Connectives and their levels

I have been asked to give some idea as to the levels different connectives are considered to reflect, so I have enclosed a list below;

Level 3/4

and

but

so

because

then

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Obviously we are aiming to get their levels beyond this point and they will be so used to using these words, they will be over-using them. Time to increase their usage, but to do that we need to make sure they have a copy of some other connectives and how to use them. Here are some they will already know but as yet, may not have absorbed into their repertoire:

Level 4/5

when

because

while

before

after

until

so

where

although

though

even if

so that

if

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I would give them this list and suggest to them they stop using the word 'and' replacing it with something else, perhaps from this list.

What are they looking for in Literacy?

We know only too well, the standards of English have been declining in our society. The mobile and internet has lead to the birth of new ways of communicating, and with them, new abbreviated forms of words and phrases. This hasn't exactly helped familiarity with the written word, and the less we write the less proficient we have become.
I am not saying computers are bad, far from it. They allow for easy editing of our work, support dyslexics in creating pieces of writing not necessarily held back by their unique ways of representing the English language and make writing quicker and more efficient than the old pen and paper methods.
But, it has also taken away quite a lot and the out cry from businesses that "many overseas students speak and write better English that we do,” has caused OFSTED to wake up and start to demand higher levels and more skills from our KS2 pupils. And of course, they are quite capable of doing it, and, given the input will rise to the challenges presented to them.
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If, in a piece of writing, a ten year old boy can write, "a piercing noise echoed in his ears as a gigantic, cunning looking dragon menacingly swooped in towards the bewildered figure" then who are we to deny them that opportunity? 
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So the standards demanded in schools are on the up. How can we support that and what can we do to assist in their development?

Build their Word Power

Here are some games I have used in school in the past which transfer to the family very well and I know are enjoyed by those who play it, especially when mum and dad get things wrong!!
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The dictionary game

In this game each of you will need a dictionary. One of you chooses to say the meaning of the word (whichever is chosen) whilst the other determines where in the dictionary the word is to come from.
Say there are 380 pages, then the person choosing their word will say which page, then say whether it can be chosen from the top, middle or bottom of the page. The person with the dictionary follows their instructions and at the last minute will choose one of the words from that area. They say the word and then the other person has to guess the meaning.
When I played this game in class, I would split them up into teams and each word they defined correctly would be awarded either 5 points for spot on, 3 for pretty good and 1 point for vaguely right. The team who won the most points would get a go at the sweets jar! You decide what the incentive is.
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The alphabet game

In this game you choose a topic, say, ANIMALS, and then go through the alphabet in alphabetic order saying an animal for each letter. Again in class, I would have them all standing in a circle with a stuffed toy and as they said their animal the stuffed toy would be passed to the next person, that way everyone knew when it was their turn. In class, as there were 29 of them, as they could go they were knocked out and the winner got a go at the sweet jar?
It’s a good game and makes them think of words, which they already know but haven't necessarily realised they know.
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I am thinking of a word

To begin, you decide on a category; this could be science, sports, books, or something fairly broad. One person thinks of a word from that category and says, "I am thinking of a word." The other person has either 20, 15 or 10 guesses to work out what that word is. The person who is thinking of the word can only answer "yes" or "no".

New Year and a 'new' timetable

Well, not as dramatic as it sounds but there are some changes so please make sure you are aware of them. Most of the changes have already been arranged but there are a few where times have altered, so please, see if that's you.

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May half term holiday sees a real change; those who are not on the 11+ course leave me and those taking the 11+ start coming to me every week. This timetable is now published and on the board for you to check. Please let me know is there are any impossibilities, but as you will see from the timetable there is no real room for changes, so your requests may not be possible I am afraid, although I will do my very best to fit your requirements.
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Those who will be leaving will need to let me know if they wish to return next academic year. I am aware of a couple but the remainder, unless you specify, I will presume will not be returning.
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So, to all my clients old and new, may I wish you all a wonderful New Year, may it be prosperous, successful and filled with happiness and joy.

Its almost Christmas! Yay!

