Grammar in Key Stage 2

I've mentioned before that the national curriculum document for Key Stage 2 Languages doesn't give us much to go on as far as content is concerned.  It's particularly impenetrable for the non-specialist teacher.  The grammar part is the "bit" of the two-and-a bit pages of the document:

"understand basic grammar appropriate to the language being studied, including (where relevant): feminine, masculine and neuter forms and the conjugation of high-frequency verbs; key features and patterns of the language; how to apply these, for instance, to build sentences; and how these differ from or are similar to English."

On the face of it, there doesn't appear to be a great deal to it.  However, if you drill down into these simple statements, such as "the conjugation of high-frequency verbs", there are a lot of grammatical points to be covered if children are to build sentences and longer texts successfully.

I have been thinking about exactly what grammar we need to cover in Key Stage 2 to enable this part of the curriculum to be met, to enable children to write longer texts confidently and coherently and, of course, to lay a solid basis for Key Stage 3.  I have used Mindomo to mindmap the grammar that I think we need for French and Spanish.  Please feel free to use these mindmaps to help you in your work and to show your English co-ordinator what you do!  Very many thanks to members of the Languages in Primary Schools Facebook group for their input and lively discussions about what should be included and what we should call it!

French:

 Spanish:

Vocabulary Maps

If you've read my posts over the last few months, you'll know about my passion for Sketchnoting.  I was very interested to see pop into my Inbox last weekend an email about Vocabulary Maps.

Vocabulary Maps are the brainchild of Tom and Susi in the Czech Republic.  They are mind maps which show the links between nouns, adjectives, verbs, phrases and idioms within a certain topic.  The pictures are a very important part of each map, and they help to embed the vocabulary via the visual memory.

If we look at the Vocabulary Map for bird, for example, it links to nouns such as eye, tail and feather, and also phrases and idioms such as bird's eye view, the early bird catches the worm and to take somebody under your wing.  Egg links to nouns, verbs such as whisk, fry and scramble as well as sayings and idioms.

I have been in touch with Tom this week to find out more about the Vocabulary Maps.  He says:
"...vocabulary maps are suitable for VISUAL LEARNERS - learners of a second language, a teacher's aid, homeschooling parents, young native speakers, special education students or even just brushing up on vocabulary in a foreign language.. pretty much everyone, it just depends on how you choose to use the maps and that you like visual learning."

At the moment the maps are available in English, German, Czech and Spanish, with French in development.

Tom and Susi are crowd-funding via Kickstarter at the moment.  Why not back them and have a go at using the vocabulary maps.  I have!