The man, (who/that is) crossing the road, is my boss
The butterfly, which is an insect, develops from a chrysalis.
I love the black fur-lined overcoat which hangs at the back of my cupboard.
The first two sentences would make sense without the extra information, however the 3rd sentence would require more to make sense. 'Hangs' allows the reader to know what the coat is doing.
Activity
Each table was asked to interpret a picture of some women, sat around a table at a cafe/restaurant, one had her back to the camera. We had to think about the questions 'who, which, that, where and when' to help describe part of the scene, and also make it clear who we were talking about.
The girl with the blonde hair, is sat chatting to her friends, about the guy in the yellow shirt.
This sentence clearly tells us which girl we are talking about and which man (albeit the only man in the picture).
If you took out 'with the blonde hair' or 'the guy in the yellow shirt', you could be talking about anyone of the four girls and also any guy in general. It is very important therefore to add in a relative clause to clarify the person/object in question.
ADVERBIAL
Adverb - He ate slowly.
Adverbial phrase/prepositional phrase - The bus leaves in five minutes .
Adverbial clause - She worked until she had finished.
Fronted adverbial - In the evening, they went...
This in modify the verb and tells us more about how, when, why, where or with whom/what
Activity
We studied 6 sentences and thought about which type question each one answered.
PHRASES AND CLAUSES
A phrase is defined as a group of related words that does not contain a subject and a verb.
The phrase 'to the shops' does not make sense on its own.
Noun phrase: A big, black dog...
Adverbial phrase/Prepositional phrases: ... in the evening
A clause is defined as a group of related words that contain a verb.
Noun clause: What Mary said was wrong. (subject)
I like what I see. (object)
Adverbial clauses: He drove quickly because he was late.
Relative clause: A python is a snake which constricts its prey.
The word 'it' can substitute for a noun clause.
This was confusing for me even though I have recently read up about it and its now been explained to me. I have some English self learning books which I will catch up on this particular area of grammar.
RELATIVE CLAUSE
These are used to make it clear (modified) who/what (the noun) we are talking about.
The man, (who/that is) crossing the road, is my boss
The butterfly, which is an insect, develops from a chrysalis.
I love the black fur-lined overcoat which hangs at the back of my cupboard.
The first two sentences would make sense without the extra information, however the 3rd sentence would require more to make sense. 'Hangs' allows the reader to know what the coat is doing.
Activity
Each table was asked to interpret a picture of some women, sat around a table at a cafe/restaurant, one had her back to the camera. We had to think about the questions 'who, which, that, where and when' to help describe part of the scene, and also make it clear who we were talking about.
The girl with the blonde hair, is sat chatting to her friends, about the guy in the yellow shirt.
This sentence clearly tells us which girl we are talking about and which man (albeit the only man in the picture).
If you took out 'with the blonde hair' or 'the guy in the yellow shirt', you could be talking about anyone of the four girls and also any guy in general. It is very important therefore to add in a relative clause to clarify the person/object in question.
ADVERBIAL
Adverb - He ate slowly.
Adverbial phrase/prepositional phrase - The bus leaves in five minutes .
Adverbial clause - She worked until she had finished.
Fronted adverbial - In the evening, they went...
This in modify the verb and tells us more about how, when, why, where or with whom/what
Activity
We studied 6 sentences and thought about which type question each one answered.
Adverb Example: He greeted her cheerfully - How
He usually goes to Paris by train - How
Adverbial Clause Example: John went to the grocery store because he needed some bread.- Why
Adverbial phrase/prepositional phrase Example: He spoke to him in Spanish - How
He went to Greece with his friend Alice - With whom
VERBS
My understanding is that a verb is a 'doing word'. Something you can add -ed, ing, and s to, to modify its tense. After this part of the lesson, I soon realised that, while this is partially correct, there is a whole other level to tenses and how a verb is used in a sentence.
TENSES
Now with 3 different tenses for past and 3 for present, I will only name them but not describe them in too much detail. The SAT's paper is getting increasingly more difficult and questions being asked of the students include; listing them, highlight which one has been used in a sentence, and also chose the correct one in a given list.
Present tense
Past tense
Present continuous (progressive)
Past continuous (progressive)
Present perfect
Past perfect
Growing up, I was able to use them when writing and talking but if you would have asked me to highlight/name/locate the present continuous or past perfect, I wouldn't have had a clue.
The speakers went on to explain the meaning of these, and this is how I will remember them.
Present tense - I work at this school.
Present continuous - I am working at this school.
Present perfect - I have worked at this school since September.
