New UCL one-day course for secondary school teachers: Teaching English Grammar in Context

Overview

The new National Curriculum requires teachers to teach English grammar, starting in primary school and maintained throughout Key Stages 3 – 5 at secondary school.

There are plenty of debates around the nature of how grammar should be taught, but in this course we advocate the use of a contextualised approach. This means teaching and learning about grammar through the use of authentic texts, and encouraging discussions and explorations around meanings, choices and effects. This highly interactive course is designed for secondary school teachers who want to find out more about such an approach.

Based on the latest developments in educational and linguistic research, the course is designed to help teachers who:

• want to explore interesting and engaging methods for teaching grammar in relation to a range of texts, genres and styles;
• want usable and accessible teaching ideas to take back into their own classrooms;
• want to maintain and develop their students’ KS2 grammatical knowledge.

Participants will also be introduced to Englicious, a free online grammar resource for primary and secondary school students and teachers. It includes lesson plans, exercises and projects that you can carry out with your pupils.

Course Aims and Content

The grammatical content on this course is tailored to the UK National Curriculum. You’ll have access to the latest research and expertise from leading UCL academics in the field of English grammar and pedagogy. The course aims to help you:

• explore ways that grammar can be integrated into analytical and creative teaching activities;
• apply grammatical knowledge to a range of literary and non-literary texts;
• examine how grammar works as a meaning-making resource;
• develop your own knowledge of English grammar and grammatical terminology;
• learn how to use the Englicious

See the ‘Building characters’ lesson on Englicious for an example of what such activities might look like.

Who this course is for

This course is designed for secondary school teachers. It presupposes that you have some basic grammatical knowledge, perhaps as a result of participating on our other course, English Grammar for Teachers. Before taking Teaching English Grammar in Context, we recommend that you explore the content and glossary on Englicious (free sign-up).

How is this different from the course English Grammar for Teachers that you offer?

The English Grammar for Teachers course is designed to build confidence in subject knowledge. Teaching English Grammar in Context is designed to apply that subject knowledge. If you feel you have very little or no explicit knowledge of English grammar, we recommend that you take the English Grammar for Teachers course first.

Run this course as an INSET day

If you are interested in running this course as an INSET day in your own school, please contact the Survey of English Usage team by email on uclseu@ucl.ac.uk to discuss.

Benefits of taking this course

For teachers:

• You’ll build confidence in teaching grammar and understand how to integrate grammatical knowledge into your own lessons and schemes of work;
• You’ll explore an accessible and enabling pedagogy for the teaching of grammar;
• You’ll meet other teachers and discuss ideas and issues;

For pupils:

• Pupils will learn about grammar in a fun and applied way;
• They’ll learn how grammar works as a meaning-making resource;
• They can use Englicious to practise what they’ve learnt and test their knowledge;
• They can improve their confidence in grammar;
• Englicious will help pupils improve their GCSE and A-level results.

For schools:

• Your teaching staff will be up-to-date with innovative methods for teaching grammar, informed by the latest research;
• Your staff will be confident in the classroom and able to engage and enthuse pupils in grammar as part of the curriculum;
• Your school will be meeting the requirements of each Key Stage in the National Curriculum;

Structure, teaching and certification

The course is designed as an interactive workshop, with plenty of time for discussion and questions.

You’ll explore various aspects of English grammar in relation to a range of literary and non-literary texts.

You’ll see how knowledge about grammar can be used as a tool to analyse texts.

This approach, using clear criteria and a consistent toolset, provides you with the means to analyse a wide range of texts in the classroom.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course you should:

• understand methods, approaches and principles for teaching grammar in context;
• be able to apply grammatical knowledge in analysing a range of literary and non-literary texts;
• understand how grammar works as a meaning-making resource;
• feel confident in the methods used to analyse English grammar, and use that confidence to enthuse your students in the classroom.

Concessions for UCL Institute of Education (IOE) students and alumni

IOE students can take this course at a reduced price of £35 (a discount of £175). Please select ‘IOE Student’ when you book. You’ll need to bring proof of your IOE student status when attending the course.

IOE alumni can take this course at a reduced price of £165 (a discount of £45). Please select ‘IOE Alumni’ when you book. You’ll need to bring proof of your IOE student status when attending the course.

For more information and bookings, click here.

 

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