When my daughter was in Y2, she really didn't 'get' full stops and capital letters so we spent time looking for them in her reading books and reading sentences together. The main thing that worked though was to ask her a question and encourage her to answer in a full sentence. Until we started doing that, I hadn't realised how she had been speaking - without a proper beginning or end to her sentences and often just rambling on and on. That was also exactly how she was writing! Talking in full sentences definitely helped as she started to think in sentences. She soon picked up the idea and got the hang of the punctuation quite quickly after that.

[edited by: Teacher1974 at 20:47 (GMT 0) on 3-10-2011]

 I have a year 5 girl with the same problem. She's quite bright and can verbally articulate things very well, but her writing is awful. I think she has dyslexia as nothing is spelt right (although that is a seperate issue!) and her writing was so hard to decipher due to the lack of any punctuation.

 

I've now started her using cubes to help with her sentences. She has to say the sentence first, and assign each word to cube before she can write it down. To start with I limited the cubes to about 7 or 8 per sentence, but as she has started to get it, I've allowed her unlimited cubes. She then moves each cube into a used pile as she writes each word. She know at the end of the last cube she has to put a full stop.

Raphella

  In sentence level activities she can put caps/fs into sentences easily. However,she cannot put them into her general writing and she admitted today that she has no idea where to put them (or how to tell if a sentence is finished).;

Then she does not know how to use capital letters and full stops. Does she have any idea that your "sentence level activities" are anything to do with writing?

Hi I don't know if this will help as I teach KS1.  So on a very simple level I say:

A sentence is one idea e.g. I went to the shops. I needed some bread.

Then once they've understood that and can apply it then I introduce conjunctions e.g. I went to the shops because I needed some bread.

Some activities I use are:

Clicker on the interactive whiteboard and on the classroom computers as part of the reading rotation.  It's fantastic for sentence building and understanding the concept.  I'm not sure if all schools have the clicker software though.

 

Another thing that works, again done at reading rotation time is having a couple of sentences from their reading book.  Have each word of the sentence on a different card and have the full stop on its own card too.  Muddle it up and ask the child to put it back together.  When they get really good at this I start having them beat their own personal time in putting it back together again.

 

Here are a couple of computer activities, again these are independent activities at reading time.

http://roythezebra.com/reading-games-sentence-level.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/magickey/adventures/hms_game.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks1bitesize/literacy/punctuation/index.shtml

 

I hope they are some use to you.  Perhaps a little young though.

 

Good luck

Alan Peat produced a very good book on punctuation, I recommend it, The work on sentences starts with grids, eg headings: Who? /When?/ Where?/ What?/ Full stop/

I think the problem with punctuating sentences is the expression of a problem about the concept of a sentence. Full stops are one of the toughest punctuation marks to get consistently in KS2, I've found, it's straightforward with simple sentences, but once the sentences are varied, long and complex, LA children can really struggle even in KS2. I think it is misleading putting the full stop at the apex of a punctuation pyramid: LA have found ? ! and "" "" easier to apply consistently, or maybe I've found them easier to teach. I wish I had the Alan Peat book when I started my career, it is very good. (Not a book of exercises, explains the concepts and different applications of each punctuation mark).

 Does she speak fairly normally to describe a simple action picture, think of something to put in a speech bubble, give news? Can you explain that punctuation is to reflect when we start, stop, change intonation etc. in speech.Do you have available a text-to-speech tool (screen-reader)? If you aren't using predictive programs or something with a built in reader, I just found a free download called Orato via a recommendation in Dyslexia Contact. This might help her to judge where sentences start and stop.Screen-readers can cope with phonic attempts so spelling is not too critical. If she reads better than she spells, she may be able to use a predictive writing program to good effect. Even typing into Word with the spelling/grammar check on may highlight when it's just a string of words that needs something!

Children need to understand the simplest sentence first e.g. That it must have a subject and a verb (something or someone and an action) so 'he ate.' include caps and full stops here. Then you can start to expand sentences. In my class children make sure they rehearse sentences in their heads and with partners. When they are happy with it they know that when they write it they know where the caps and full stop goes. So reallystart very simple sentences first. Children get confused about where to put full stops because they don't know what a sentence is. I've had great success with this in my teaching career. Hope that helps.

It might be worth a look at this link to 'Success with sentences'. It's designed as a 6 week intervention or alternatively you can use the interactive games, printables and planning ideas as flexibly as you like. http://www.ks2phonics.org.uk/SwSInformation.htm

 Worth a try ..even if it is just for the initial novelty of it.Give each child/group load of dried peas and for each full stop and capital letter a pea is put into a pot  to be later cooked or grown. We call punctuation errors P`s in my class.Works to a point    Chris

Hi, I am an NQT teaching year 3/4 for the first time. I have 12 children in my class who do not use full stops consistently. Even when reminded they are unable to put full stops in the correct place because they do not understand what a sentence is. I have put them all into an intervention group (2 groups of 6) in which they are being taught what a sentence is so that they understand the use of full stops and capital letters. Whilst researching how to approach this I came across the following document which I feel is a simple way of teaching sentences. http://www.books4results.com/samples/SentenceStructureUnits/TeachingSentenceStructurePartOne.pdf I have used it, in combination with grammar for writing, to plan the intervention. I also made word class dominoes where each word class is on different coloured paper so that they can visually see what a sentence is made up of and can physically make sentences. I also like the idea on this thread of using cubes to construct sentences. I always tell my children to think of their sentence, write it and then think of the next one but they run away with their ideas and so never know when their sentence ends. The cubes are a good way of forcing them to think and write in sentences. I cannot say how the intervention is working as yet as they have only had 3sessions but I am hopeful.