SPaG – a dead acronym

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

• • 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 3^rd or 4^th 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