September 2014 Miss Connell

1. KS2 Parent Workshop for English September 2014 Miss Connell

2. Aims of the workshop • To provide useful information to support your child at home with areas of English. • To inform you about the New Curriculum.

3. Today's workshop will include... • New curriculum updates • Handwriting • Reading strategies • VCOP • Spelling • Grammar • Opportunities for questions

4. New Curriculum 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.

5. New Curriculum 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.

6. New Curriculum Year 3

7. New Curriculum Year 4

8. New Curriculum Year 5

9. New Curriculum Year 6

10. Handwriting 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.

11. Handwriting • 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

12. Handwriting • http://www.kidzone.ws/cursive/index.htm#Introduction • This website has a series of worksheets that can be printed off for handwriting practise.

13. Handwriting • Practise makes perfect! • http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/printable_lined_paper.htm provide handwriting paper that you can download and print off.

14. Handwriting 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.

15. Reading Strategies 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

16. Reading Strategies 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!

17. Reading Strategies 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.

18. Reading Strategies 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?

19. VCOP • Vocabulary • Connectives • Openers • Punctuation

20. VCOP • 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)

21. VCOP 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.

22. VCOP • 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.

23. VCOP • 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……..

24. VCOP 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)

25. VCOP • 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.  

26. VCOP

27. Spelling 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

28. Spelling 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.

29. Spelling 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

30. Spelling 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

31. Spelling • www.spelling.hemscott.net • Really useful website with lots of advice and free printable resources about various spelling strategies.

32. Grammar • 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

33. SATs 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

34. SATs 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.

35. Questions?