Students are expected to learn and apply these conventions through oral communication, reading, and writing. The chart indicates a continuum of learning – initial development, consolidation, and refinement – stretching from Grade 1 to Grade 9. While the chart indicates the windows when students are using the given structures in their writing, they will use and understand them in oral language much earlier.

General considerations for teaching language conventions

Language conventions need to be introduced and developed within the contexts of writing, reading, and oral communication, rather than in isolation, so that students can learn to use them to communicate and comprehend in meaningful ways.

Although learning is embedded in context, instruction should still follow a thoughtful, purposeful sequence, systematically teaching conventions from simple to complex. Emphasis should be placed on the function and role of a structure within a sentence, instead of simply its name.