Grammar for Writing: Principles and Practices

1. Grammar for Writing: Principles and Practices Debra Myhill All art is achieved through the exercise of a craft, and every craft has its rudiments that must be taught. Fairfax and Moat (1998)

2. INTRODUCTION TEACHING WRITING: THE BIG PICTURE

3. Another place, another time. If there was an answer, he’d find it there. • What do you think is happening in this picture? • Where is the track leading to? • Who are the people? • Has the boat got anything to do with story? • What happens next? • What answer is he looking for? Just Write! Let your pen take your imagination for a walk. From the Harris Burdick illustrations

4. Research on Writing The Process: • understanding the writing process involves planning, drafting and reviewing, and that it is recursive, not linear; • thinking about writing and managing the writing process (metacognition and self-regulation); The Written Text: • explicit teaching of writing - the ‘how’ of composing and revising a text; • use of strategies such as using text models and modelling writing choices; The Context: • understanding that writing is a social activity occurring in a social context; • creating communities of writers in the classroom; Playfulness: • creating space for creativity, imagination and emotional engagement; • allowing safe space for constructive failure.

5. Teaching Writing Creatively • To write well we all need to have something to say and a desire to say it; • Before young writers can meaningfully attend to how they have written something, they need to have engaged with what they want to say – the ideas; • Engaging young writers’ imaginations, emotions and personal beliefs is a really important part of teaching writing; • Allowing young writers freedom to explore ideas, test things out, and to write to find out what they want to say is critical • We often move far too quickly to pinning things down, to being explicit too soon, and making writing a very linear process – we need to create space for exploration, experimentation and re-drafting. • This is built into the way we plan for teaching grammar and writing.

6. Improving Outcomes in Writing • Create space to engage the imagination and the emotions – helping writers want to write before focusing on how to write; • Provide explicit teaching of how to be successful, with a clear focus on how choices shape meanings; • Generate high-quality (dialogic) talk which fosters thinking about the writing process and writing choices; • Create understanding of how to manage the writing process (self-regulation) and avoiding teaching that writing is a rigid ‘plan-draft-revise’ process (more on this later!)

7. Teaching about the Writing Process • The writing process involves planning, drafting and reviewing but it is not a three stage process: it is recursive • We review as we plan and think of ideas; we re-plan as we write; we revise as we write as well as afterwards… • It is hard to treat the writing process as recursive because school works by timetables but there are things we can do: • Have magpie books to capture ideas, drafts of small sections of texts, experimental writing • Give space for freewriting which is not marked • Give time for reviewing writing as writing is being created: including teaching children to regularly re-read what they have written; • Create portfolios of writing and revise some pieces after time has elapsed.

8. Key Message • This CPD project focuses on how grammar can help young writers to understand better how to shape and craft their writing. • So there is a lot of grammar! • But a healthy, productive writing community embeds this grammar naturally within the broader setting of playfulness and experimentation, creativity, attention to the writing process explicit teaching, and talk about writing.

9. Discussion Point Table Talk: • What are your views on grammar in the curriculum? • What might be the benefits/disadvantages of teaching grammar explicitly? • How might teaching grammar help children to become better writers? • What do you think about the Grammar Test? • How does the KS2 Writing assessment change, or not, how you teach writing?

10. CONNECTING READING AND WRITING

11. The Reader and the Writer To become writers children must read like writers. To read like writers they must see themselves as writers. Children will read stories, poems, and letters differently when they see these texts as things they themselves could produce; they will write vicariously with the authors. (Smith 1983) The active reader reads more than the words and more than even the ideas: the active reader reads what the writer is doing. The active reader reconstructs the overall design, both the writer's purpose and the techniques used to realize that purpose. (Bazerman 2010)

12. The Reader and the Writer To become writers children must read like writers. To read like writers they must see themselves as writers. Children will read stories, poems, and letters differently when they see these texts as things they themselves could produce; they will write vicariously with the authors. (Smith 1983) The active reader reads more than the words and more than even the ideas: the active reader reads what the writer is doing. The active reader reconstructs the overall design, both the writer's purpose and the techniques used to realize that purpose. (Bazerman 2010)

13. The Reader and the Writer To become writers children must read like writers. To read like writers they must see themselves as writers. Children will read stories, poems, and letters differently when they see these texts as things they themselves could produce; they will write vicariously with the authors. (Smith 1983) The active reader reads more than the words and more than even the ideas: the active reader reads what the writer is doing. The active reader reconstructs the overall design, both the writer's purpose and the techniques used to realize that purpose. (Bazerman 2010)

