Download Mallard Primary School Policy for spelling

Mallard Primary School
Policy for spelling
Purpose
The policy for spelling is to ensure the best possible classroom practice and to enable all pupils to
make the best possible progress in spelling, ultimately raising standards in writing.
Aims
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Raise the quality of learning and as a result improve standards in writing
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Provide clear guidance for teaching and learning ensuring consistency across the school
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Provide a tool for monitoring, evaluation, accountability and school improvement
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Set out expectations and best practice
Principles
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Competent spellers need to spend less time and energy thinking about spelling to enable
them channel their time and energy into the skills of composition, sentence structure and
effective word choice.
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There are two factors that define the English Language; alphabetical knowledge and the
history of the language.
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The alphabetical system uses 26 letters creating 44 phonemes in 144 combinations to form
about half a million words in current use. The alphabet includes 21 consonants (24 spoken
consonant sounds) and 5 vowels (20 spoken vowel sounds.)
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The key to successful spelling lies in the teaching strategies, rules and conventions taught
systematically and explicitly, and helping pupils recognise which strategies to apply to
improve their own spelling.
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A good spelling programme follows the following five components-understanding the principles underpinning word construction (phonemic, morphemic end
etymological)
-recognising how these principles apply to each word
-Practising and assessing spelling
-applying spelling strategies and proof reading
-building pupil self confidence and independence as spellers
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There is a close link between handwriting and spelling and from the outset the two must be
linked. ‘In particular, it is clear that pupils with a fluent cursive script are more likely to
become good spellers.’ Moving English On, March 2012 Ofsted guidance.
Effective Management and strategies to successful spelling
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Each day, 15 minutes should be used as time for teaching spelling (in key stage one this will
be integrated into ‘Letters and Sounds’ time.)
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All sessions should be purposeful, brisk, positive and with pace.
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The learning environment should be print rich with useful and interesting vocabulary clearly
displayed. In key stage one and year three, all classrooms should have upper and lower case
alphabet letters, relevant phoneme and alternatives display as well as ‘tricky’ high frequency
words. In both key stages, pupils should be involved in generating word walls linking to their
topics (days of the week, months, mathematical vocabulary, story language, scientific words,
connectives etc) There may also be display of spelling rules/ rule breakers/ investigations /
pneumonics to prompt memory.
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All pupils from year two upwards will have a personal ‘Spelling Log. ’ This is used to collect
grapheme charts and example words, identify words they need to learn, collect interesting
vocabulary choices they may wish to use later in their writing, a collection of rules and
examples.
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Spelling Zappers are a fun approach to the ‘Look, cover, write, check’ method. They should
be used daily for pupils to practise words following a similar rule or pattern or to learn words
misspelt in their own writing.
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Partner work is an invaluable strategy as in encourages discussion and oral work. All children
should have a spelling partner; this should be reviewed and changed regularly. It is
important that both partners are at a similar spelling ability and they both want success for
each other. They should be encouraged to help each other find ways to learn spellings as
well as assessing each other.
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As new spelling patterns are introduced, pupils need to be taught how to join the graphemes
in a cursive handwriting style.
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Assessment is at the core of a good spelling programme. However the weekly spelling test
can be daunting for most children and in most cases they do not apply the words the have
spelt correctly to their independent writing. Children can be given words to learn but instead
of weekly tests there should be ‘review’ sessions which are integral to the teaching
sequence where pupils are asked to write dictated sentences. In addition to this pupils
should keep a track of their progress in High frequency words by keeping their own
individualists and frequently reviewing their progress on these lists. Time should be spent
assessing pupils independent writing to identify their progress in spelling.
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If necessary, pupils should be grouped according to their need and ability within each class
and teaching adapted to meet the needs of pupils.
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All pupils need a good Knowledge of the alphabet system. Dictionaries are a valuable
resource but pupils should be encouraged to use them to check spelling at the end of the
writing process to avoid the interruption of their flow.
