Spelling Presented by Leading Literacy Teachers

Aims To support teachers in planning when and how to teach spelling; To develop techniques in teaching spelling rules, conventions and strategies.

Spelling Programme Expectations: By the end of Year 1 children should be working at: Step 7 of Progression in Phonics; Recognising the main vowel digraphs and trigraphs.

Spelling Programme Expectations: By the end of Year 3 the children should have covered the work in the spelling programme or up to page 20 in the Spelling Bank; By the end of Year 6 the children should have covered the work in the Spelling Bank.

Progression Foundation Stage/Year One: Progression in Phonics/Playing with Sounds; Year Two and Three: Spelling Programme: Year Four, Five and Six: Spelling Bank

Five-session spelling - Y2 and 3 Five units a term; Each unit is taught for two weeks; Each unit builds upon the previous one; Each unit involves five sessions. Replaces NLS strand This is the model used for five-session spelling in Years 4, 5 and 6.

The Teaching of Spelling Spellings need to be explicitly taught; Rules, patterns and etymology should be investigated using a multi-sensory approach; The spellings on weekly lists are rarely applied to independent writing unless they have been thoroughly taught and investigated.

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 Tests Limitations: Written work does not reflect spelling test results; Children become passive learners, receiving delivered knowledge and are not actively involved in the learning process; The teaching of spelling is removed from the process of writing and is taught as a discrete skill; afterHowever, the five-session programme involves giving children lists to learn after sessions 1 and 3 which are assessed in sessions 2, 4 and 5.

Spelling – Possible Sequence

Teaching Spelling in sessions 1 and 3 Tell the children the objective/strategy Introduce a set of relevant words Children to sort words and identify patterns Help children to hypothesise and test their ideas Explain the principle behind the pattern Practise the convention Explore and extend - exceptions, variations

Session One - Rules and Conventions Whole class: Whole class: Teach the convention through the games, activities and investigations suggested in the manuals - keep it lively and interactive! Independent: Independent: Further investigation of the rules and conventions using ideas from manuals. Plenary: Plenary: Reinforcement and revision of rules and conventions. Any patterns? Homework 1: Homework 1: List of words investigated in lesson.

Activity Spelling ‘Battleships’

Session Three – Strategies Whole class Explore ‘tricky bit’ of high frequency words that do not conform to regular rules. Teach strategies. Cross-curricular words. Problem words identified in marking. Independent: Further games and investigations to explore and identify strategies to learn the ‘tricky bits’ of words. Strategy cards Plenary: Plenary: Discussion of strategies children have used to remember spellings. Homework 2: Homework 2: List of words investigated in lesson

Strategies Roots Syllables and Phonemes Analogy Handwriting Mnemonics

Look and ‘Learn’ annihilate bildungsroman definitely separately

Investigate and learn an nihil ate bil dungs roman de finite ly separately

Sessions 2 and 4 Practise and Assess Whole class - short session Practise and assess words from Session 1or 3 Quick-fire whiteboard assessment. Address any problems.

Session Five – Assessment Whole class Practise and assess words used in the whole unit through dictated sentences that contain the words from the unit and previously taught conventions.

Games and Activities The games and activities have been adapted from those in the Year 2 and 3 Spelling Programme. They can used for the whole-class session and then again in the independent session. Laminate each set of instructions and issue in plastic wallets with the words under investigations. The same game can be used by different ability groups by issuing different sets of words.

Spelling Journals Use spelling journals to list: words under current investigation; words for homework; ‘tricky words’; cross-curricular words; personal spellings; rules and strategies; adventurous vocabulary; annotating topic pictures.