SPAG for Year 6

[phlebasconsidered]

I'm starting to really worry for my Year 6. Although my school did a great job embedding the past SPAG requirement, the new content that has to be shoved is just killing me in terms of time to fit it in.

So much has changed: they started the school learning connectives, now they need to know co-ordinating and subordinating conjunctions. They were great with verb / tense agreement until I've had to introduce subjunctive and present imperfect, and now they're wary.

I've organised Easter boosters and I will be delivering booster sessions every week early mornings and after school ( bye bye seeing my own kids...) but I'm really after knowing how other people are managing it. Are you setting groups and targeting? On what? I've looked and looked at the available material and expectations and i'm floundering. The nearest practice material is 11 plus stuff. What are others using? I'd feel a lot more confident if I felt that the government was: the first sample material included a textual question, by the second sample that was gone. The first question sample paper was reasonably familiar in layout, the second less so. I just don't trust them to deliver anything in May I recognise! It's bad enough that it's almost 50% new content.

I just realised i'm panicking on the basis of my data. This is a class that was confident in SPAG last year. Easily Level 4 already, now not so.

We have Grammar Hammer, it doesn't seem to be working.
I don't want to "kill" the grammar before they get there, but i'm beginning to think that teaching to the question is the only way some of them are going to get there.

Help!

[abeltasman]

I am a mum of a Y6 - this SPAG stuff is more terrifying for me than my DS I think - he at least knows what some of the (clearly made up!) terms are. I bought myself a SPAG dictionary :) I had bought a job lot of workbooks as he loves them - and his problem isn't the actual content (he loves rules) but not reading and checking the question/answer, which is what he needs to work on. Unfortunately the only way to do that is practice. He also hates timed exercises so we will need to introduce that soon.
Anyway, real point of post was to give you a piece of light relief which my son just noticed on back of his workbook.... As I say to him frequently - really LOOK at the page..

[Feenie]

I posted on this thread the reasons why a boycott would not be easy (or likely, now):

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/the_staffroom/2567129-Writing-exemplifications?

This petition is interesting - but also unlikely, given that she refused to even answer a times table question:

www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-news/one-heads-challenge-nicky-morgan-take-new-sats-and-lets-see-if-you

[theluckiest]

I despair, I really do. We did a bit of whole school moderation of writing tonight and, by god, it was so fucking depressing. Several issues reared their heads:

-It's not just the kids who struggle with this stuff, the staff do too. We had lots of furrowed brows and frantic rustling through glossaries.

• the expected level is ludicrously high. I can see there will be some schools where very few children actually achieve 'expected' let alone 'depth'.

• I echo previous posters who said that knowing grammar to this level eg. 'the subjunctive' doesn't mean shit. They might be able to answer a question about it, but write it?!! Make it meaningful and embedded in their writing!?? NAaaahhh.

This is my 3rd year in Y6 and this is the first year I have seriously considered jacking it in. Poor kids. I could cry....I predict a mass exodus & shortage of Y6 teachers.

[TeaT1me]

I am amazed more people aren't up in arms actually. The whole xchool experience is being shaped around meaningless tests and I can only see the divide between state and private (who are free to actually educate the child) getting bigger.

People say, "oh it's good they learn grammar" without realising half of its made up and the drain it's having on the rest of school.

[TeaT1me]

I agree with the focus and time it's taking away from fun learning too. My daughters school even at year 2 is quite maths and English focused now to get ready for year 6!! One person asked that's, since they were an academy couldn't they choose their own curriculum and the answer was that ad maths and English were the only thing examined that's what the focus is..m

[neolara]

I'm not a teacher but as a governor of a primary school I have a strong interest in this. Like many if you, I'm horrified by the impact these tests will have on kids and teachers. Most of it seems so utterly pointless and demoralising for all concerned. Mostly, I feel very angry that my kids will have to put up with a ridiculous curriculum when they could be learning a whole lot of vastly more useful stuff.

A lot of teachers seem angry too. So what's the answer? How can school's, teachers and parents make their views heard. Anyone heard mutterings of boycotts?

