Spelling Workshop
MISS PARK
mpark@stock.essexvle.com
Successful Spelling
with the new
National
Curriculum
We want a school of excellent spellers!
Why?
• It is important to learn how to spell in this age of
texting!
• We need to raise standards.
• New SPAG test (Spelling and Grammar Test) for
Year 6
• End of year expectations from September 2014
We want a school of excellent spellers!
How?
• Building on excellent phonics teaching and raised
standards in the Foundation Stage and KS1
• Reviewed timetable for the teaching of spelling in
KS2 supported by regular homework
• Investigation and fun!
• Teaching spelling strategies
• Marking
• Competitions!
We aim to gradually build pupils’ spelling
vocabulary by introducing patterns or
conventions and continually practising those already
introduced.
Spelling strategies are taught explicitly and applied to
high-frequency words, cross-curricular words and
individual words that pupils find difficult.
Pupils are encouraged to adopt the strategies that
they find the most effective as they progress through
the year.
2014 National Curriculum
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Spelling is one element of writing
Specific knowledge outlined for all year groups
Continued emphasis on phonic knowledge
Statutory word lists for Years 3/4 and 5/6
Why all the fuss about phonics?
Children should be taught
urgently through a “rigorous and
systematic phonics programme”
Stock School follows the ‘Letters
and sounds’ programme to teach
phonics.
Phonics is taught in 6 distinct
phases
Phonics at a glance
Phonics is
Skills of
Segmenting
and blending
Knowledge of
the alphabetic
code
Phonics consists of
Identifying sounds in spoken words
Recognising the common spellings of
each phoneme
Blending phonemes into words for
reading
Segmenting words into phonemes for
spelling
Most people read words
more accurately than
they spell them. The
younger pupils are, the
truer this is.
Some definitions
A phoneme
This is the smallest
Unit of sound you can
hear in a word.
How many phonemes
can you hear in
cat?
A grapheme
These are the letters
That represent the phoneme
The grapheme can be 1 letter, 2
letters or more!
t, ai, igh
 A phoneme you hear
 A grapheme you see
 A word will always have the same
number of phonemes and graphemes.
The Phases explained
The ‘Letters and sounds’
document follows 6 distinct
phases
Phase 1 (pre-school) Exploring and experimenting with sounds and
words and discriminating speech sounds in words.
Phase 2Introducing phonemes and graphemes, blending for reading and
Letter sets
segmenting for spelling – simple CVC words
Set 1 -
s, a, t, p
Set 2 -
l, n, m, d
Set 3 -
g, o, c, k
Set 4 -
ck, e, u, r
Set 5 -
h, b, f, ff, l, ll, ss
Phase 3Knowing a grapheme for each of the 43 phonemes, reading and spelling range of
CVC words
Set 6 – j, v, w, x
Set 7 – y, z, zz, qu
Consonant digraphs: ch, sh, th, ng
Graphemes:ear, air, ure, er, ar,or, ur, oi, ow, ai, ee, igh, oa, oo
Phase 4This is a consolidation unit with no new graphemes to learn, the reading and spelling
of tricky words continues as well as segmenting for spelling and blending for reading.
Phase 5Using alternative ways of pronouncing and spelling the graphemes corresponding
to the long vowel phonemes
Graphemes ay, ou, ie, ea, oy ir, ue, aw, wh, ph, ew, oe, au, u-ea-e, i-e, o-e, e-e Alternative graphemes for : i, o, c, g, u, ow, ie, ea, er, a, y, ch, ou
Phase 6Apply phonic skills and knowledge to recognise and spell an increasing number of
complex words, investigating and learning the rules of spelling
In addition to this, in all
phases children will be
learning to read and spell
‘tricky words’ ( those which
are not spelt phonetically)
and key sight vocabulary.
Try these!
Try these!
What knowledge/skills are you using as you write these words?
synaesthesia
desert
antidisestablishmentarianism
Good spellers:
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Can segment and blend
Can divide words into syllables
Have a store of words they can spell automatically
Know many common letter patterns
Learn and apply rules
Use morphology to support attempts
Know what to do when they are stuck
Visualise
Care!
Building a bank of known words
•
Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check
•
Quickwrite
•
Marking
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Frequent repetition and practice
•
Looking for the tricky bit
•
Multi-sensory activities
We teach children to know, learn
and apply the rules
Examples:
•
/o/ following /w/ usually spelt with an ‘a’
•
English words do not end with ‘v’
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Double the consonant after a short vowel and before a
suffix
Understanding morphology (how words work)
Morphology includes root words, compound words, suffixes and prefixes.
Research shows that improving children’s understanding of how words work had much greater
impact on their ability than standard instruction (Nunes et al, 2006)
Morpheme – smallest unit of meaning in a word
eg appear
appeared
disappeared
What do lessons look like?

