Teaching sentence structure and punctuation in Year 3
Most children come into Year 3 with the ability to produce a piece of writing
which is structured into sentences. Some children will demarcate the
sentences using correct punctuation; others know how to do so but forget
after the first sentence. Quite a few children know that sentences should be
punctuated but are unable to identify exactly where their sentences begin and
end. Some are still writing long compound sentences linked with ‘and’ or ‘and
then’. A small number of children either cannot structure a sentence or,
having created one, cannot recall it for long enough to write it. This latter
group of children need carefully structured oral work to develop their ability to
compose their ideas into sentences and retain them.
However, these are not the only children who need oral practice. The inability
to recognise sentence boundaries can persist through the primary years
without clear help. Writing a remark on children’s writing or giving them
learning targets to use punctuation, particularly if they write endless
sentences joined by ‘and’ does little to develop their understanding of
sentence structure. They need to be encouraged to use intonation when
reading aloud so that sentences have a shape which they imitate when they
make up their own sentences. They need opportunities to build up series of
spoken sentences in shared writing. In supported and guided writing, they
should show their writing as they write each sentence. Dictating their writing to
someone else requires that they will only say as much as the other person
can recall easily. This forces them to stop at a meaningful point which is
usually a sentence boundary.
It is important to establish basic sentence structure in Year 3 as a solid
foundation on which to build complex sentences. Children in Year 3 will meet
complex sentences in their reading and need to use them in their writing to
develop their ideas, particularly in relation to time, reason and cause. Oral
work on sentence construction is very valuable.
Year 3 is the time to focus on choosing the right word for the right purpose.
Children enjoy learning new vocabulary when they go on to use it. They
should be encouraged in their talk and later in their writing to choose
adventurous words – words they do not often use in descriptions and
recounts. They should be seeking to improve the words they use so that
nouns create a clear image in the mind of the listener or reader (scoundrel,
youth, invalid, rather than ‘man’), and verbs capture something of the quality
of the state or action (strolled, ventured, crept, rather than ‘walked’). Children
should be introduced to grammatical terminology through conversations about
improving the language rather than set lessons on word classes. During this
year children also explore the use of adjectives in describing nouns and can
juggle with how and when to use adjectives effectively or if to use them at all.
Children learning English as an additional language find the use of
prepositions in English very confusing. Those children who started English on
entry to school at four to five years old, are likely to need specific work on the
use of prepositions during Year 3. Although also an issue for children with
English as an additional language, consistency in the use of tense and person
is not confined to these children. Most dialects deviate from Standard English
in the use of noun/pronoun-verb agreement and children need to understand
that written English uses the standard forms.
During Year 3 children focus on dialogue, how it is written in plays and how it
is punctuated in prose. Commas were introduced in lists in Year 2 and this is
extended in Year 3 to demarking lists of phrases. Before their use is extended
in Year 4, there is a lot to do in Year 3 in reading, to acquaint children with the
use of the comma to mark grammatical boundaries.
Grammar for Writing *(DfEE 0107/2000) has activities to cover all these
areas. However, the opportunity to use shared reading and writing to explore
sentence construction and its punctuation and effective use of vocabulary
should also be taken.
Source material/further information: 1
Grammar for Writing DfEE 0107/2000
1
Any references to the NLS ‘searchlights model in this document need to be interpreted in
the light of the recommendations of the Rose review.