John Bald/language and literacy

Grammatical termnilogy - verb groups, including so-called "modal" verbs.

This paper on grammatical terminology argued that most had been developed to analyse language rather than teach it. A correction is needed.  Antonio de Nebrija, author of the first Spanish grammar, was asked by Queen Isabella why she needed a grammar, as she already spoke Spanish. The reply was that Spain was about to make huge conquests, and the people she conqured needed to learn Spainish. I still think the main point stands, and that teaching children has too often been based on the way adults understand the language, rathr than children who are in the process of learning it. The main sources of terminolgy were the grammatical studies of the renaissance and twentieth-century linguistics, both of which use language that is obscure, and sometimes unnecessarily compressed, the most celebrated example being the "fronted adverbial", which, expanded, means an adverb, adverbial phrase or adverbial clause, placed before the main clause of a sentence. Otherwise known as a starter. 

The two most important terms when construcitng a sentence are subject and verb. Both are discussed in the paper, and this short posting add some points on verb groups. Chomsky's idea of the "verb phrase" conveys the idea that a verb can consist of more than one word. Verbs are important words, and like people, can be said to have a name, in English beginning with to - to be, to play, to have. Most of th time, when two verbs work together, the second says its name - I like to play foootball, to eat pizza, to go travelling..etc.

Sometimes, when a verb tells us how well or otherwise we do something - I can/can't play the piano - it is so closely joined to the next verb that the "to" is dropped. David Crystal in The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of English, lists just nine - can, could, may, might, will, would, shall, should, must.  There is, fortunately, no interference between the way these verbs work and normal speech, but thee term attached to them - "modal" - is anything but clear. It is a term more often used in German grammar, and David Crystal does not even mention it in his latest book on Grammar, Making Sense. The OED notes it as descending from "mood" 1569, expresing some form of uncertainty, but this does not make sense. Cinderella shall go to the ball expresses something close to certainty rathr than mood, as does "I can't swim". However, the term modal is part of the glossary of the national curriculum, and is included in some SAT testing, so pupils need to know it, whether anyone really knows what it means or not. I would teach the group first, and add the term afterwards, whether or not we can see (modal construction) any point to it. If I had to call these verbs something, it would be "companion verbs". They can't operate on their own - I can, or can't, on its own means nothing, unless we know what it is I can or can't do. The companion may preced the verb, or refer to one in the previous sentence, in a form of tag sentence. You can't do that. Yes, I can.  (Whatever it was.)

Dr Morag Macmartin, reading comprehension in primary school pupils, thesis online.

Delighted to find that this important work, which shows how guessing and input from pictures interfere with cihldren's understanding of text, is digitally available at this link. https://oro.open.ac.uk/57395/1/335512.pdf  Important work, alongside the late Katharine Perera's thesis on the development of phrasing in reading, availalble from the British Library https://ethos.bl.uk/SearchResults.do   (Title: The Development of Prosodic Features in Children's Oral Reading) 

The Literacy and Languages File. Revised and Extended. Drafts.

Download The Literacy and Languages File

Free clicker grids French

Please contact me if you'd like more, or send your own for distribition.  I've also included popular ppts on weather and colours. Sound files using Fr voices can be added if you have the software. Otherwise, best to turn the sound off! 

 

Download Frintro       Simple sentence with J'ai and masc nouns

Download Frintro+negative    Introducing     ne  pas + de

Download Je suis   

Download Je suis + neg

Download Sentence Building

 

Download Fr colours

Download Fr-weather-sound

Draft Protocol for small-scale research in introducing writing in French, German and Spanish.

The protocol is designed to investigate the initial stages of writing in these languages, without copying, based on the primary toolkits on this site. Correspondence welcomed.

Download Draft Protocol for small

A little amusement?

This is the OED's list of historical spellings of this small word. Usage, not science. 

