1. Spelling and Grammar: Getting it write, wright, right! The Meadow School

2. Aims To know the implications for SPaG within the new primary curriculum To understand how spelling and grammar are taught at The Meadow To know how you can support SPaG at home

3. PaG We embed this into our teaching and the children’s learning in literacy and guided reading. We plan our 3 week literacy units and we introduce the grammar and punctuation objectives within the reading phase of week 1, the sentence level phase of week 2 and the writing and editing phase in week 3. *See the new Grammar expectations for each year group*.

4. Task In a puiltacibon of teh New Scnieitst it siad you cuold jublme all teh letetrs in a wrod adn as lnog as teh frist adn lsat were the smae, reibadailty wolud hadrly be aftcfeed. My ansaylis did not cmoe to mcuh beucase of teh thoery at the tmie but raserceh sugsegts we may hvae smoe pofrweul palrlael prsooscers at wrok, which seepd up regnicoiton. We olny need the frist and lsat letetrs to spot chganes in meniang.

5. Spelling is a mental process To support children well, we need to be aware of the mental processes involved Say the word Visual memory of the word The feeling of correctness Correct spelling

6. New Curriculum Expectations An increase in expectations across all year groups from year2 to year 6 Greater focus on spelling rules and conventions Greater focus on word roots and origins *Word lists are particularly demanding * Skills need to be embedded

7. Spelling Tests: Problems Children rarely commit spellings learnt for a test to their long-term memory Some get 10/10 but then fail to spell these words correctly in their writing Can lead to poor self-esteem for children who practice but then don’t get many correct Can create an unhealthy competition Gives teachers little information about the spelling skills children need to develop

8. What Does The Research Say? Teaching children strategies for correcting spelling is far more important than giving them the correct spelling of a word Spelling strategies and major spelling patterns are taught much more effectively through lessons than through workbooks or spelling tests If children learn spellings for tests and don’t use those words in their own writing, they will forget them within days Individualised spelling dictionaries are useful as children are trying to get a grasp of new spellings Children often get key rules wrong.

9. What Does The Research Say? We often wrongly assume that if children read widely they will be good spellers. This presupposes they are understanding and processing every word Children need to be taught why words are spelt as they are. They love to hear where words come from e.g. ‘democracy’– from Greek demos (the people) –kratia (power/rule).

10. So what are we doing? Structuring spelling so that it is taught across several sessions each week Using the teaching sequence: Revisit - Teach - Practice - Apply Providing opportunities for children to investigate, make generalisations, discover rules and embed their learning Supporting the use of individual spelling logs *Using a range of visual, auditory and kinaesthetic approaches * Assessing spelling termly through children's writing and activities (e.g. close procedures) Building the word list words into teaching as appropriate

11. Parents as Partners A guide for parents: Helping your child with spelling Word lists Spelling strategies. Spelling Policy is on the school website Spellodrome Grammar terminology

12. Final Thought… I take it you already know Of tough and bough and cough and dough? Others may stumble, but not you, On hiccough, thorough, tough and through. Well done! And now you wish, perhaps, To learn of less familiar traps? Beware of heard, a dreadful word That looks like beard and sounds like bird, And dead: it’s said like bed, not bead – For goodness sake don’t call it deed! Watch out for meat and great and threat (They rhyme with suite and straight and debt). A moth is not a moth in mother, Nor both in bother, broth in brother, And here is not a match for there Nor dear and fear for bear and pear, And then there’s dose and rose and lose – Just look them up – and goose and choose, And cork and work and card and ward, And font and front and word and sword, And do and go and thwart and cart – Come, come, I’ve hardly made a start! A dreadful language? Man alive! I’d mastered it when I was five!