Teach-Reading-and-Writing-Issue-21

assured and conscious control. By deciding where in the sentence the adverbial phrase or clause is, a writer can move the reader’s focus within the sentence and develop atmosphere. Let’s consider the example given in the panel opposite, which illustrates the thought process a child might go through when considering how to use adverbials to build on a simple sentence. This is the level of thought you want children to be going through when they build sentences using adverbial phrases. They should be thinking about the effect their word choices and the word order will have on the reader. You want them to consider whether they have enough information in the sentence and, conversely, whether they have too much and therefore need to omit some words or phrases. Exploring adverbials practically I think this level of experimentation is best done by physically moving sentence parts around, rather than M y favourite part of grammar is adverbials. They are the herbs and spices in a grammatical meal, turning a fairly plain sentence into a culinary masterpiece. Their flexibility within a sentence allows you to play around with the effect you want to create. What is an adverbial? An adverbial is a group of words that acts as an adverb, and modifies the main clause in the sentence. Adverbials tell you when, where, how or why an action occurs. Adverbial phrases do not include a verb. Adverbial clauses do have a verb, but the clause will be sub- ordinate to the main clause in the sentence. An example of an adverbial clause would be When Charlie knocked on the door, Max stopped studying . (The adverbial clause here tells us why and when Max stopped studying.) Putting adverbials to use The end of the Key Stage 2 writing framework talks about ‘assured and conscious control’. It is referring to levels of formality, but adverbials also allow young writers to demonstrate writing in a book with a pen and paper. Doing it as a physical activity allows for collaboration and conversation around choice and effect. Pen and paper feel more final – they don’t allow for the experimentation that adverbs really require and truly deserve. As a school, we have been using colourful semantics for a number of years as a speech and language intervention. The approach, created by Alison Bryan, is designed to help children develop their understanding of sentence structure and expand their sentences. When creating sentence-building activities as a school, we use the same colours as those detailed in the approach, to allow links to be made between the intervention and the learning in class. Worksheet 1 and Slide pack 1 were created using the colourful semantics approach, to develop sentence construction understanding with a Year 3 class using Sophie Kirtley’s book, The Wild Way Home . Worksheet 2 also follows the colourful semantics colours; it can be Adventures with ADVERBIALS Get children adding a bit of grammatical spice to their sentences, says Laura Dobson used with Slide Pack 1 , and the cards are linked to a text our Year 4 classes use: The Wolves of Currumpaw by William Grill. Even if you don’t use colourful semantics as a school, I still highly recommend this sentence building approach. Worksheet 3 provides children with a range of adverbials, colour- coordinated according to their purpose. Ask pupils to work out which colour correlates with which purpose (when, where and how) and then either give them a simple sentence or get them to write one. Now challenge them to build the sentence up using the adverbials. You may decide to add adjectives, too. Worksheet 4 is a game: Does it work? For this game, you will need a 1–10 dice or a spinner. The instructions are written at the top of the sheet. This game allows children to consider sense when building sentences. ‘ As still as a statue, the lions roared .’ This is nonsensical because the adverbial doesn’t relate to the verb ‘ roared ’ and in the adverbial the singular ‘a’ is used, but in the main clause it is the plural ‘ lions ’. Children may not describe these things technically, but a more general discussion around sense will ultimately lead to more thoughtful writing. 30 | www.teachwire.net “Try not to overthink grammar and get bogged down in the terminology”