Past tense - I worked at another school.
Past continuous - I was working at another school.
Present continuous - I had worked another school until July.
MODAL VERB
These are used to express dilemma, decision making and course of action. These always come before an auxiliary verb; be, do, and have.
Can/could - ability or possibility
May/might - asking permission
Must/need/ought - doing what is right
Shall/should - recommending action
Will/would - preference
It explained that this type of questioning can fit into the different subjects. This will be great for questioning skills and can be useful when asking the students to think a lot more for themselves.
History - might this be, could have
Science/ Maths - would, should, could do
Activity
Our table was asked to look at a picture of young man who is lost in a forest, looking for his friend and has arrived at a fork in the road. What does he do? Using the modal verbs, we had to come up with possible choices of action he might take.
Ability - He could shout his friends name or ring him on a mobile.
Preference - He would rather to be at home relaxing.
Recommending action - Which fork should he have asked his friend, to take.
What is right - He ought to carry on looking for him regardless.
Obligation - He must carry on looking for his friend.
Imagined situation - If he had a map, he would know where to go.
ACTIVE VOICE
This section looked at how two sentences can mean the same thing but the verb needs to be modified.
Subject Verb Object
The girl threw the ball - this is written in the past tense
PASSIVE VOICE
Object Verb Subject
The ball was thrown by the girl - this is written in the past participle
TRANSITIVE/INTRANSITIVE
This nicely linked with the previous part of the session because Transitive verbs have active and passive voices. The sentence must have a subject and object.
He hit the ball (Active) OR The ball was hit by him (Passive), are both transitive.
He fell OR He cried, are intransitive because they don't have an object.
This is one part of grammar I feel comfortable with and should be easy to teach. I will use the different colours to highlight each type of word.
FUTURE TENSE
Most of the time we use will, when expressing the future. This can be seen as a problem solving tense.
This is used when; making plans and intentions, predicting something will happen, being certain about something, making an arrangement, making an offers, a regular occurrence, or its a habit.
Examples:
Arsenal will win the league. (prediction or certainty if its is mathematically going to happen)
I will help with the party. (promise)
I'll carry your bag for you. (offer)The flight to Rome departs at 8:30 am. (a regular occurrence or routine)
I hope you can make it. (hope)
Yet again this is another part of grammar I am comfortable with teaching. The session helped me to realise the different reasons that the future tense is used.
SUBJUNCTIVE
This is a verb proceeded by that.
There are 3 types.
A verb followed by a subjunctive.
He demanded that she handed over the lettuce immediately.
An expression followed by a subjunctive
It's important that he takes the medicine now.
Hypothetical situation
I would take the train to Paris if I were you.
With the first two sentences, the word take could be removed and still make sense. However 'I would the Paris if I were you' does not make sense.
FINITE/NON FINITE
Verbs that have the past or present tense form are called FINITE verbs.
Verbs in any other form are called INFINITE verbs.
This means verbs with a tense are FINITE, however verbs without are INFINITE. This distinction is very important in grammar, since it affects how verbs behave in sentences.
Example:
Mary plays the guitar. Finite
My sister ate calamari every day on holiday. Finite
I like to run. Infinite
Running is my favourite hobby. Infinite
NON FINITE CLAUSE
The verb phrase before, while or after, does not carry a tense so we can't predict when the event is happening and doesn't contain a subject.
Example:
After eating pasta, he chose a light desert.
Playing tennis is expensive.
Deprived of oxygen, humans will quickly die.
GRAMMATICAL COHESION - Cohesive devices
Determiners
These are words that come at the beginning of a noun phrase. They tell us whether the noun phrase is specific or general.
This class of words I had never heard of before but took for granted in my speaking and writing. Yet again this will be something I can teach now that it has been explained to me in detail.
The specific determiners are:
The definite article: the
Possessives: my, your, his, her, its, our, their, whose
Demonstratives: this, that, these, those
Interrogatives: which
Orderly: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc
Numerical: One, two, three. etc
The general determiners are: a an, any, another, other, what
Activity
All of us in the room were asked to shout out determiners to complete a paragraph. Some of the sentences could have a range of determiners, however as the paragraph progressed, the rest of it had to include the correct determiner to make sense.
Pronouns
These can be used to replace someones name or a previously names place or object. This helps to track backwards/forwards through text.
Subject pronouns: I, he, she, they
Object pronouns: Him, them himself
Possessive nouns: Hers, his, mine, theirs
Demonstrative nouns: These, those
Relative pronouns: Who
Interrogative pronouns: Who did that?