[PicInAttic]

At a LA/SAT briefing today, we were told that 'the new SPaG aspects of the 2014 curriculum and the associated terminology will definitely be a focus of this year's test'.
How helpful/fair it is for that to be shared with a smallish group of teachers, I'm not sure but I think it suggests 'subordinating/coordinating conjunction', 'fronted adverbials' and other 'made up' meanings will be on there.

[user789653241]

I totally agree with Edith. I let my ds in Yr3 try this one

www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/439299/Sample_ks2_EnglishGPS_paper1_questions.pdf

on someone's link, and he had no problem at all. I think he answered 80%+ correct.
He has asd traits and loves complex system.

[EdithWeston]

Coming at this from a totally different angle, have you ever played yu-gi-oh?

The card game which adds new packs, with new dragons and new subroutines, and which you can't prep for a set piece, because what you need to do is use them effectively in battle (with spells and curses thrown in for good measure).

DC of that age pick all that complex system up for fun. Grammar is just another system. Could it be presented as iterative like that game?

[leccybill]

MFL teacher here recently converted to primary and teaching a lot in Year 6. It's no secret that I'm a grammar geek, always have been - I love how language is constructed.
But by god, for a lot of children, it is boring and demotivating - and dare I say, unnecessary? And I'm starting to think a lot of it is made-up - determiners didn't exist when I learn grammar, suddenly they are everywhere. And the whole connective/conjunction issue - like a previous poster said, you tell them one thing then you have to say 'actually that was wrong (ergo I am wrong), this is now the answer'...not very inspiring or trustworthy, is it?

I hate this politician's speech-writing curriculum we have and I feel sorry for my own poor child having to go through primary under this current govt.
Creative subjects squashed, curriculum narrowed right down to Eng/Maths, and for what? To please Ofsted? League tables? Secondary schools don't care about SATs, we really really don't. They are meaningless. There are too many variables for them to be relied upon - and in any case, we re-test, set and review regularly ourselves.

Education has gone to shit. I'm so fucking angry about this.

[BetweenTwoLungs]

I teach the grammar to answer questions - we learn something then I create a sheet using the style of the spag. One benefit of the spag is incredibly predictable.

[calzone]

Lungs.....how do you teach to the test?

[BetweenTwoLungs]

Year 6 teacher here - do you FB? Are you on the year 5/6 group? There's been some good ideas on there for teaching the new bits like using Cluedo to teach active/passive subject/object.

I'm mostly teaching to test. I teach the vocab and then we do practice questions. The kids are getting it. The lower ability ones are struggling a bit. It's so hard, there's so much to remember for them.

I bring it up all day too eg in science I might say who can spot a determiner, who can spot a noun phrase etc. Making the vocab everyday language that we use all the time. The children's targets for writing include these words eg begin sentences with a conjunction, use a relative clause etc.

Also Spag Whiz for homework is good. It's £20 for the year but you can create your own practice spag papers focusinf in particular areas and they've made loads of extra questions the same style.

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeG0es]

I'm not a teacher and never have been, but I'm the parent of a current year 5 and a current year 7 (both with SENs which mean I'm in more regular contact with teachers than I would be otherwise) and the difference in expectations in just two years is extraordinary, I'm dreading next year for my youngest, hats off to all you teachers dealing with this.

[minifingerz]

Ex teacher, now parent of year 6 child looking on in bemusement at the SPAG debacle at dc's school. DS's teacher looks a bit more gaunt every time I see him.

The odd thing is that DS, who has ASD, is in an extension group for grammar, despite being in the bottom group for literacy last year. His writing is hellishly bad, but his autistic enthusiasm for deconstructing and categorising the world has made him a whizz at identifying the parts of speech. Very unexpected.

[phlebasconsidered]

Really proud of my class today. I tried to make a game of complex sentence parts. Can you guess which is which? I had all the new terms on the board and a selection of sentences on my paper pad. We crossed them off as we identified them. When we got to conjunctions, they all said "connective" because that's what they've learnt. Then they guessed conjunction. From the variety of sentences, and their knowledge clauses, they got to co-ordinating and subordinating conjunctions. We then did lots of standing holding segments of sentences and jiggling conjunctions and kids to physically show the difference. It worked: more kids holding a word showed a subordinate clause and hence conjunction, less or equal kids a coordinating conjunction. But my god it was hard work. One kid asked why connective had changed. I gave him and the rest an honest answer. They all basically agreed to learn new stuff because of the new rules. I feel awful as a teacher. They trust me and I just moved the goalposts!

