Grammar is very important within the English language, since it is, in effect, the glue that holds the language together. Sentences can become meaningless and their message is unclear when the grammar is incorrect. Since writing is about communicating effectively, it is important that the person who is reading your work is not confused as to your meaning.
Children find it difficult to understand the differences between spontaneous, interactive language and more formal planned and prepare d language. Since they are used to speaking informally they tend to write as they speak. It’s frequent and natural for them. Academic writing is almost like another language. What has added complication to this in recent years are the amount of early teenage texts which are written in the style of chatty, informal and even interactive language such as Jacqueline Wilson. Although children might absolutely have an audience in mind, their ability to communicate with the reader in terms of making the content explicit is sometimes quite challenged. Very often they will make assumptions on behalf of the reader and what is implicit.
I am one of those people who find the study of grammar to be quite boring. I have no idea how I learned the grammar I know and I do think in the same way that some people can play music by ear; some people can have an innate sense of good grammar without being able to unpick, explain or teach it to someone else. I dislike categorising words and trying to fit them into boxes not least because as I am learning, the boxes or categories can have fuzzy or overlapping edges. I can categorize objects that are not open to interpretation quite happily but am confused by rules that begin with, ‘for the most part’ or ‘on the whole’ or ‘unless’ and especially, ‘except’. I am someone who knows what works or what doesn’t but could not put my finger on why either of these is the case.
In my own learning on this course I have been completely inspired by Lise Fontaine, the senior lecturer at Cardiff university who teaches about grammar in a way that it has made it accessible to me. Not only this, but through arguing with her about the need to even be able to categorise and analyse words and their function in a sentence, I have come to understand that for many people it is indeed very necessary. ‘Many people’ includes many of my students.
I realise now that the children who were storming forward in their writing progress were the ones who also, like me, had no need to have the grammar explained. By reading and deconstructing good writing they were able to write with almost faultless grammar. Having now spent time teaching grammar rules and the categorisation of words in the context of function within a text, I see a marked impact on other children’s writing; the ones who have a need to understand how it all fits. I have also, more importantly, come to understand that just because I can write well, it does not mean my students will if I cannot explain the rules to them.
It can be seen from my planning that many of the activities embarked on during the course find their way into the classroom. However this is not necessarily the case with the grammar. It is hard to list activities undertaken since actually the impact has been more on my whole approach to reading and writing.
On learning about modal verbs or the passive tense I have not gone back to the class to make lists of the above. The real impact has been on my understanding of how for example a modal verb is relevant to a genre or wanting to speak to the audience. The knowledge has enabled me to direct my questioning. Instead of asking a child to pick out the passive verb, I might ask them why the writer chose to use a passive verb in this instance. Or I might ask them how the meaning of the sentence alters from making the object of the sentence, the subject.
Improving my own learning in this area has also helped me to give far more informed comments on the children’s work both in written and oral feedback. Whereas previously I might have known that there was something amiss with the writing, I now have the vocabulary to explain to the children and make suggestions for how to improve. For example, in the past I might have said, on commenting on a piece of persuasive writing, "the language needs to be more formal."
Academic writing frequently uses nominalisation; the noun forms of verbs. Now I know how to explain it. The process of nominalisation turns verbs into nouns. Here’s an example from Ami’s work where she wrote about the class obstacle course where they raised money for their link school in Kenya. She wrote: ‘We did an obstacle course in the hall for charity.’ After a discussion this became: ‘The charity obstacle course took place in the hall.’
I referred in 'Working with Genre' to the impact I feel the course has had on my Group Reading sessions. I no longer see them as a chance to purely progress reading, but also to improve writing. The teaching of grammar makes sense when we know the genre and context of the text. The children need to see good examples and I have found that even before the children are able to demonstrate complicated grammatical forms in their own writing, they can recognise them in the writing of others.
A spin-off from the course was an invitation to become a moderator for Key stages 1 and 2. This opportunity came about after I gave a presentation on the course to head teachers of the schools involved. Before attending the course I would not have been chosen to complete the training. However, the knowledge I was able to impart and the confidence with which I spoke resulted in an invitation to be involved in the assessing of writing. This was a direct result of the training I have received.
The writing assessment results from my year 4 class over the year directly reflect improvements in grammar. Currently, we use APP to distinguish between the ‘a’, ‘b’ and ‘c’ of a level. A proportion of these judgements are based on grammatical features. Not only do I now know the meanings of the expectations but the children know and understand them.
Using the correct grammar has impacted the overall quality of the piece. It adds to the genre; to the word order and improves the comprehension of the text. I’ve also noticed that the interpersonal meaning that is so implicit in speech is being made more explicit in their formal writing. They seem to understand the reader and use techniques relevant to the genre to enable them to receive the text in the right way.
Using the correct grammar has impacted the overall quality of the piece. It adds to the genre; to the word order and improves the comprehension of the text. I’ve also noticed that the interpersonal meaning that is so implicit in speech is being made more explicit in their formal writing. They seem to understand the reader and use techniques relevant to the genre to enable them to receive the text in the right way.
I mentioned earlier the effect my own learning in grammar has affected the way in which I teach group reading. For example, we stop and discuss the author’s intention of choosing a particular noun group to start a sentence; or the way in which a short sentence has been used for effect. The class are paired up in a buddy-reading system with the children in the reception class. This week I overheard a child in my class who has cognition difficulties stopping his reading partner to point out some punctuation. He explained what an exclamation mark is and how it affected the way we read the sentence. He explained that the author was communicating with the reader! These golden moments are the reason I love teaching.
Perhaps the best way to prove the effect of my learning in connection with grammar is to include a piece written in the Summer term by Ami’s writing. She has just turned 9 and came into Year 4 as a level 4c writer. It has been quite a task to move a child the statutory, suggested two levels; particularly since this would mean ending up being level 4a. The piece below most definitely satisfies the criteria for level 4, if not the beginnings of level 5: