September 2014
Miss Connell
• To provide useful information to support
your child at home with areas of English.
• To inform you about the New
Curriculum.
• New curriculum updates
• Handwriting
• Reading strategies
• VCOP
• Spelling
• Grammar
• Opportunities for questions
The new English Curriculum has been introduced at the school and its
main focus is to promote high standards and equip the children with a
strong command of written and spoken language. There is also a big
focus on reading for enjoyment.
How will we achieve all of the objectives?
All year groups will be teaching English through their Topic lessons.
This makes lessons more enjoyable, interactive and diverse.
For example: Year 4’s topic is Dinosaurs. The children will be writing
newspaper articles about finding dinosaur eggs in the school. They will
be taught all the language and the features of the text type before
they begin writing. This may include drama, art, music etc.
There are some new expectations in Years 3-6.
There are statutory words lists for each year group. Children
must learn to spell all the words listed by the end of the year.
These lists contain words that children spell frequently and
words that are most commonly misspelt.
In Year 4, children are introduced to fronted adverbials (e.g.
Later that day, I heard the bad news).
In Year 6, the use of subjunctive and explicit teaching of semicolon and colon are core knowledge for all pupils.
Year 3
Year 4
Year 5
Year 6
We teach cursive as it…
•Encourages a natural flow of writing;
•Demands correct letter formation;
•Encourages perception of whole words;
•Involves no re-learning as with printing then joining
later.
•Aids spelling as the joining helps them learn the
spelling pattern.
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• Rockin' Round Letters:
a d g q c
• Climb 'n' Slide Letters:
i u w t
• Loopy Letters:
e l h k b f j
• Lumpy Letters:
n m v x
• Mix 'n' Match:
p r s o y z
• http://www.kidzone.ws/cursive/index.ht
m#Introduction
• This website has a series of worksheets
that can be printed off for handwriting
practise.
• Practise makes perfect!
• http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/printabl
e_lined_paper.htm provide handwriting
paper that you can download and print
off.
Provide writing opportunities at home:
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Journal writing
Homework tasks
Writing their own stories
Make a weekly shopping list
Plan an outing
Encourage children to complete their homework and
other writing tasks in cursive script.
What are the strategies that learners can use to work
out an unfamiliar word?
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What makes sense – in terms of meaning and grammar?
Is there a picture/diagram to give me a clue?
What is the first letter sound?
Can I build up the word from its onset and rime/letter
sounds?
Shall I miss it out, read on and come back to it?
Now... what could it be – have a guess, then check – does it
make sense?
Onset - the initial consonant or consonant blend before
the vowel.
i.e. ch, sh
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Fluency
Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately and quickly. When
fluent readers read silently, they recognise words automatically.
They group words quickly to help them gain meaning from what they
read. Fluent readers read aloud effortlessly and with expression.
Their reading sounds natural, as if they are speaking. Readers who
have not yet developed fluency read slowly, word by word. Their
oral reading is choppy.
In order to read fluently, pupils must first hear and understand
what fluent reading sounds like. From there, they will be more likely
to transfer those experiences into their own reading. The most
powerful way for you to help your children is to read aloud to them,
often and with great expression. Choose selections carefully.
Expose them to a wide variety of genres including poetry, excerpts
from speeches, and folk and fairy tales with rich, lyrical language —
texts that will spark your child’s interests and draw them into the
reading experience.
You can even share a newspaper with them!
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Expression
To express a text well, to read it with feeling that matches what it means, is one
of the best ways to understand it. In order to match the proper expression to
each word or phrase, you have to understand both the meaning of the words and
the grammar of each sentence. Expression is such a powerful comprehension
strategy because it instantly increases your access to meaning as you read.
Go Slow. To increase expression, most readers have to lower their speed.
Straight Up for an Exclamation Mark. Shoot the voice straight up in both
pitch and volume if there is an exclamation mark.
Big Pause at a Full Stop, Small Pause at a Comma. Pay attention to
punctuation. Treat colons, semi-colons, and dashes just like commas.
Character High, Narrator Low. In passages that contain dialog, raise the pitch
of voice for spoken parts (the dialog), lower the pitch for attributions (the "He
saids and She saids) and other text by the narrator.
Emphasise the Important Word. Pick one key word in a sentence and call
attention to it by raising the volume of voice, changing tone, or stretching it out
to make it last just a bit longer than normal.
E.g.: The frightened boy walked slowly past the wolf.
These are the type of questions that children
may be asked to answer:
• On the lines (finger)- find the answer in the text. E.g. How old
is Cinderella?
• Between the lines (head)- find the answer in the text but using
your head. E.g. Why has Cinderella got her back to the ugly
sister?
• Beyond the lines (finger/head)- higher order skill, making
meaning and evaluating the text. E.g. What are the
similarities/differences between Cinderella and The Fairy
Godmother? What do you think you would do if you were
Cinderella?
•Vocabulary
•Connectives
•Openers
•Punctuation
•Vocabulary
In looking at and using VOCABULARY, the children are
encouraged to use ‘WOW’ words or ‘AMBITIOUS’ words.
For example – Instead of, Mrs. Cook said, “Don’t do that!” The
children would be encouraged to use a more vibrant word than
‘said,’ perhaps a word that would give the reader more
understanding about the character or situation.
Mrs. Cook suddenly spluttered, “Don’t do that!” (suggesting
anger)
Or
Mrs. Cook whispered cautiously, “Don’t do that!”
(suggesting fear)
The children grow to realise, that in using more vivid words, they
are able to build a picture in the mind of the reader and to grab
the readers attention, making them want to read on.
Spot the difference!
Mr. Cartwright went down the road.
Cautiously, Mr. Cartwright stumbled down the long, dark, treelined road.
The children might sometimes be given a piece of text in which
they are asked to identify ‘WOW’ words and then use these words
in their own writing.
Alternatively they might work in pairs or groups to ‘Thought
Shower’ a theme.
Eg. A football match, A winters night, Lost! etc.
• Connectives
These are words that the children will be encouraged to use
to join sentences. Sometimes children will be asked to
identify the connectives used in a piece of text.
Initially the connective the children will use is - and.
This is often followed by – but, so, then, because, when.
Eventually the higher order connectives – in addition to ,
despite, contrary to- will be introduced.
•Openers
Some connectives can also be used as sentence openers.
Sometimes children will be asked to identify sentence openers
in a piece of text.
When they start writing, children tend to start sentences with
I, My, or The.
They are then encouraged to use: First, then, next, finally……..
They also need to be able to write compound, complex as well
as simple sentences.
Eg.
The cat was black.
(simple sentence)
The cat was midnight black and always slept in the
churchyard (compound sentence)
The sleek, midnight black cat, who always slept in the
churchyard, prowled relentlessly round the
gravestones. (complex sentence)
• Punctuation
The teaching of punctuation is based on the ‘Punctuation
Pyramid.’
Children start by using full stops, then question marks
followed by commas and an exclamation mark.
Eventually they should use the higher order punctuation
such as ( ) - ; : etc.
Spelling Strategies
Highlighting
Tell the pupil to highlight the difficult part of the
word
separate
Then find ways of memorising the problem letters.
There’s a rat in separate
Syllabification
Break down the word down into syllables. Pupils
need to know that each syllable should have a vowel.
Beat out the rhythm if necessary. Encourage pupils
to say each syllable as they write the word.
man-u-fac-ture
Word derivation
Focus on word roots or families e.g. medic -ine and
medic-al.
Refer to word families
For example: highlight the ending ight
•light might night fight tight
•length strength
Over- articulation
Say the word as it appears, rather than the
accepted pronunciation:
•Wed-nes-day
•Rasp-berry
Creativity
Pupils could:
•make up their own mnemonics
Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants (because)
•There is an eight in height and weight (height/weight)
•explore dictionaries to identify and work out the meaning of
root words clear = unclear, clearly, cleared
•www.spelling.hemscott.net
•Really useful website with lots of advice and free
printable resources about various spelling strategies.
• Year 6 pupils will complete a grammar test during SATs weeknew test for 2013.
• All pupils from Year 3 will be taught grammar every week.
• They will be taught the correct names for punctuation i.e.
speech marks being called inverted commas.
Let’s look at a test together
KS2 SATs for Year 6 will commence Monday 12th May 2014.
Children will complete the following English tests:
L3-5 Reading Paper
Writing Task – Teacher Assessed (evidence throughout the year)
L3-5 Grammar, Punctuation and Vocabulary Test
L3-5 Spelling Test
Some children will complete
Level 6 Reading Test
Level 6 Grammar, Punctuation and Vocabulary Test
Level 6 Writing Task
Level 6 Spelling Test
Children must be a secure Level 5a to able to complete the Level 6 tests
Children do practise tests throughout the year
This year the texts in the levels 3-5 English reading booklet will not be linked by
a theme.
The booklet will contain three or four texts.
The least demanding text will come first with the following texts increasing in
level of difficulty.
Instead of being given 15 minutes reading time and 45 minutes to answer the
questions, children will have a total of one hour to read the texts and complete
the questions at their own pace.
The questions are:
shorter, closed response items (such as multiple choice and matching questions);
shorter, open response items; and
longer, open response items that require children to explain and comment on the
texts in order to demonstrate a full understanding.
Questions are worth 1, 2 or 3 marks.