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 semi-colon 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.

•

• 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.htm#Introduction

• This website has a series of worksheets that can be printed off for handwriting practise.

• Practise makes perfect!• http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/print

able_lined_paper.htm provide handwriting paper that you can download and print off.

Provide writing opportunities at home:

•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?

• 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

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!

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, tree-lined 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 mnemonicsBig 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 week- new 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 TestL3-5 Spelling Test

Some children will completeLevel 6 Reading TestLevel 6 Grammar, Punctuation and Vocabulary TestLevel 6 Writing TaskLevel 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; andlonger, 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.