GRAMMAR ESSENTIALS
Geoff Barton
www.geoffbarton.co.uk
March 22, 2016
GRAMMAR ESSENTIALS
CONTENT
1. Grammar essentials: What do you need to know about …
•
Improving students’ writing?
•
Improving their reading?
2. Some classroom ideas that work
GRAMMAR ESSENTIALS
What today is:
•
Practical, not theoretical
•
About grammar that makes an impact
•
About good English teaching, not grammar for its own
sake
•
An approach, not knowledge
GRAMMAR ESSENTIALS
What today is not:
• A comprehensive grammar lesson
• A lecture
• About quacking the parts of speech
GRAMMAR ESSENTIALS
The Literacy Club
Language
oddities
GRAMMAR ESSENTIALS
DOGS MUST
BE CARRIED
ON THE
ESCALATOR
GRAMMAR ESSENTIALS
Please don't
smoke and live
a more healthy
life
PSE Poster
GRAMMAR ESSENTIALS
Sign at Suffolk
hospital:
Criminals operate
in this area
ICI FIBRES
GRAMMAR ESSENTIALS
Churchdown parish
magazine:
‘would the congregation
please note that the bowl at
the back of the church
labelled ‘for the sick” is for
monetary donations only’
GRAMMAR ESSENTIALS
 TALKING POINT 
1: So what grammar were you taught at your own school?
2: What grammar do you teach now, and how?
GRAMMAR ESSENTIALS
My approach …
1.
‘Grammar’ isn’t always a helpful term
2.
Some bits of grammar are more important than
others
3. Writing is where we’ll have most effect
4.
Grammar knowledge is less important than
grammar impact
5.
Starters are great for grammar
6.
Go for impact
What are the essential bits of grammar needed by
English teachers…?
Fiction:
Non-fiction:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Sentence variety for effect:
simple, compound, complex
Multiple narration
Plot - dialogue - description
Location of the speech verb
Modification
Direct / indirect speech
Figurative language
Descriptive detail
Point of view
•
•
•
•
•
Connectives
Topic sentences
Headlines / subheadings / puns
Paragraph organisation - main
point … illustration … contrast
Cohesion (pronouns and
connectives)
Tense
Formality / impersonal tone
Layout features
Building an argument:
generalisation, supporting points,
statistics, facts, quotation
LITERACY FOR LEARNING
 GRAMMAR FOR WRITING 
GEOFF BARTON
www.geoffbarton.co.uk
22 March 2016
TEACHING WRITING
You don’t teach writing merely
through:
Explore conventions
•Reading aloud
Demonstrate
DEPENDENCE
•Showing models
•Highlighting genre features
•Correcting first drafts
•Lots of bullet-points after the task
Share composition
Scaffold
Independent writing
Draw out key
learning
INDEPENDENCE
www.geoffbarton.co.uk
TEACHING WRITING
Explore
conventions
Demonstrate
Including ‘bad’ models
Show students the
process of writing
Share
composition
Correct/change/improve
Scaffold it
Make it collaborative
Independence
Key learning
Move from small to
larger sections
www.geoffbarton.co.uk
TEACHING WRITING
KS3 tests 2000
Write the opening of a story about a major
emergency.
‘Some people waste a lot of time and energy
attempting difficult challenges, such as flying around
the world in a hot-air balloon. Attempts like these are
pointless, and benefit nobody.’ Write an article for
your local newspaper arguing for or against this
statement.
www.geoffbarton.co.uk
TEACHING WRITING
To be truth-full I am for the
argument about wasting time
and money trying to get
around the world in a hot air
balloon, when this time and
money could be spent on
working with medical
difficulty or people who are
homeless.
Level 4
Level 7
I feel it is very important
to face challenges, as
without challenges, the
world would be a very
dull place. I feel that the
earlier challenges
appear in a person’s
life, the better, as there
will undoubtedly be
challenges in the
workplace or in home
life, and so I feel that
the people who have
faced challenges earlier
in life get a head start
over people who have
not.
