"This book is a complete bible of how to improve a child’s understanding of constructing well structured sentences with confidence."
I always love receiving the Ninja books. I have reviewed many and they are put into use almost immediately. This book is a complete bible of how to improve a child’s understanding of constructing well structured sentences with confidence.
It provides a clear guide throughout the KS2 years. The first half of the book focuses on a well laid out plan, term by term year by year, on how teachers can provide their classes with the fundamental understanding of sentence structure both grammatically and creatively. As Jenning observes, if we were teaching long division we would help the pupils to master the ability with repeated practice and strategies to help imbed the skill. With sentences we almost assume the children will absorb the structure. If we were teaching English as a foreign language, we would analyse the sentences and break down the complexities, yet traditionally we do not provide our children with a ‘toolkit’ that will embed the skills. This book successfully bridges this gap, and supplies the tool kit too.
The second half of the book includes activities and photocopiable resources to practice. They are well researched and explained with a variety of approaches such as missing words, unjumbling sentences and hunting for parts of speech. Conjunctions are explained with acronyms and modelled sentences, and dictations are provided to support the worksheets. There are short targets, so easy to use at the start of a lesson and excellent modelling examples. The format of the worksheets works as a ‘base camp’ whereby each year/term you build on the skills of the previous term. The familiarity of the exercises and the repetition of skills helps embed the knowledge and leads to increased confidence and ability.
Why did no one think of this before? Everything is so clearly explained. Skills are embedded, progress is monitored and writing style improved. A win for all and another success.
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