Teach-Primary-Issue-19.4

Footballers who practise regularly are more likely to be picked for top teams than those who do not. It is best not to approach dogs that you do not know. Non-defining relative clause The non-defining relative clause contains additional information that is not essential for the sentence to make sense. This information is contained within commas, brackets or dashes and can be removed from the sentence without impacting the meaning: My sister, who is called Laura, is really annoying. My dog, which is always hungry, munched the sofa. In the following example, the first sentence suggests that all mangoes taste delicious and additionally are grown in hot countries, which is unnecessary information added by the relative clause. However, the second sentence suggests that only mangoes grown in hot countries taste delicious: Mangoes, which are grown in hot countries, taste delicious. T he level of grammatical understanding needed rises significantly between Lower Key Stage 2 and Upper Key Stage 2. One area that requires a very strong level of grammatical understanding, is relative pronouns and relative clauses. Introduced in Year 5, the national curriculum descriptor states that children should be ‘Using relative clauses beginning with who, which, where, when, whose, that or with an implied (i.e. omitted) relative pronoun’. Most children already use relative clauses without realising it, but may find the punctuation of them difficult. This is where understanding the different types – defining and non-defining relative clauses – is beneficial. The difference between defining and non-defining relative clauses essentially refers to whether the relative clause needs to be contained within commas, brackets or dashes, or not. Children do not necessarily need to know the exact terminology here, but it may be useful for them to help understand when commas, brackets and dashes are required. Defining relative clause The defining relative clause contains information that is essential for the sentence to make complete sense. The information is not contained within punctuation and cannot be removed. E.g: Mangos which are grown in hot countries taste delicious. Teaching relative pronouns and relative clauses As well as relative clauses, it is important that children know when they should use different relative pronouns ( which, that, when, where, whose, who ). After explicitly teaching each one through modelled examples, you could show incorrect examples for children to correct, or provide the entire sentence without the relative pronoun and ask children to select the correct pronoun. See the online version of this article for an extensive list of how to model each relative pronoun. To introduce children to defining relative clauses (where commas, brackets and dashes are not required), you could give them the How to teach RELATIVE CLAUSES Help pupils pin down the who, which, and when of this oft-misunderstood grammatical concept, with Sarah Farrell “Most children already use relative clauses without realising it, but may find the punctuation difficult” 58 | www.teachwire.net