Week 6 (grammar, punctuation and spelling)

Question 1

What types of knowledge do students draw on when spelling?

Answer 1

• Phonological (letter-sound combinations)
• Visual (the way a word or part of a word looks)
• Morphological (understanding the meaning of parts of words e.g. ‘ed’, ‘un’)
• Etymological (origins and derivations of words).

Question 2

What is orthographic knowledge?

Answer 2

Orthographic knowledge is the information that is committed to memory which tells us how to represent spoken language in written form. It draws on the 4 types of knowledge (phon, vis, morph, etym).

Question 3

What do teachers need to skills/strategies to teachers need to develop in students to improve writing?

Answer 3

• Orthographic knowledge (drawing on phon/vis/morph/etym)
• Metacognitive strategies
• Metalanguage
• Flexibility, transferability and proof-reading.

Question 4

What teaching areas are outlined for spelling in the S2 and S3 syllabus outcomes?

Answer 4

S2:

• sight words
• reading strategies connected to writing
• letter/sound correspondence
• metacognitive strategies
• proof-reading

S3:

• integration of strategies
• additional metacognitive strategies.

Question 5

What are the 6 steps within a guided writing plan?

Answer 5

• Tell (lesson focus)
• Show (students what to do)
• Ask (to guide towards focus)
• Challenge (students to build new knowledge)
• Show (a variation to develop flexibility)
• Wrap up (link back to focus, like a plenary).

Question 6

What are the 5 levels of grammar knowledge?

Answer 6

1- text (cohesion)
2- sentence (structure)
3- clause (structure)
4- phrase/group of word (structure)
5- word (spelling based on morphological and etymological knowledge).

Question 7

What teaching areas are outlined for grammar in the S2 and S3 syllabus outcomes?

Answer 7

S2:

• homophones (their/there)
• homonyms (lie/lie)
• connectives
• clauses
• noun and verb groups
• adjectives, adverbs, prepositions
• evaluative language
• word origins

S3:

• nominalisations (verb to noun)
• topic sentences
• voice
• tense
• reference links.

Question 8

What teaching areas are outlined for punctuation in the S2 and S3 syllabus outcomes?

Answer 8

S2:

• quotation marks
• apostrophes signalling contraction

S3:

• commas
• apostrophes signalling possession

Question 9

What are coordinating and subordinating conjunctions?

Answer 9

COORDINATING conjunctions are FANBOYS which connect 2 independent clauses to create a compound sentence.

SUBORDINATING conjunctions are varied and connect 1 independent and 1 dependent clause to create a complex sentence. (Subordinating conjunctions include: because, since, when, while, unless, in order to, however, wherever, although etc.).