While our NAPLAN results have been on the up-and-up, there is always room for improvement. One area that we can work on is Grammar and Punctuation. While this can be a bit baffling for those outside of the English KLA, there are some simple conventions that can we can learn to give more targeted feedback to our kids.

What are they looking for?

The National Assessment Program (NAP) publish their minimum standards here. For grammar they outline a context and a task. In punctuation they identify a form of punctuation and specify a task that students should be able to do with it.

These standards are just an indication and don’t include all the concepts covered in the tests. if you haven’t seen one, it is helpful to have a look at the example tests published here.

Below are the standards. I have included some example sentences. Each week, I will look at one dot point. Follow the hyperlinks as they appear to detailed explanations of each standard, common mistakes and associated online tutorials.

Year 7

In grammar students can:

• identify the correct form of the verb required to complete a complex sentence (e.g. Before the test, David will revise his notes.)

• identify the correct personal pronoun required to complete a sentence (e.g. Fred Hollows was an opthalmologist who became know for his work in restoring eyesight. He worked in Australia and Africa.)

• identify correct subject-verb agreement in a sentence (e.g. My cat is a tabby. My dogs are both golden retrievers.)

• identify the phrase required to complete a sentence (e.g. Fred Hollows was awarded the Order of Australia in recognition of his work.)

In punctuation students can:

• locate a comma to separate items in a list (e.g. In your pencil case, you will need: a pencil, a pen, a ruler and an eraser.)

In addition to this, students need to be able to correctly place a colon to indicate a list and correctly place an apostrophe to indicate possession.

Year 9

In grammar students can:

• identify the tense of a short passage (The sample test that I read didn’t ask this but it did ask the students to complete a sentence using the correct tense, e.g. In order to be sustained, a rainforest requires rainfall of at least 1500 millimetres a year.)

• identify the correct form of a comparative adjective in a sentence (e.g. She is more clever/cleverer, he is peculiarer/more peculiar)

• identify the word that functions as a verb in a sentence (e.g. As the host, he had to barbecue the chops.)

In punctuation students can:

• identify the purpose of italics in a sentence (e.g. I wasn’t the only one who was late to the movie.)

• locate commas in a sentence to emphasise a clause (e.g. The student had been at the school for years, and not once had he come late.)

• recognise that colons can be used to introduce lists (e.g. In your pencil case, you will need: a pencil, a pen, a ruler and an eraser.)

In addition to this, students need to be able to identify the correct form of contractions and identify the purpose of a hyphen.