Unless your child has an exam in January or February then give them a break, let them enjoy Christmas without the weight of testing, homework and all the rest of the stuff its tempting to do whilst they are off from school.

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If you want them to do some work then make it fun; find some videos on You Tube which will teach them something, as with the Chuckra verbal reasoning videos, designed for the 11 plus and still useful for those going for entrance exams in year 7.
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 How about the holiday games on coolmaths4kids which will stretch their minds, get them working logically and sequentially as well as having great fun.
Then there are the puzzle books with spot the difference, word searches, crosswords, maths puzzles; all will stimulate their brains but in a way which doesn't feel like work.
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There will be work to do no doubt, but let them relax and remember, they don't go back until Monday 6th January, so use the time after Christmas and then a couple of days in January to get them back into the swing of it, they will go back to school relaxed and refreshed.
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One major reason children have regular holiday time away from the pressures of school is to forget the stuff they didn't quite get and absorb what they did. Let's give them that period because if they are sitting 11+ in September there wont be that many breaks after Easter!!
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To all my students, past and present, have a great Christmas and fabulous New Year celebrations.

A scene from The Piano

Whilst watching the animated, Aniboom version of The Piano, a scene caught the imagination of one of my students. Grace went to the computer and produced this piece;

I reached the wall with a sigh of relief. A soldier was near me. My heart was pounding; my spine was shivering. This was a serious moment. We had to fight to save our country. Right this moment I am standing with a soldier, the horrible smell of smoke and dampness fills the air. Stones are all over the ground, I nearly tripped. The soldier was just about to leave. I had to give him the signal.

“Ready, go!” I shouted.

I could hardly hear myself talk. Suddenly, BANG!!!

The soldier on my team had just been shot. I ran to help. “Are you OK? Please be with me, I know you can make it,” I murmured.

His head flopped and I knew what this meant; he didn’t make it. It turned pitch black.

What makes this successful?

Reading it, you will note the style of using statements rather than long, complex sentences; this gives the reader the sudden, jolting, advancing of the action and gives Grace a level 6 for atmospheric creation.

The paragraphing and text organisation is, again, creating the mood as well as the darkness of the whole scene, gaining a level 6.

Her punctuation uses a full range, from full stops to semi-colons and therefore moves her piece into the level 5a/6 range once more.

Where does it not quite hold those levels is in the formatting of the adverbs, adjectives and connectives which are still at level 4, but this piece of work shows such promise and gives us all an idea of what can be achieved by a ten year old, especially when they have worked at developing their own style, language knowledge and of course, accuracy in using punctuation.

Well done Grace, I look forward to the next piece of work from you.

All children should be able to verbally reason things out

Whether your child is sitting the 11+ or not, for a child to develop as wholly as possible, the skills found in Verbal Reasoning and Non-verbal Reasoning are important skills opening  up as many potential avenues as possible in their brain development.

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Let's think about this using an analogy; in new civic buildings it is becoming customary not to lay in footpaths, apart from the basic few, but to lay the rest to grass. There is a reason behind this, the developers are watching where the short cuts are being taken by the greatest number of feet. Once these well worn tracks are established and muddy, very often the landscapers will come along and insert paths following the lines laid out in the now well worn grass.
Brains are very similar, if the same methods are used over and over again, they too get worn into the 'grass' of the brain and these become the main way of solving the problem. But what if those methods are of no use to solving a particular problem? What happens if the child does not have a pathway established which could open up a possible solution? The child gets stuck, it has to look outside of itself, it learns a new strategy, 'rely on others to solve your problem', a well worn pathway in some. It maybe successful, but will it teach them?> Will it support them later on?
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I suggest the answer to this one is, no.

