Mastering meaning through grammar play

Overview

This course demonstrates how grammar doesn’t have to be dry and restrictive. Instead, it can form part of a shared language that helps teachers improve children’s writing, both in terms of readability and effect on the reader. In the schools they work with, course creators Christine and Lindsay like to develop this understanding through a series of grammar games. A selection of these rely on dice, which are used to direct children in playing with the parts of a sentence, and seeing how the choices they make have an impact on its overall meaning. The games are flexible too and can be used to deliver a wide range of teaching points. Rules can be applied to the games - such as word choices must all contribute to the overall mood of the sentence. When working with children to improve their choice of adjectives, we see how using images can help to develop precision. We’re introduce to a game that involves expanding noun phrases and the sentences around them, all based on pictures (which can be taken from the books children’s are reading). The final game demonstrated is called thumbs up, thumbs down - where children are given a sentence or phrase and have to indicated whether or not they think it’s grammatically correct.

Course Materials:

Presentation Slides - Download

.pptx file

Training Handout - Download

.pdf file

Course Creator

Christine and Lindsay are experienced English specialists based in Kingston upon Thames. They support numerous primary schools, alliances and federations. Both have worked in schools as senior literacy teachers and helped to launch and run school improvement programmes across their borough, and written for publishers including OUP, Pearson and Collins.

About the Course

These bitesize courses present flexible, tried-and-tested approaches for teaching reading and writing. The CPD snapshots provide practical strategies whilst also stimulating thinking and discussion. They include core principles and routes through planning that enable every child to appreciate language and to experience success.