WRITING WITH POWER
An example
…
TEACHING WRITING
The Set-Up
BUILDING SUSPENSE
Write the opening of a mystery story. Set
it at a funeral in a wintery churchyard.
√
√
√
www.geoffbarton.co.uk
TEACHING WRITING
bad
Using models
Before ….
It was a bitterly cold day. Everyone
was in black. The cars were black
too. There were people standing
around in a group waiting for the
coffin. Crows were flying in the
sky. It was really eerie.
TEACHING WRITING
Using models
After ….
The undertaker's men were like crows, stiff and black,
and the cars were black, lined up beside the path that
led to the church; and we, we too were black, as we
stood in our pathetic, awkward group waiting for them
to lift out the coffin and shoulder it, and for the
clergyman to arrange himself; and he was another
black crow in his long cloak.
And then the real crows rose suddenly from the trees
and from the fields, whirled up like scraps of
blackened paper from a bonfire, and circled, caw-cawing above our heads.
Susan Hill
TEACHING WRITING
Mess around with:
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
•
A fragmented narrative
•
Point of view
•
Tense
•
Sentence types
•
Plot - description dialogue
•
Speech verb
GRAMMAR FOR WRITING Key points
•
See things as a writer, not just a reader
•
Explore texts actively - meddling, rewriting,
editing
•
Demonstrate the writing process yourself
•
Relate everything to effect
•
Talk about grammar where it helps, not as an end
in itself
•
Start with small units of writing … then build up
•
Encourage experimentation, risk-taking, creativity
•
Enjoy!
LITERACY FOR LEARNING
 GRAMMAR FOR READING 
GEOFF BARTON
www.geoffbarton.co.uk
22 March 2016
Grammar for reading is …
•About reading, not grammar
•Based on a rich variety of texts
•Rooted in reading for pleasure
•Not about analysis
•Always linked to writing
LITERACY FOR LEARNING
Why do students find it
harder to understand
non-fiction than
fiction?
LITERACY FOR LEARNING
Fiction is more personal. Non-fiction has fewer
agents:
•Holidays were taken at resorts
•During the 17th century roads became straighter
LITERACY FOR LEARNING
Children’s fiction tends to be
chronological.
Fiction becomes easier to read; nonfiction presents difficulties all the
way through
LITERACY FOR LEARNING
Non-fiction texts rely on linguistic
signposts - moreover, therefore, on the
other hand. Children who are
unfamiliar with these will not read
with the same predictive power as they
can with fiction
LITERACY FOR LEARNING
Non-fiction tends to have more interrupting
constructions:
The agouti, a nervous 20-inch rodent from
South America, can leap twenty feet from a
sitting position
Asteroids are lumps of rock and metal whose paths
round the sun lie mainly between Jupiter and Mars
LITERACY FOR LEARNING
Fiction uses more active verbs.
Non-fiction relies more on the copula (“Oxygen is a
gas”) and use of the passive:
Some plastics are made by … rather than
We make plastics by …
LITERACY FOR LEARNING
Non-fiction texts have more complex noun
phrases:
The remains and shapes of animals and plants
are lost in the myriad caves of the region
LITERACY FOR LEARNING
So …
1. Make non-fiction conventions explicit .. actively
2. Get English teachers to use more non-fiction
3. Read non-fiction texts aloud
4. Teach students about interrupting and long
subjects, connectives, agent-avoidance!
5. Replace comprehension with DARTS
(“Glombots”)
LITERACY FOR LEARNING
So …
Oh yes … and enjoy!
Reading Fiction
BUILDING TENSION
Brian Moore, Cold Heaven
1
The wooden seats of the little pedal boat were
angled so that Marie looked up at the sky. There
were no clouds. In the vastness above her a gull
calligraphed its flight. Marie and Alex pedalled in
unison, the revolving paddles making a slapping
sound against the waves as the pedal boat
treadmilled away from the beach, passing through
ranks of bathers to move into the deeper, more
solitary waters of the Baie des Anges. Marie
slackened her efforts but Alex continued
determinedly, steering the pedalo straight out into
the Mediterranean.