During regular spelling lessons (5 lessons a fortnight) children are given the
opportunity to revisit, explain and use what they already know.

Reading extensively is of vital importance to developing spelling,
however for the majority of children it is not sufficient to secure accurate
spelling; spelling must be learnt explicitly and systematically.

In lessons, children are given the opportunity to work independently, in
pairs or in small groups, using a range of strategies to practise and
consolidate new learning.

Finally, children will be given opportunities for self, peer and teacher
assessment to reflect on what they have learnt and to recognise their
achievements.

They are encouraged to take responsibility for proofreading their own
work in conjunction with targeted teacher feedback.
2014 National Curriculum
YEAR 1
• using the phonic knowledge and skills that they have already learnt, revise and
consolidate those learnt earlier
YEAR 2
• begin to meet extra challenges in terms of spelling, learn that there is not always an
obvious connection between the way a word is said and the way it is spelt, look at
different ways of spelling the same sound
YEARS 3 and 4
• Rules, and patterns will be investigated using a multi-sensory approach;
• Rules will be sent home to investigate and practise
• Pupils will learn common exception words
YEARS 5 and 6
Pupils’ spelling of most words taught so far should be accurate and they should be able to
spell words that they have not yet been taught by using what they have learnt about how
spelling works in English.
Word lists

Your child has a number of spellings to learn – this is
composed of statutory words for their phase group
(Y3/4 and Y5/6)

The number of words is determined by the individual
spelling needs of each child.

A copy of this list is sent home to allow you to work
with your child to practise spellings at home.

Peer and teacher tests are used to identify when
children have secured each spelling.
Benefits of investigations
They appeal to problem-solving instincts
 Children have to be more active in
deconstructing words
 They model a self-help strategy
 An interesting way to learn
 They aid memory
 They are more likely to lead to children applying
correct spellings to their work than learning lists.

Spelling strategies
Roots

To learn my word I can find the word root. I can see whether the root has been
changed when new letters are added e.g.

for a prefix, suffix or a tense change.” e.g.

smiling – root
smile + ing;

Woman
wo + men;

Signal
sign + al
Analogy

To learn my word I can use words that I already know to help me.” e.g. could, would,
should
Mnemonics

To learn my word I can make up a sentence to help me remember it.” e.g.

could – o u lucky duck;

people – people eat orange peel like elephants.
How can you help your child?
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Help your child learn their phonics daily
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Help your child with learning their rules
and key words.
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Visit the websites and play games with
your child
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Have fun with words !
Spelling activities and strategies
These are some of the techniques we use in school to support children’s
spelling that can easily be tried at home – have fun with them!

Look, say, cover, write, check strategy.
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Making posters - design the word in the style of its meaning; highlight tricky spelling patterns; design and decorate a tricky word.
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Mnemonics, for example Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants. It is important that they are simple and easy to
remember though! It can help if the first word is the spelling word, for example Bored Of Resting Every Day.
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Use handwriting, including large scale writing, decorative writing and painted writing.
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Use poetry and performance: rhymes, nonsense poems and rhythms.
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Riddles and jokes, for example ‘What opens locks and is always found beside water? A key/quay’.
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Testing - this can be done informally, perhaps focusing on one word at a time.
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Use of Scrabble tiles or fridge magnets.
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Games - hangman; guess my word based on clues about the spelling; Kim’s game (memory game - remove one word); treasure
hunt to find the correct letters to make a word; matching pairs using homemade cards; dictionary challenge.

Songs and chants - explore the sounds of the words and emphasise tricky letter strings.

Collect examples, for example from signs, magazines, comics, packaging and / or using sticky notes.