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So, where can we extend and create a greater network of pathways? That comes form the skills they learn through solving verbal and non-verbal puzzles, and this is where a group of people who have put a You Tube channel together, come into the equation. Their videos on how to do the various types of problems, together with a suitable verbal reasoning book, give the opportunity for the child to learn new ways of thinking and new skills which they can take into the classroom.
Chuckra Verbal Reasoning Practice has 15 videos each covering a different VR skill. The way they present the information is clear and concise and in language which is understandable by years 4, 5 and 6; although I would suggest a parent accompanies them as they learn so as to be able to re-inforce any work they do later.
I mentioned a book, and the best I have ever come across is one by Susan J Daughtrey M.Ed. She has produced a series of 4 books which include, how to do each type [a useful back up for the work they have watched on video] and a page of examples to try. I am not saying you HAVE to buy these books because they do not come cheap [about £5.50 each] but they are well worth exploring and if you can get them from Amazon then all the better.
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OK, that's the verbal but what about the non-verbal?

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That comes from puzzles and problems you find in many puzzle books, such as word searches, mazes, spot the difference, what is the next shape in a sequence and so on. They best way to extend their non-verbal skills? Buy some puzzle books and take them away when you go one holiday or get some in so on a wet and cold day when its no good to go outside, get out the puzzles and have a go at cracking them together. As you work with them they will be learning your strategies as well as their own; in the end they will be off on their own, and sometimes, just sometimes, they will be beating you.

The latest on the 11+ arrangements

Scanning through Google as I do from time to time and keeping an ear open to what parents have gleaned, the following URLs should be of interest to those taking the 11+ this year.
The first article was on another BLOG called Tutors International where they commented on how it would be impossible for any council to make something 'un-tutorable', something I have been saying all along.
The next came in a report found on the KCC website; KCC announces contractor to run Kent Test
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The important sentence here is as follows; There will be two main tests, one assessing reasoning ability and one assessing pupils’ attainment in literacy and numeracy.

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What this will mean is the non-verbal reasoning paper will be dropped in favour of the verbal reasoning and the maths and English (new to Kent) will be incorporated into one exam. There will also be a timed essay and the whole test will be done in one day. 

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In some ways this is returning to how it was many years ago but the maths and English were separate exams then. Now, with the exams combined it means the whole test will be dealt with quickly and the children will get one sleepless night rather than two!

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The other thing which is interesting is the contractor - GL Assessment, the very people who have been producing the test papers up until now. This does give us some idea, therefore of the way in which the questions will be asked and the language the children sitting the exam will be expected to understand. A leap of faith then takes us closer to the way the test papers will be structured and people like me begin to sense what is expected even more than before.

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Escher: self portrait

What do I expect looking into the crystal ball?

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 I will expect maths up to and including level 5 with a lot of Problem Solving type questions which will be aimed at determining how the child thinks, creates strategies, organises the processes and then completes the arithmetic involved. 
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There will be algebra involved so as to determine whether the child has the ability to think abstractly and perform tasks in the language of mathematics. There will also be the standard decimals, percentages, fractions, ratio, shapes, triangles, perimeter, area, co-ordinates, graphs, averages etc.. 
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The English is going to want to be able to extract information from a written piece, know what are various forms of language such as pronouns, adverbs, statements, clauses, verbs, nouns (and the various types) etc as well as being able to create a story or factual passage which has a start a middle and an end, has good use of punctuation, uses languages to a high level, knows how to use the various skills such as paragraphing, speech, inference etc..
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What does that mean for my child?

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The work usually completed here at jobelltutoring will to a large extent remain the same with as strong emphasis on the mathematics through instruction, play and puzzles as well as raising the standards of the English through the Verbal Reasoning Manual AND, and this is a change already in force, an introduction of a stronger English/literacy element which will hopefully support what is being done in schools to raise the standards in this particular area. As you will see from some of the work created by students from last year, standards are high and the use of language, grammar and punctuation very important too.
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If you are worried about your child's standards in English, there are a  few very good books around which can support them. A very good one is by Bond and it is the 10 Minute tests in English. I like this one because it is just 10 minutes and then they are free of it. They could do one every alternate day and 10 minutes wouldn't make a very big hole in their time; I am aware of how hard it is to get children to do these tests especially English when they feel they aren't very good at it, but find a way even if to start with you do it together........some of it will be going in as long as you resist the temptation to do it all. There is a saying,
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"salience times repetition equals learning"
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Sadly when the salience is low, the repetition has to be high and when it comes to English,  this is often the case.
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