2
‘Let’s not go too far,’ she said.
‘I want to get away from the crowd. I’m going to
swim.’
It was like him to have some plan of his own, to
translate idleness into activity even in these few
days of vacation. She now noted his every fault. It
was as though, having decided to leave him, she
had withdrawn his credit. She looked back at the
sweep of hotels along the Promenade des Anglais.
Today was the day she had hoped to tell him. She
had planned to announce it at breakfast and leave,
first for New York, then on to Los Angeles to join
Daniel. But at breakfast she lacked all courage.
Now, with half the day gone, she decided to
postpone it until tomorrow.
3
Far out from shore, the paddles stopped. The
pedalo rocked on its twin pontoons as Alex eased
himself up from his seat. He handed her his
sunglasses. ‘This should do,’ he said and, rocking
the boat even more, dived into the ultramarine
waters. She watched him surface. He called out:
‘Just follow along, okay?’ He was not a good
swimmer, but thrashed about in an energetic,
erratic freestyle. Marie began to pedal again, her
hand on the tiller, steering the little boat so that she
followed close. Watching him, she knew he could
not keep up this pace for long. She saw his flailing
arms and for a moment thought of those arms
hitting her. He had never hit her. He was not the
sort of man who would hit you. He would be hurt,
and cold, and possibly vindictive. But he was not
violent.
4
She heard a motorboat, the sound
becoming louder. She looked
back but did not see a boat
behind her. Then she looked to
the right where Alex was
swimming and saw a big boat
with an outboard motor coming
right at them, coming very fast.
5
Of course they see us, she thought, alarmed, and
then as though she were watching a film, as
though this were happening to someone else, she
saw there was a man in the motorboat, a young
man wearing a green shirt; he was not at the tiller,
he was standing in the middle of the boat with his
back to her and as she watched he bent down and
picked up a child who had fallen on the
floorboards. ‘Hey?’ she called. ‘Hey?’ for he must
turn around, the motorboat was coming right at
Alex, right at her. But the man in the boat did not
hear. He carried the child across to the far side of
the boat; the boat was only yards away now.
6
‘Alex,’ she called. ‘Alex, look out.’ But Alex
flailed on and then the prow of the motorboat,
slicing up water like a knife, hit Alex with a
sickening thump, went over him and smashed into
the pontoons of the little pedal boat, upending it,
and she found herself in the water, going under,
coming up. She looked and saw the motorboat
churning off, the pedal boat hanging from its prow
like a tangle of branches. She heard the motorboat
engine cut to silence, then start up again as the
boat veered around in a semicircle and came back
to her. Alex?
7
She looked: saw his body near her just under the water. She
swam toward him, breastroke, it was all she knew. He was
floating face down, spread-eagle. She caught hold of his
wrist and pulled him towards her. The motorboat came
alongside, the man in the green shirt reaching down for her,
but, ‘No, no,’ she called and tried to push Alex toward him.
The man caught Alex by the hair of his head and pulled him
up, she pushing, Alex falling back twice into the water,
before the man, with a great effort, lifted him like a sack
across the side of the boat, tugging and heaving until Alex
disappeared into the boat. The man shouted, ‘Un instant,
madame, un instant’ and reappeared, putting a little steel
ladder over the side. She climbed up onto the motorboat as
the man went out onto the prow to disentangle the wreckage
of the pedalo.
8
A small child was sitting at the back of the boat,
staring at Alex’s body, which lay face-down on the
floorboards. She went to Alex and saw blood from
a wound, a gash in the side of his head, blood
matting his hair. He was breathing but
unconscious. She lifted him and cradled him in her
arms, his blood trickling onto her breasts. She saw
the boat owner’s bare legs go past her as he went
to the rear of the boat to restart the engine. The
child began to bawl but the man leaned over,
silenced it with an angry slap, the man turned to
her, his face sick with fear. ‘Nous y serons dans un
instant,’ he shouted, opening the motor to full
throttle. She hugged Alex to her, a rivulet of blood
dripping off her forearm onto the floorboards as
the boat raced to the beach.