14. The Reader and the Writer To become writers children must read like writers. To read like writers they must see themselves as writers. Children will read stories, poems, and letters differently when they see these texts as things they themselves could produce; they will write vicariously with the authors. (Smith 1983) The active reader reads more than the words and more than even the ideas: the active reader reads what the writer is doing. The active reader reconstructs the overall design, both the writer's purpose and the techniques used to realize that purpose. (Bazerman 2010)

15. The Reader and the Writer To become writers children must read like writers. To read like writers they must see themselves as writers. Children will read stories, poems, and letters differently when they see these texts as things they themselves could produce; they will write vicariously with the authors. (Smith 1983) The active reader reads more than the words and more than even the ideas: the active reader reads what the writer is doing. The active reader reconstructs the overall design, both the writer's purpose and the techniques used to realize that purpose. (Bazerman 2010)

16. The Reader and the Writer To become writers children must read like writers. To read like writers they must see themselves as writers. Children will read stories, poems, and letters differently when they see these texts as things they themselves could produce; they will write vicariously with the authors. (Smith 1983) The active reader reads more than the words and more than even the ideas: the active reader reads what the writer is doing. The active reader reconstructs the overall design, both the writer's purpose and the techniques used to realize that purpose. (Bazerman 2010)

17. The Reader and the Writer To become writers children must read like writers. To read like writers they must see themselves as writers. Children will read stories, poems, and letters differently when they see these texts as things they themselves could produce; they will write vicariously with the authors. (Smith 1983) The active reader reads more than the words and more than even the ideas: the active reader reads what the writer is doing. The active reader reconstructs the overall design, both the writer's purpose and the techniques used to realize that purpose. (Bazerman 2010)

18. Key Message: Creative Grammar • Our approach to grammar integrates the teaching of reading and writing. • It asks writers to look, through their reading, at what other writers do; • It asks writers to be the readers of their own writing; • It asks writers to think about their own readers: • It shows how grammar choices are one way of managing the reader-writer relationship.

19. Explicit Teaching of Writing WRITING: GRAMMAR AS CHOICE

20. The Power of Choice What do you think goes in the gap? I found him in the garage on a Sunday afternoon. It was the day after we moved into Falconer Road. The winter was ending. Mum had said we’d be moving just in time for the spring. Nobody else was there. Just me. The others were inside the house with Doctor Death, worrying about the baby. He was lying in there [in the darkness behind the tea chests, in the dust and dirt ]. It was as if he’d been there forever.

21. The Power of Choice Why do you think David Almond chooses these prepositional phrases? I found him in the garage on a Sunday afternoon. It was the day after we moved into Falconer Road. The winter was ending. Mum had said we’d be moving just in time for the spring. Nobody else was there. Just me. The others were inside the house with Doctor Death, worrying about the baby. He was lying in there in the darkness behind the tea chests, in the dust and dirt. It was as if he’d been there forever.

22. The Power of Choice What difference do these choices of prepositional phrases make? I found him in the garage on a Sunday afternoon. It was the day after we moved into Falconer Road. The winter was ending. Mum had said we’d be moving just in time for the spring. Nobody else was there. Just me. The others were inside the house with Doctor Death, worrying about the baby. He was lying in there in a silken shawl with golden beading along the tasselled edges. It was as if he’d been there forever.

23. The Power of Choice And out of the mists came a figure in flowing green, walking across the water. • Read this sentence aloud – where will you put the emphasis? • Use the cards to explore what possibilities there are for re-ordering this sentence? • How do these changes vary the emphasis? And a figure in flowing green, came walking across the water, out of the mists. • Now read both these sentences aloud – how do they portray this moment in the plot differently? How might you film these two sentences?

24. The Power of Choice And out of the mists camea figure in flowing green, walking across the water. • Read this sentence aloud – where will you put the emphasis? • Use the cards to explore what possibilities there are for re-ordering this sentence. • How do these changes vary the emphasis? And a figure in flowing green, came walking across the water, out of the mists. • Now read both these sentences aloud – how do they portray this moment in the plot differently? How might you film these two sentences? • What do you think is the effect of moving the adverbial ‘out of the mists’ to different places in the sentence? • What do you think is the effect of the putting the subject (a figure) after the verb (came) in the first sentence?