Forms: OE letl- (inflected form, rare), OE litl- (inflected form), OE littl- (inflected form), OE lytl- (inflected form), OE lyttl- (inflected form), OE lytulu (feminine, rare), OE (Northumbrian) 15 lyttil, OE (Anglian)–15 lytil, OE (Northumbrian)–15 lyttel, OE (rare)–15 lytyl, OE–16 litel, OE–16 lytel, OE (Northumbrian)–16 lytell, lOE littere (dative feminine, transmission error), lOE lythl- (inflected form), lOE–16 littel, lOE–17 litell, eME lithl- (inflected form, in copy of OE charter), eME litol, ME leitel, ME litelle, ME littil, ME littull, ME littyll, ME litul, ME litull, ME litulle, ME lityl, ME luitel, ME lutel, ME lutele, ME lutelle, ME lutil, ME lutill, ME luttel, ME luttele, ME lutthle, ME luttle, ME lutyl, ME luytel, ME lytelle, ME lythyl, ME lytille, ME lytol, ME lyttylle, ME lytul, ME lytulle, ME 16 litile, ME 16 lutle, ME–15 litille, ME–15 lyttill, ME–15 lyttyll, ME–15 lytyle, ME–15 lytyll, ME–15 lytylle, ME–16 litil, ME–16 litill, ME–16 littill, ME–16 lityll, ME–16 lytill, ME–16 lytle, ME–16 lyttell, ME–17 litle, ME–17 littell, ME– little, 15 laytell, 15 letill, 15 letle, 15 lettel, 15 lettell, 15 lickell, 15 lityle, 15 lytlle, 15 lyttull, 15–16 lyttle, 16 lickle; English regional 17 19– laatle (Yorkshire), 18 lautle (Yorkshire), 18– laahtle (Yorkshire), 18– lahtle (Yorkshire), 18– laitil (Yorkshire), 18– leetle (southern), 18– leytel (Cumberland), 18– lickle, 18– liddle, 18– litle (Yorkshire), 18– lytel (Cumberland), 19– laitle (Yorkshire), 19– litle (Yorkshire); Scottish pre-17 laytille, pre-17 layttil, pre-17 layttill, pre-17 leitell, pre-17 letill, pre-17 letle, pre-17 lettell, pre-17 litel, pre-17 litele, pre-17 litell, pre-17 litil, pre-17 litile, pre-17 litill, pre-17 littel, pre-17 littell, pre-17 littil, pre-17 littill, pre-17 littl, pre-17 littll, pre-17 lyitill, pre-17 lytil, pre-17 lytile, pre-17 lytill, pre-17 lytille, pre-17 lytle, pre-17 lyttil, pre-17 lyttill, pre-17 lytyle, pre-17 lytyll, pre-17 17 litle, pre-17 17– little, 19– luttle, 19– luttul; Irish English 18 lethel (Wexford), 18 litha (Wexford), 18 lythea

Helping Your Child with Spelling - the "back story".

This ppt has an explanation of the development of En spelling from the phonically regular Anglo Saxon. For the full works, see David Crystal, Spell It out.

 

Download Helping your child with spelling.

Sir Thomas Allen, Royal College of Music.

 

To the Royal College of Music, for a masterclass by opera star Sir Thomas Allen. Three hours of teaching, closely matched to the highly varied requirements of five young singers, moving from intense concentration to hilarity as appropriate, and enhanced by his own singing, technique and stagecraft, beginning when he entered to thunderous applause and looked around him as if startled. Eric Morcombe could not have done it better. Sir Tom goes for subtlety, sound and phrasing based on deep understanding of the text and how its meaning is brought out and enhanced by the music, creating a new work of art. He spoke of living with texts for long periods before performing them and went into the smallest detail of pronunciation, such as whether or not to pronounce a final consonant to maintain a line, as if playing it on a cello. A Soft Day, sung here by Sharon Carty, shows the goal and the difficulty, for example, near the end, in a tiny diminuendo of four repeated words, from a very soft start.

The Royal College has an exciting programme of concerts by international artists and students, at very reasonable prices. Well worth keeping in touch. 

Michaela Community School - results, and their significance.

