SPaG – a dead acronym.
WHY? Because each of the disciplines requires serious dedication to master, and it’s ridiculous to lump them under one roof.
Here’s a plan of action for the 3 disciplines to get students to an acceptable standard of use. Each bullet point could require numerous teaching sequences depending on the level of attainment.
Spelling
- Focusing on Latin and Greek root words
– membeam.com is sensational for this
- Explicit teaching of Latin and Greek prefixes
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- Multiple lessons on suffixes
- A natural by-product of the above is an expanded vocab, and explicit focus on new words based on texts studied furthers development
- Explicit teaching of how to study and revise spellings and new words
- Spelling and vocab meanings embedded into quizzes and starters
- Spelling tests (10words) every 3rd or 4th lesson
- Tests available to redo online
Grammar
- Focusing on sentence structure – often poor punctuation is due to a lack of understanding how and why sentences are constructed.
- Nouns – without them there’s nothing
- Verbs – nouns moving
- Subjects – make up of a sentence
- Pronouns – helps to keep subject-verb agreement
- Connectives – compound sentences
- Compound sentences
- Complex sentences – subordinate clauses
Punctuation
- Commas
- In compound sentences
- Position of subordinate clause
- Restrictive and non-restrictive subordinate clauses
- Other comma usage
- Dialogue
I’m @edmerger
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