by Tori Murphy
Something I remember being taught on my PGCE is that, ‘Every teacher is a teacher of literacy’. It is something that I have since said to trainees and NQTs on numerous occasions. But what does it mean and why is it so important?
Being a teacher of literacy does not mean we all need to start to talk about Shakespeare in our lessons. For me, being a teacher of literacy means addressing SPaG errors, helping students to learn to read correctly (by which I mean correcting them if they pronounce a word incorrectly or do not use correct intonation when reading aloud in class) and correcting their grammar when they give verbal answers (e.g. when they say ‘was’ instead of ‘were’). The focus of this article is how I have started to tackle SPaG in my classroom this year.
SPaG (Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar) is something we should all address. It’s something that we, as teachers, need to know about! It’s important that if we are unsure of how to spell something that we look it up and model this to students. I think it’s also important for us to know the basics when using grammar and punctuation. After all, how are we meant to correct this in our students’ work if we don’t know how to use an apostrophe or a capital letter? I believe we should try to educate ourselves if we are unsure of any of these things so that we can ensure we are giving our students the best education possible.
This year I have started to use four new strategies. One I am using with all classes, from Y7 to Y13, and the other three I am trialling with two classes each. So far, so good!
Highlighting SPaG errors
Thanks to Lizzie O’Sullivan for emailing me at the start of the academic year to tell me something she was trialling with her classes. I decided to do the same and it has saved me time and made the students more responsible for their own learning. It’s such a simple yet effective technique too! I simply highlight any SPaG errors in students’ work rather than correcting them. So instead of underlining and writing sp. or gr. In the margin, I just highlight the word (or missing apostrophe etc.). The first thing students are then instructed to do in DIRT (Dedicated Improvement and Reflection Time) is correct their errors. I ask for hands up for students to tell me any words they need spelling. This way I am writing the word once on the whiteboard as opposed to many times in students’ books. They then use a green pen to correct the word. I then circulate to check any others where students are unsure why a word has been highlighted. This was taking me some time at the start but the time has reduced each week as students are starting to realise why they have made mistakes. To aid this process I produced a SPaG sheet. This is currently being stuck on to books to allow the students to check other spellings and some basic grammar and punctuation advice without them having to ask me. I also moved the dictionaries out of my cupboard and to the shelves at the back of my room so that students are able to use these more freely.
For the other strategies I have trialled each with one KS4 (Pre 6th) and one KS3 class. So far, the most successful strategies are ‘word of the lesson’ and ‘SPaG experts’ but I expect the ‘class challenge’ to have more of an impact later in the year, if it is to have an impact at all. Watch this space!
Word of the Lesson
Each lesson we have 1-2 ‘Words of the Lesson’. These are usually words associated with the learning taking place that lesson but that are often misspelt, for example the last ones with my Pre 6th class were ‘Christians’ and ‘alleviate’. They each receive a smiley if they spell and use the word correctly in that lesson. I make a note of this on a post-it note when I am marking their books so this doesn’t really take much time. To increase the impact, after advice from Joe Weir (thanks, Joe!), I have started asking students to record these at the back of their books with a short definition of the word and the part of the word underlined where students often make errors (e.g. Christians). The words also remain on the whiteboard throughout the lesson for students to refer back to. This is working with both classes, with no more than 20% of students misspelling these words in these lessons.
Class Challenge
I have two classes that have fewer students in than my other classes, so with these I decided to try something different. After hearing a similar strategy used by one of our NQTs, Terry Pearson (thanks, Terry!), I have set them a class challenge: if they all have no SPaG errors for a full two lessons (as I mark their books every 2 lessons as opposed to 4) then they will receive a class reward of their choice (within reason!) e.g. chocolate. This hasn’t happened yet but we have been close a few times and it is really motivating my Pre 6th boys to work together. In RE we have single sex classes and both of the classes I am trialling this with are boys. Having this competitive element is helping to motivate them.
SPaG Experts
Finally, I have two classes whereby each time I mark their books I record on a post-it note any students who have not made any SPaG errors. These students then become the ‘SPaG Experts’ for the following two lessons. These are students who other students can consult rather than having to ask me for a spelling etc. These students get a smiley too so there is the incentive there to try to not make any errors as well as having these students there as support for others. Students have responded really well to this.
With all of these strategies it requires the teacher to remember to use them consistently and remind the students of the strategies continuously too. But if this happens then the students respond well, it saves teacher time when marking and should have a considerable impact on students’ literacy levels.