25. National Curriculum: England The grammar of our first language is learnt naturally and implicitly through interactions with other speakers and from reading. Explicit knowledge of grammar is, however, very important, as it gives us more conscious control and choice in our language. Building this knowledge is best achieved through a focus on grammar within the teaching of reading, writing and speaking. Once pupils are familiar with a grammatical concept [for example ‘modal verb’], they should be encouraged to apply and explore this concept in the grammar of their own speech and writing and to note where it is used by others. Young pupils, in particular, use more complex language in speech than in writing, and teachers should build on this, aiming for a smooth transition to sophisticated writing.

26. Implicit and Explicit Knowledge • All native speakers of a language have a huge amount of subject knowledge of grammar but it is implicit ie the user cannot explicitly explain what he or she has done eg • He goed into town • She bought a red big handbag • Explicit grammar knowledge can be verbalised and is accessible for discussion and scrutiny eg • That is a passive • Being able to identify a noun as a noun is explicit grammar knowledge, but it doesn’t make children better noun users, as they can already use nouns and have done since they started speaking.

27. Grammar as Choice Why use a fronted adverbial? • Carter and McCarthy (2006:7) conceive of grammar as having two strands: grammar as choice, as well as a grammar of structure. • ‘knowing grammar is knowing how more than knowing what’ (Cameron 1997:236): Howwe write something is as important as what we write: making meaning. • Explicit, as opposed to implicit, grammar knowledge is learning knowledge that can be used in the writing classroom. • Explicit grammar knowledge needs to be used to develop knowledge about language egI used a passive voice there to foreground this information.

28. Repertoires of Infinite Possibility • Writing is always an act of decision-making and making choices (Kellogg 2008) • Decisions about storyline, argument, character, title, structure, message, phrasing, words, font, layout… Our research: • focuses on the language choices and decisions writers make. • emphasises how choice develops independence and autonomy as a writer • develops an awareness that writers have access to ‘a repertoire of infinite possibility’ • sees grammar knowledge as part of the writing curriculum and a creative, enabling tool (not about rules and compliance)

29. Key Message • Teaching writing with attention to grammar is not about telling children how they should write; it is about showing them the repertoire of choices available to them, and discussing how those choices create different meanings. NOT: • You should use fronted adverbials to make your writing better. BUT: • What happens if you move that adverbial to the front of the sentence? How does it change how we read this sentence?

30. WRITING AS CRAFT AND CONTROL

31. A Writer’s View Nicola Davies reflects on her knowledge as a writer. ‘It wasn't until I began to teach writing […] that I realised that I knew how to write in a way that a potter knows how to shape a bowl or a carpenter knows how to make dovetail joints. Looking at other people’s writing and knowing how to fix it made me see that I actually had skills.’

32. A Writer’s View Why is writing so tricky? Because it requires mastery of two conflicting skills: a creative skill and a critical skill. The former is of the imagination, the latter of the intellect, and they come from different brain hemispheres. To write well, we have to employ both to maximum effect. For me, the best way to do this is to give each its turn but not to try to do the two together. If we try to be creative and critical at the same time, we run the risk of stemming the flow of inspiration or having one skill dominate the other, leading either to stories that are well-structured but lacking in invention, or stories that are rich in invention yet lack shape. By giving the imagination free rein first, as in brainstorming, then bringing in the critical hammer afterwards, both skills operate without constraint. Children’s author, Tim Bowler

33. A Writer’s View Malorie Blackman explains her craft as a writer when writing suspenseful stories. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p011mxd6

34. Teaching the Craft of Writing • All art is achieved through the exercise of a craft, and every craft has its rudiments that must be taught. (Fairfax and Moat:1998) • Common to all of these writers’ views is the sense that there are things to learn about being a writer and writing, and that writing can be taught. • What things do you think should be taught about the craft of writing?

35. Go back to your free writing. Think now specifically about the setting for your story. Visualise your setting. • Write a draft paragraph, where you describe the setting, as the introductory paragraph of your story From the Harris Burdick illustrations

36. Re-read your freewriting and look for any seeds of ideas or interesting images – for stories, for episodes in a story; for characters in the story , for settings of a story… • Annotate or underline these seeds – or write some more! From the Harris Burdick illustrations

37. BEFORE LUNCH

38. If you take out all the description, what is actually on the menu? Menu from a Devon pub Spiced pumpkin soup with chilli oil and toasted sunflower seeds Oven-roasted Devon Red Ruby Beef on a golden Yorkshire pudding with horseradish and peppercorn cream Colombian coffee ice-cream, served with maple syrup and macadamia nuts.

