VCOP and SPaG Parents’ Information Morning

Monday 15th June 2015

Aims of today’s workshop:•Understand the new curriculum and what SPaG and VCOP are•Demonstrate•Encourage partnership•Support

The New National Curriculum

• Lots of similarities to the old curriculum but some different terminology and emphasis

• Broken into KS1, Lower KS2 and Upper KS2• Spoken Language (same across all key stages)• Reading (word reading and comprehension)• Writing – transcription (basically spelling – detailed in a

separate document – and handwriting)• Writing - Composition (planning, drafting, discussing,

composing for different purposes, evaluating, proof-reading)• Writing – vocabulary, grammar and punctuation (VCOP and

correct grammar – detailed in a separate document)

Main changes

• Stronger emphasis on vocabulary development, grammar, punctuation and spelling (for example, the use of commas and apostrophes will be taught in KS1) Punctuation has got tougher. However, our children are in good stead for this due to our thorough use of VCOP before!

• Handwriting – not currently assessed under the national curriculum – is expected to be fluent, legible and speedy

• Larger emphasis on the planning, editing and re-drafting area of writing

• Focus on purpose and understanding how this purpose effects how we write

What is SPaG?

• Spelling• Punctuation• Grammar• This has been tested in Year 6 already and will be formally

tested in Year 2 in 2016.• Spelling is detailed in a separate document. For KS1 is

mainly linked to phonics, KS2 more complex but similar to old Support for Spelling. (More info on progression hand-out)

• As mentioned before, there is a document called vocabulary, grammar and punctuation which details P and G.

Improving writing• Using Big Writing • Writing skills lesson• Writing skills starter when there is a

reading focus to the lesson• Planning skills• Reading stories • Shared Writing• Spelling/phonics• Up-levelling• Looking at examples of writing

BIG WRITING• Takes 1 ½ hours per week. 1 hour for KS1. (more sessions if

needed)

• Should be split with a break in between.

• The beginning is a talking activity, then analysing a piece of writing – what style is it? What are the features? What is good about it? What could be improved? What VCOP does it use?

• Planning – modelled and then completed individually or in groups

• Writing - modelled and then completed individually or in groups

What is VCOP?

• Vocabulary = teach a wide range of words, (ambitious vocabulary); adjectives, adverbs, not using boring words e.g. said

• Connectives = teach a wide range of words and phrases for connecting sentences

• Openers = teach a wide range of ways of opening sentences,

• Punctuation = teach a wide range of punctuation.

VocabularyConnectivesOpenersPunctuation

Noun - a describing word, a word that names a person, place or thing:

The tired, scared boy trudged slowly through the thick mud.

Adjective – a word that describes a noun:

The tired, scared boy trudged slowly through the thick mud.

Verb - a doing word, a word to describe action:

The tired, scared boy trudged slowly through the thick mud.

Adverb - A word to describe how the verb is being done:

The tired, scared boy trudged slowly through the thick mud.

Harry gave Hermoine a thunderous glare as he stalked haughtily past her.The ball whizzed past his head at a staggering speed.

The house was old and dilapidated and Sophie approached it cautiously.

The horse stood majestically in the luscious green field.

The girl had a pet rabbit and the boy had a pet dog.I like to play football but I don’t like to play cricket.

Because he ate too many sweets Bart was sick.

Openers

• Ways to Start Example• “When” starter Last night…. (time

connectives)• “How” starter Carefully, he crept …..• “Where” starter Across the road….• Name starter Bill wandered ….• Simile Like an eel …..• Adjective starter Tall trees towered overhead

….• “-ed” verbs Excited, Joanna ran …..• “-ing” verbs Running quickly, Tim felt …..

Punctuation.

• Full stop.

• CAPITAL LETTERS

• Question mark?

• Exclamation mark!

Commas

• to separate items in a list.

Sugar, tea, coffee, bananas and grapes.

• also used to join two sentences together.

The cave was dark, we couldn’t see a thing.

,

Speech marks

“They go around the words that a character speaks,” explained Mr Brewis.

Jack softly whispered “I think we’re lost.”

“I think we’re lost,” Jack softly whispered.

They only go around the words that actually come out of the character’s mouth!

Apostrophes

• we use them for possession:

George’s pencil, Terry’s idea.

• and when we are shortening or joining

words by removing letters

I’ve (I have), didn’t (did not), can’t (can not)

X They aren’t used when we are talking about more than one (plural): 2 duck’s. X

’

Ellipsis

We use these if we want to keep the reader hanging on.

Our sentence is trailing off...

Jack thought he was all alone, but was he...

Brackets

( )

Brackets are used when we want to add something to our sentence that doesn’t need to be there.

It’s like adding a titbit of information just for your reader to make them feel (extra) special.

In the cave it was far too dark to see the monster although I could smell his (terrible) breath!

The cat went along the wall.

The cat went along the wall.

The fluffy ginger cat prowled along the red brick wall.

The fluffy ginger cat prowled along the red brick wall.

The fluffy ginger cat prowled along the red brick wall because he was spying on a juicy bird.

The fluffy ginger cat prowled along the red brick wall because he was spying on a juicy bird.

Whilst licking his lips, the fluffy ginger cat prowled along the red brick wall because he was spying on a juicy bird.

Whilst licking his lips, the fluffy ginger cat prowled along the red brick wall because he was spying on a juicy bird.

Whilst licking his lips, the fluffy ginger cat (who had sharp teeth) prowled along the red brick wall because he was spying on a juicy bird!

The cat went along the wall.

Whilst licking his lips, the fluffy ginger cat (who had sharp teeth) prowled along the red brick wall because he was spying on a juicy bird!

We went from:

To:

Using VCOP!

What a wonderful way to improve our writing!

Progression Document

See separate sheet.

Useful websites for glossary -

http://www.theschoolrun.com/primary-literacy-glossary-for-parents

VCOP pyramids

VCOP pyramids

VCOP pyramids

VCOP pyramids

What are you going to see today?

• Year R – using phonic knowledge to write sentences• Year 1 – sorting VCOP, up-levelling sentences• Year 2 – analysing texts for VCOP, punctuation for

different sentence types• Year 3 – up-levelling sentences using VCOP• Year 4 – using the correct tense• Year 5 – using modal verbs• Year 6 – using higher level connectives, brackets and

dashes