BUILDING TENSION
Brian Moore, Cold Heaven
SIMPLE
GRAMMAR
STARTERS
(inc prep for KS3 tests)
www.geoffbarton.co.uk
7 principles
www.geoffbarton.co.uk
 Don’t aim for false links with main
lesson content
 No Blue Peter
 Do aim for coherence
across starters
badges
Kick-start learning
 Are great for
grammar
 Emphasise
collaboration &
problem-solving
 Avoid the
temptation to
extend the activity
Mr B’s New Ye ar Spelling Frolics
-our words
-re endings
colour
humour
rumour
armour
flavour
centimetre
centre
thea tre
humorous
-able / -ible
endings
Available
likeable
sociable
considerable
laugha ble
sensible
incredible
terrible
possible
respons ible
-ous endings
tremendous
enormous
poisonous
mysterious
continuous
precious
ferocious
delicious
cautious
ambitious
www.geoffbarton.co.uk
Single/double
consonants
beginning
upsetting
forgotten
comm ittee
permitted
occurred
visited
regretful
developing
-ible
-able
www.geoffbarton.co.uk
Homophones
Sound of Music
Kylie
Beethoven
their
there
they’re
too
two
to
pray
prey
www.geoffbarton.co.uk
Hard
Homophones
Freeze
Stand
advice
advise
practice
practise
effect
affect
It’s
its
www.geoffbarton.co.uk
Activity
I’ll say some sentences containing homophones. You tell me whether
it’s list A or list B.
Make up sentences – eg “The pilot of the aircraft was really rather
plain”)
A – stand up
plain
weak
steal
main
rows
fare
break
sew
due
whether
B – under table
Plane
Week
Steel
Mane
Rows
Fair
Brake
So
Jew
www.geoffbarton.co.uk
whether
Mnemonics
Necessary
Separate
Never eat chips - eat sausage
sandwiches and raspberry
yoghurt
Disappearance
Fulfil
www.geoffbarton.co.uk
Call My Bluff
OXYMORON
LITOTES
www.geoffbarton.co.uk
WORD CLASSES BY COLOUR
VERB
ADVERB
NOUN
PREPOSITION
ADJECTIVE
The cat slept heavily on the
old carpet
Connectives
The house was looking dark ….
(walk in … lights not working … hear a sound upstairs …
go to explore … hear a window smash ...)
 And
 But
 Or
www.geoffbarton.co.uk
Word patterns
Auto Gh Who can think of most words starting with these
letter patterns …?
www.geoffbarton.co.uk
Synonyms:
Who can think of most words meaning scary,
big, small, nice
www.geoffbarton.co.uk
Semantic continuum:
•Think of synonyms for house / toilet /
friend
•Place them in order of formal to informal
www.geoffbarton.co.uk
Starter 3: Autobiography
Opener
Paper 1 = non-fiction
Expect autobiography, letter, or diary
Look at this opening from an autobiography.
Activity
OHT
What can you tell about:
Writer
Where the text is set
What might happen next
Closing sequence
Discuss student responses
It was on a bright day of midwinter, in New York. The little girl
who eventually became me, but as yet was neither me nor
anybody else in particular, but merely a soft anonymous morsel
of humanity – this little girl, who bore my name, was going for a
walk with her father. The episode is literally the first thing I
can remember about her, and therefore I date the birth of her
humanity from that day.
It was really cold. The weather
was awful. I was walking along
the edge of the cliff and I was
really scared.
www.geoffbarton.co.uk
GRAMMAR ESSENTIALS
•
Download these resources at geoffbarton.co.uk
•
Read the book:
Grammar Survival: A Teacher’s Toolkit
David Fulton Publishers
And thanks for listening!
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompress ed) dec ompres sor
are needed to s ee this pic ture.