[TooMuchOfEverything]

As a parent I'd give DC the choice re extra sessions.

We bought some extra workbooks because school was flogging them and he wants to be the same as his mates. He came home telling me 'Fred has the biggest pile of books, Ali has the next biggest... Jo has none because he was off sick when they gave the order forms out... etc... BUT poor old Billy's mum said HE WASN'T ALLOWED ANY!'

I feel like SATS are such crap, the only benefit my child might get is to his self esteem (having 'failed' 11+) - he came home on a high from the mockmocks and it made me realise the best thing I can do is to support him in feeling happy about himself.

If that means doing a bit more work at home I'm doing it for HIM not for the fucking government to say their shit has raised standards, coz it really hasn't.

[TooMuchOfEverything]

I'm a Y6 parent and its CGP books a go go here. It is bloody crap and boring and depressing - and I don't always agree with the book answers because you can't boil our gorgeous language down into a ticky boxy load of shite.

Anyway, DC has finished their mock mock Sats, so now there is 'only' the mock Sats and then the real Sats to get through. Lucky kid!!

[TeaT1me]

Yup I'd feel really uncomfortable sending mine in for extra booster sessions. It's not really for the child's benefit is it? At the end of the day if they can't answer a test question about a subordination conjunctive (I don't know what that is) at 11 years old it's not the end of the world for them.id still rather they were playing outside, enjoying reading and hobbies than getting stressed about bizarre tests.

[TeenAndTween]

Hi. I'm a parent of a y6 child who would have been lucky to get L4 under the old levels.

Our school has (obviously) SPAG teaching, and sends home a double page in a CGP workbook to be done each week for homework, plus around 15 spellings fortnightly. No booster sessions mentioned yet and there is no way they will do them in the holidays. Perhaps one weekly after school, but perhaps not even that.

I would not want DD to go to Easter holiday booster sessions - time enough for them in year 11 I think. But I sadly understand why you are feeling the need to provide them.

You are all

[christinarossetti]

But children aren't really going to 'learn' it in a crash course delivered by a teacher who doesn't actually know what the final test will look like or how it will be marked.

I agree that learning the rules of language is often boring and hard work, but the payoff should be that you develop a deeper understanding of language and how to use it. We don't teach phonics separately to developing a love of independent reading, and it makes no sense to teach grammar in ways that kill any creative or experimental use of language.

Not a teacher by the way. Have 2 children at primary and am feeling very despondent about the state of education, and the overall mental well-being of teachers.

[Nicknamegrief]

Not a teacher (former SLT) and while I agree there maybe an element of overkill particularly for those who have to catch up with the new curriculum, I think that SPAG is so important. It was never taught when I was in school (late 30s and went to international schools). Learning a MFL was really hard, studying linguistics was very hard. Teaching the rules of language (like the rules of phonics) overtly, is an asset that can help you manipulate and use language. I agree it is boring and must be hard work to teach but I do think it will benefit those who learn and can apply it.

[mercifulTehlu]

We MFL teachers will love it! It's hard teaching kids a foreign language from scratch when they don't know how their own language works, or the names of any of the grammar stuff. Although how you lot are supposed to fit all this in when it wasn't there on the curriculum before is beyond me. My dd is in Year 6 and I looked through a spag paper she brought home and was ! It was bloody hard. She did well because her mother is a linguist and drones on about grammar all the time but I can't imagine most of the kids could do it. In fact I slightly wonder whether some of the teachers could...

[phlebasconsidered]

Curious, you have nailed the problem. I am sad that my best poetic writers are not using determiners correctly and so will be marked down.

I want kids who want to write. Does this SPAG stuff help that? That's all I need to know. My own kids are illustrations of the problem. My own boy has literally seized up writing since he has been SPAGGED every single week. My daughter regards it as a game, but then she has the confidence to break rules. Anyway, off to bed for me! SPAG in the morning!

[Curioushorse]

And jeeeeez, it's boring, as well, isn't it? The main benefit, as far as I can see, is that it'll make me lose weight. You have to leap around super excitedly in lessons just to make a feeble stab at convincing the students that it's interesting.