Now that the euphoria over Michaela Community School’s results has calmed down, we can consider their wider implications.

First, the facts. Four times the national average of the new top grade of Level 9 – 18 per cent of all entries, with two pupils (from 850 or so nationally) this grade in all subjects. Two and a half times the national average at L7+, equivalent to the former A grade, and 58 per cent Ebacc passes, compared to a national average over recent years in the low twenties. I’ve questioned the validity of the “progress 8” measure, which assesses GCSE results in terms of scores in English and maths tests at 11, but this is still an astonishing 1.5.

The Guardian, no friend of Michaela, said these results placed Michaela among the best state schools in the country, an understatement. They represent the latest milestone in a long journey that has extended the idea of who can succeed academically from the 25 per cent of pupils in the grammar school era, via 50 per cent in the Newsom “Half our Future” report of the early 60s, to the over 80 per cent achieved by Mossbourne nine years ago. Over 90 per cent of Michaela’s passes were at Level 4 (old C) and above, and there are grammar schiools not far away.

Michaela has not merely broken the mould but, as Katharine Birbalsingh put it, “smashed it”. Discussions with teachers at the school’s celebration evening on Friday added to what I’d learned on my visit two years ago. First, the low-level disruption that plagues education in many schools, including some rated outstanding – pupils only do it when inspectors are there if they really hate their teachers – is eliminated during the induction “boot camp”. Pupils who have been used to setting their own behaviour patterns have to change their ways – a smirk across the table when a teacher is talking brings an immediate 25 minute detention, and teachers do not back down in the face of a tantrum.

Second, pupils are grouped according to their abilities and learning needs. Unlike almost all other schools that do this, however, the same attention to detail is paid to the teaching of lower-attaining pupils as to top sets. The one valid objection to ability grouping, that lower sets do not get their share of the best teaching, does not apply, and Deputy Head Katy Ashford, who doubles as special needs co-ordinator, is a key figure in making this happen. No stigma is attached to lower sets, and visitors mentioning setting in front of pupils may be asked to leave.

Third, Michaela’s teaching is consistently thoughtful and systematic. Maths in the first year is arithmetic, based on the computer programme Times Tables Rockstars. Mr Bullock, Head of Year 7, does not comment when I say that this should have been done in primary school, but it ensures that nothing is left out by the time algebra is introduced in the second year. Pupils then work on the programme Hegarty Maths, which tracks individual progress, and do so every day. Detention is there if they don’t, but the constant positive feedback makes them want to. This is another key feature at Michaela – everyone, including nearly all visitors, comes to want to buy into the system.

Despite the obstacles and abuse she faced while setting up the school, Birbalsingh, like Sir Michael Wilshaw at Mossbourne. started with one advantage – a new staff who shared her values, commitment and determination. The young teachers joining the school this year, including some from the private sector, and a physics teacher straight from the Higgs boson project, have this experience to learn from, as well as making their own contribution. Former deputy Barry Smith, who has applied Michaela principles at Great Yarmouth, has had to overcome opposition from established staff, and deal with a group of seriously, and at times violently, disruptive pupils and hostile parents. Birbalsingh gives credit to nearby Ark Wembley Park school for adopting Michaela principles, with similarly positive results, showing that the approach works beyond her own school.

There were no politicians at the celebration evening, leaving the field to the people who have done the work – the staff, and pupils who have joined the new sixth form – entry level 7 passes at Grade 7 or above, aiming for Oxbridge and Russell Group universities, and the social mobility that these bring. It was a pity that Michael Gove could not be present at what is, in my view, his greatest achievement. But if the Conservative Conference in 2010 was Katharine Birbalsingh’s day, this was her night. And Michaela’s.

Katharine Birbalsingh - Michaela Triumph.

Katharine Birbalsingh

 

@Miss_Snuffy

 

1. Told you will never work in the state sector again.

 

2. 3 years fighting detractors to set up a free school, call it Michaela.

 

3. 5 years with an amazing team, transforming kids’ lives & fighting the good fight every day!