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Effective marking and feedback should follow school policy. When marking writing, teachers
should respond to a common error by marking it with a ‘sp’ and either asking the child to
correct the word or write the correct spelling in the margin. This can be done during or after
the writing process.
The teaching and learning process
Revisit, Explain and Use
What do we already know?
Oral/ whiteboard activities to confirm prior knowledge
Explain the purpose of the new learning, use vocabulary orally in context
Teach, Model, Define
How the pattern/ rule/ structure works
Model spelling examples (also during modelled writing in English
lesson)
Define the rules, pattern and conventions
Whole class/ individual whiteboard spelling practice
Practise, Explore, Investigate
A range of interactive activities for children to practise the new
learning-whole class activities, partner work, extension, independent,
homework.
Apply, Assess, Reflect
Revise new learning, Apply in writing and Reflect on learning.
Add to learning wall or spelling logs
Opportunities each week also to proof read their writing, identify
words misspelt in their own work (either by teacher or by themselves),
correct these words through the use of a dictionary and then practice
them to avoid future errors (see use of’ Spelling Zappers’)
Knowledge of the spelling system
Phonemic knowledge
This is the correspondence between letters (graphemes) and sounds (phonemes). It
includes knowledge about:
• phonics (e.g. knowledge about letter and sound correspondence, differences between
long and short vowels, the identification, segmentation and blending of phonemes in
speech and how these influence spelling);
• spelling patterns and conventions (e.g. how the consonant doubles after a short vowel,
words with common letter strings but different pronunciations);
• homophones (e.g. words with common pronunciations but different spelling: to, two, too).
• Phonological knowledge. This relates to:
syllables and rhymes;
analogy.
Morphological knowledge
This is the spelling of grammatical units within words (e.g. horse = 1 morpheme, horses = 2
morphemes). It includes knowledge about:
• root words – contain one morpheme and cannot be broken down into smaller grammatical
units (e.g. elephant, table, girl, day) and are sometimes referred to as the stem or base
form;
• compound words – two root words combined to make a word (e.g. playground, football);
• suffixes – added after root words, and change the spelling and meaning of a word (e.g.
hope – hoping, walk – walked, happy – happiness);
• prefixes – added before a root word, and change the meaning but rarely affect the spelling
of a word (e.g. replace, mistake);
• etymology (word derivations) – words in the English language come from a range of
sources; understanding the origin of words helps pupils’ spelling (e.g. audi relates to
hearing – audible, audience, audition).
Core learning within each year.
Although children should be ability grouped, the following tables outline the word structure and
spelling requirements of the Primary Framework for Literacy. Include3d in this information is the
corresponding link to Read Write Inc. Programme used in key stage Two.
From Foundation Stage to year one children are taught primarily to spell words using a phonics
approach as outlined in ‘Letters and sounds: Principles and practice of High Quality Phonics.’ In
addition to this there must also be a systematic approach to teaching ‘tricky’ words that can’t be
spelt using phonics as the prime approach.
Phase
Two
Spelling approach
• Practising letter recall for spelling
• Oral blending and segmentation
• Segmentation using phoneme frames of
vc and cvc words
(suggested resources letter fans, phoneme
frames, magnetic letters and boards, lists of cvc
words see pages 69-70)
Three
Spell tricky words-the, to, I no, go
Write each letter correctly when following a
model
Practising letter recall for spelling
Oral blending and segmentation
Segmentation using phoneme frames of
cvc, ccvc, cvcc words containing phase
three digraphs and trigraphs
(suggested resources letter fans, phoneme
frames, magnetic letters and boards, lists of
words see pages 100-103)
• Spell two syllable words
• Practising letter recall for spelling
• Oral blending and segmentation
• Segmentation using phoneme frames of
cvc, ccvc, cvcc words containing phase
three digraphs and trigraphs
(suggested resources letter fans, five or six
phoneme frames, magnetic graphemes and
boards, lists of words see pages 126-128)
• Spell two syllable words
Four
Tricky words-he, she, me, be, was, my, you, her,
they, all, are
Write each letter correctly
Segment and spell words containing adjacent
consonants
Five
Tricky wordsSpell all alternative spelling for each phoneme
Spell phonically decidable two and three syllable
words
Accurately spell most of the list of 100 high
frequency words
Form each letter correctly
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Teach alternative spellings for phonemes
(Suggested strategies-phoneme spotter,
rhyme and word generation, Best Bet,
see bank of words page 154)
Spell and practice high frequency words(Suggested strategy- - write the word,
say a sentence with the word, sound
talk, discuss the letter names, trace the
shape of the words, rub the word off and
write from memory. suggested resources
whiteboards and pens. Children must be
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able to read these words before they
spell them)
Two syllable and three syllable words
Practice writing sentences.