39. Each menu item is one noun phrase, expanding the description of the noun The actual food item is the noun: all the rest is description Menu from a Devon pub Spiced pumpkin soup with chilli oil and toasted sunflower seeds Oven-roasted Devon Red Ruby Beef on a golden Yorkshire pudding with horseradish and peppercorn cream Colombian coffee ice-cream, served with maple syrup and macadamia nuts.

40. Look at how prepositional phrases come after the noun to provide extra description Look at how prepositional phrases come after the noun to provide extra description Menu from a Devon pub Spiced pumpkin soupwith chilli oil and toasted sunflower seeds Oven-roasted Devon Red Ruby Beefon a golden Yorkshire puddingwith horseradish and peppercorn cream Colombian coffee ice-cream, served with maple syrup and macadamia nuts. Menu from a Devon pub Spiced pumpkin soupwith chilli oil and toasted sunflower seeds Oven-roasted Devon Red Ruby Beefon a golden Yorkshire puddingwith horseradish and peppercorn cream Colombian coffee ice-cream, served with maple syrup and macadamia nuts.

41. Look at how prepositional phrases come after the noun to provide extra description Look at how prepositional phrases come after the noun to provide extra description Menu from a Devon pub Spiced pumpkin soupwith chilli oil and toasted sunflower seeds Oven-roasted Devon Red Ruby Beefon a golden Yorkshire puddingwith horseradish and peppercorn cream Colombian coffee ice-cream, served with maple syrup and macadamia nuts. TIME FOR LUNCH! Menu from a Devon pub Spiced pumpkin soupwith chilli oil and toasted sunflower seeds Oven-roasted Devon Red Ruby Beefon a golden Yorkshire puddingwith horseradish and peppercorn cream Colombian coffee ice-cream, served with maple syrup and macadamia nuts.

42. UNDERSTANDING THE PEDAGOGY

43. The Exeter Pedagogy A creative grammar-writing relationship • Explicit teaching of grammatical points relevant to the learning about writing • Developing young writers’ knowledge about language in the texts they read and how language choices shape meaning • Developing young writers’ understanding of the language choices they can make in their own writing Repertoires of possibility (and metalinguistic understanding)

44. LEAD Principles

45. Metalinguistic Understanding: explicit knowledge about language • helping learners verbalise the relationship between grammatical choices and their effects in particular contexts DISCUSSION

46. Prepositional Phrases to describe Authentic text Examples What difference do these choices of prepositional phrases make? Links between grammar and meaning Why do you think David Almond chooses these prepositional phrases? What do you think goes in the gap? Discussion I found him in the garage on a Sunday afternoon. It was the day after we moved into Falconer Road. The winter was ending. Mum had said we’d be moving just in time for the spring. Nobody else was there. Just me. The others were inside the house with Doctor Death, worrying about the baby. He was lying in there in a silken shawl with golden beading along the tasselled edges. It was as if he’d been there forever.

47. Exploring Sentence Structure Authentic text And out of the mists camea figure in flowing green, walking across the water. • Read this sentence aloud – where will you put the emphasis? • Use the cards to explore what possibilities there are for re-ordering this sentence. • How do these changes vary the emphasis? Links between grammar and meaning And a figure in flowing green, came walking across the water, out of the mists. • Now read both these sentences aloud – how do they portray this moment in the plot differently? How might you film these two sentences? Discussion • What do you think is the effect of moving the adverbial ‘out of the mists’ to different places in the sentence? • What do you think is the effect of the putting the subject (a figure) after the verb (came) in the first sentence? Examples

48. LEADing Young Writers • Create a habit of noticing: attention to language • Generate opportunities to play with language, including lexical and syntactical units • Use discussion to talk explicitly about language choices and how they help us see, feel or think • Use grammatical terminology incidentally and at a level relevant to the learners

49. Different writers’ choices On Saturday, he ate through one piece of chocolate cake, one ice-cream cone, one pickle, one slice of Swiss cheese, one slice of salami, one lollipop, one piece of cherry pie, one sausage, one cupcake, and one slice of watermelon. The Very Hungry Caterpillar – Eric Carle Then Mr Gumpyand the goat and the calf and the chickens and the sheep and the pig and the dog and the cat and the rabbit and the children all swam to the bank and climbed out to dry in the sun. Mr Gumpy’s Outing – John Burningham Why do you think Eric Carle chooses to use commas to separate his long list of noun phrases and John Burningham chooses to use ‘and’?

50. Go back to your free writing. Think now specifically about the setting for your story. Visualise your setting. • Write a draft paragraph, where you describe the setting, as the introductory paragraph of your story From the Harris Burdick illustrations