Why is it important to know how to teach punctuation
at word level?
The National Curriculum for English at Key Stages 3 and 4 has
the following requirement:
Writing: Punctuation
- Pupils should be taught to use the full
range of punctuation marks correctly.
The Key Stage 3
National Strategy: Framework for teaching English:
Years 7, 8 and 9 has the following objectives:
Year 7: Word level
Spelling
Pupils should revise, consolidate and secure
the use of the apostrophe
including: omissions; the possessive
apostrophe; apostrophising
plurals, e.g. ladies' coats,
and words ending in s; the exception of possessive
pronouns;
Year 8: Word level
Spelling
Pupils should be taught to review,
consolidate and secure the spelling conventions covered in Year 7 which
include: … apostrophes.
KS3 pupils' strengths and weaknesses in word-level
punctuation
Strengths:
- More able writers use
omissive
apostrophes accurately.
Weaknesses:
- The correct use of the
possessive
apostrophe still causes significant
difficulty at KS3.
- Even the strongest KS3 writers may make
possessive apostrophe errors in 50% of occurrences.
- Many pupils are still unsure when to use
hyphens and capital letters.
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