 

4. Thursday August 22: GCSE results finally here 

 

Nine years ago, and perhaps not entirely aware of it, Katharine Birbalsingh stood on the Conservative Conference platform and risked her career by telling the truth about education in typical London schools. She got the sack, and the progressive establishment showed what it thought by honouring the head who had forced her out. When she tried to set up her Free School, local authorities in South London fought tooth and nail to deny her a site by refusing planning permission. When Michaela finally opened, five years ago, in an office block on a main road beside Wembley Stadium, its location was about as unsuitable as could be imagined. I’d only seen one school work successfully in such circumstances – Menorah High School, also in Brent – but I’d seen in Esther Pearlman what a brilliant head could do in those circumstances,and knew that Katharine would succeed.

The wonderful atmosphere I saw on my visit two years ago https://www.conservativehome.com/localgovernment/2017/07/john-bald-a-visit-to-michaela.html convinced me, in common with virtually every other visitor, that we were seeing something very special. The pupils were happy, polite, and grateful for all of the work the teachers were doing for them – those I talked to were frank about having done virtually no work in their primary schools, and about their satisfaction now that they were succeeding. Pupils learning French could speak French, progress in written English was astonishing, in scope and content as well as accuracy, and there was genuine partnership in every lesson.

Ofsted had been equally impressed, and noted exceptional progress across the ability range. But – early days, no results, many a slip. Barry Jones, the brilliant French teacher and Deputy Head, left soon afterwards to take his version of the Michaela message to Great Yarmouth. Not an easy person to replace, although another deputy (and special needs co-ordinator), Katie Ashford remained within a strong senior team. Would Michaela’s first GCSE results have the same impact as Mossbourne’s had in 2010, when it smashed the glass ceiling for Hackney pupils and inspired the revolution in Conservative education policy?

We now know the answer is yes. Or rather, YES! Katharine and her colleagues have hit the ball so far out of the park that we’ll never find it again. Social mobility depends on giving young people the skills they need to compete on equal terms, and for the most able, that means top grades and not passes. Level 9 on the reformed system is set at a very demanding level, with an average of 4.5% of the entry achieving it. Michaela pupils, who are not selected by ability, did not just match or even double that figure, but quadrupled it, with 18% of passes at level 9. Passes at L7+ were over double the national average. Overall pass rates were well into the nineties in virtually all subjects. Triumph is an understatement. Michaela is the first unequivocal success of Conservative Ministers’ determination to return schools to their proper purposes, and may well turn out to be the greatest.

Elsewhere, the positive picture of this year’s results has come as a disappointment to the government’s opponents in the Unions, who have called for a review of reforms. They have a point about the level of stress for lower-attaining candidates, which needs to be tackled by providing a gentler curve of difficulty in some examination paper. They discount, though, the negative effects of Labour’s grind of incessant coursework and resits, which in some cases was as bad or worse. Michaela’s provisional score on the statistical progress 8 measure is close to a record at 1.5, though this remnant of the LibDem influence in the coalition is less reliable, as some schools game it by choosing soft subjects in which passing grades are easier to obtain. Such manipulation is denying some pupils the chance to study a new language. The best way to stop it would be to replace Progress 8 with publication of each school’s full results by grade and subject, leaving parent and employers to take account of the context of the school for themselves. As the starting point for progress 8 is restricted to SAT test scores in maths and English at 11, it is hardly an indication of progress in any other subjects.

Nick Gibb gave a wide-ranging and effective presentation of the reforms on the Today programme, pointing to the first sign of improvement in the take-up of languages, and to the protection of candidates from wide fluctuations in results, a point that applies equally to A level. There is still proper concern at the quality of marking – the appeals system changes only a small proportion of grades, but makes each board judge in its own cause. It should be replaced by an independent system, responsible to Ofqual. More on this, and on other schools’ success stories, in the weeks to come, but in the meantime I look forward to raising a glass to Katharine Birbalsingh, her colleagues and pupils, in what must surely be their finest hour.