Year two-three transition
Year two expectations apply to National curriculum level 2a. In year two children are introduced to
phase six. This is also covered in the year two teaching programme within ‘Support for Spelling’.
Transition from year two-three is crucial and thorough assessment is essential in order for pupils to
build upon prior knowledge and skills. Year three needs to not only consolidate skills learnt in key
stage one but also develop independent spelling strategies to new words.
In year two children learn to spell with increasing accuracy and confidence, drawing upon word
recognition and knowledge of word structure and spelling patterns.
Year group
Two
Guidance materials
Read Write Inc. ‘Get Spelling’ Book one
Spelling objectives
‘Support for spelling’ pages-13-32
To understand and begin to learn the conventions for
adding the suffix -ed for past tense and -ing for
present tense
‘Letters and Sounds’ pages 170-195
To secure the reading and spelling of words
containing different spellings for phonemesconsolidation of phase five alternative phonemes
and tricky words.
To split compound words into their component
parts and use this knowledge to support spelling
To learn how to add common inflections (suffixes) to
words
To add common prefixes to root words and to
understand how they change meaning
To discriminate syllables in multisyllabic words as an
aid to spelling
Three
Guidance materials
Read Write Inc. ‘Get Spelling’ Book two
To consolidate knowledge of adding suffixes and
to investigate the conventions related to the
spelling pattern -le
‘Support for spelling’ pages-33-51
To spell regular verb endings and to learn irregular
tense changes (e.g. go/went)
To know what happens to the spelling of nouns
when s is added
To understand how words change when the suffixes
are added.
To embed the correct use and spelling of
pronouns (n.b. phonemic and morphological)
To develop knowledge of prefixes to generate new
words from root words.
Four
Guidance materials
Read Write Inc. ‘Get Spelling’ Book two-three
To distinguish between the spelling and meaning
of homophones
To investigate, collect and classify spelling patterns
related to the formation of plurals
‘Support for spelling’ pages-53-71
To investigate and learn to spell words with
common letter strings
To understand how suffixes change the function of
words
To understand the use of the apostrophe in
contracted forms of words
Five
Guidance materials
Read Write Inc. ‘Get Spelling’ Book two-three
‘Support for spelling’ pages-71-89
To revise and investigate links between meaning and
spelling when using affixes
To spell unstressed vowels in polysyllabic words
To spell words with common letter strings and
different pronunciations
To explore the spelling patterns of consonants
and to formulate rules
To explore less common prefixes and suffixes
To investigate and learn spelling rules for adding
suffixes to words ending in e or words ending in y and words containing ie
To identify word roots, derivations and spelling
patterns as a support for spelling
Six
AQA ‘Writing’ pages
To embed the use of independent spelling
strategies for spelling unfamiliar words
To investigate the meaning and spelling of
To revise and extend work on spelling patterns,
including unstressed vowels in polysyllabic words
To use what is known about prefixes and suffixes to
transform words (e.g. negation, connectives (e.g.
furthermore, nevertheless)
To spell unfamiliar words by using what is known
of word families and spelling patterns
To revise and use word roots, prefixes and suffixes as
a support for spelling