Example:
Do the students know who or what the pronoun refers to?
Can you see the boulder just above the tree-line on the right slope of that mountain across the valley? It looks like... Would the students know that 'it' refers to the boulder?
Can the students work out who the pronouns refer to later in the text?
He's famous the world over. Everyone recognises him when he has a football at his feet, he's modelling some jeans or showing the tattoos on his arms... Would the students know that 'he' and 'his' refers to a footballer, and more importantly are they culturally aware that this refers to David Beckham?
Who is they?
If you want one of the last box of greasy nuggets, you better visit Joe's Chicken Delight today. They say that the restaurant closes for good tomorrow. Would the students know that 'they' could refer to someone working at the restaurant or someone who knows that it's closing?
Who is he?
Bill told Sam he was lazy.This I think is the trickiest one of them all because 'he' could refer to Bill being lazy, Sam being lazy, or even Bill describing a totally different person.
SUBSTITUTION AS A COHESIVE DEVICE
Possessive pronoun: He likes his steak rare, I like mine well done.
Numerical: She likes the knitted coat, whereas I like the leather one.
Adjective: The climate is tropical in St Lucia in the Caribbean. It's the same in Fiji in the Pacific.
Distributive: You can have the steak rare or well done. I don't mind- either is fine.
LEXICAL COHESION
This refers to semantic relationship between words in a text. It uses words that thread through and relate to each other, or uses words/phrases that are opposite in meaning.
Related words e.g. synonyms: Dinosaur, prehistoric monster, large extinct lizard
Opposite words in meaning e.g.antonyms: Unlike plants, animals cannot make their own food...
Classification words e.g. hyponyms: The great white shark.... This huge sea creature...
Component words e.g. meronyms (or parts of whole); Plants generally consist of leaves, roots, petals and at certain times, seeds.
Before this session I had merely read up about lexical cohesion, yet certainly didn't know what it meant. Hyponyms and meronyms are also new types of words that I had never heard of before. This is going to be a challenge to me, not only to get my head around these terms but to also confidently present them to a class and ensure they have it clear in their minds.
CONJUNCTIONS
There are three kinds of conjunctions. The two main types are:
Coordinating conjunctions: for, and , nor, but, or yet, so
These link equal (independent) pairs of word or clauses.
Example:
Amira and Susan met in a cafe.
Kylie is young but she can kick a ball.
Subordinating conjunctions: Including; after, because, then, whenever, though, where, why
Subordination can be thought of as an unequal relationship (independent and dependent) between 2 words, phrases or clauses. This indicates time, place or cause and effect.
Example:,
We can watch TV when we've finished.
Arsenal can win the league if Chelsea lose today.
Let's go to the shops after school.
We can go bowling unless anyone else wants to go swimming.
PREPOSITIONS
The question was asked of us: why can learners find prepositions so difficult. To me it seems easy. The fox jumped over the fence, the ball went in the goal, the car went through the tunnel. However it's not that simple and some words can have more than one meaning or may not even mean an action at all.
A preposition comes before a noun to show the relationship to another noun, pronoun or noun phrase.
These can be positionally, figuratively, mathematically or a persons manner.
ActivityAs a whole room, Andy asked us to add missing prepositions to a slide, that was based on the flow of water from its source to the river itself.
This seemed easy to some but tricky to others because a lot of the words could be used in each gap but our geographic knowledge should enable us to know the most efficient use of each one.
Example:
A river can begin as a spring. Water pours through cracks in the ground down the hillsides.
Prepositions are confusing words because the same word can often have very different meanings.
Example: About
Great Expectations is about a boy who... (topic preposition)
I think the hotel costs about £50 a night. (quantity preposition)
I think the train leaves about 10 am. (time preposition)
She looked about the house for her phone. (location preposition)
Verb Collocations (verb and noun) with a preposition
Spend at charity
Lose by food
Give money to wine
Save on the supermarket
Leave in the stockmarket
This could be a rise and shine activity, get the class to come up with their own verb collocations.
After what seemed to be a lot of information to take in and digest, we were asked to look at the table list again and tick how confident we now were with the different grammar areas.
This session was of great value to me because it reiterated what I had been reading, plus I was able to put it to practice during the activities.
Grammar is going to require a huge effort across the whole school, not just those completing their SAT's next year. The sooner the students; get used to hearing key phrases, speaking grammatically correct sentences, and applying it to their writing, the sooner everything will slot into place and it will not be seen as an extra thing to learn, but is part and parcel of everyday school life.
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