Michael Rosen - poet, socialist, writer of the mighty Bear Hunt and all-round good guy - has been adding some new material to his blog recently, posting material aimed at Key Stage 2 teachers who are worried about their own grammar knowledge, in the run-up to the new KS2 grammar tests. This is something I'm particularly interested in , both as a father of twin boys who are going to sit the test in May this year and a sad grammar nerd, but I think it has relevance to A level students too.
Grammar teaching has had a pretty vexed history, with arguments raging for decades about its use and effects. I won't go into all of that here, because I've tried to cover it in a previous incarnation as a language researcher at the Survey of English Usage at UCL and posted a lot about it on this other blog, but it is well worth taking a look at Michael Rosen's stuff to get a sense of the bigger picture where grammar is concerned.
3 comments:
Another useful link for teachers is the sample materials which are on the DFE website here:
http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/assessment/keystage2/b00218030/gps-sample-materials
The link is on the left hand side (levels 3-5 and level 6) and is useful for KS2 teachers who want to get a feel for the test and the questions.
Cheers for this, Mr G.
Grammar is the sound, structure, and meaning system of language. All languages have grammar, and each language has its own grammar. People who speak the same language are able to communicate because they intuitively know the grammar system of that language—that is, the rules of making meaning. Students who are native speakers of English already know English grammar. They recognize the sounds of English words, the meanings of those words, and the different ways of putting words together to make meaningful sentences.
Regards
Agrodut Mandal
Coursework Writing Service
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