English

Below is some information that could help your child to improve their standard of English. If you would like to learn the expectations of children at each age, please click on the button at the top titled: Things your child should learn and find the English section. 

I believe that to be able to talk about a topic effectively, one must be very familiar with it. Ideally one must have a great deal of recent experience of it.

If one cannot talk about the topic, then when the words are read, they will have less impact and meaning than they otherwise would.

If one has not read about the topic, it is much less likely that written work produced about the topic will show the true potential of the writer. 

In summary, begin by giving each child an opportunity to experience the topic, then talk about it in detail. If possible, the child should be given ample opportunities fro them to play with and enjoy it. Maximise opportunities to talk about the topic. Then read about the topic before finally, writing about it.  

Phonics

I have begun with phonics because it plays a major role in English. It is the primary method used to teach children how to read. It also plays a key role in learning how to spell. Phonics involves teaching children which letter combinations make each sound. For example: 'ea;' 'e'; 'ee' and 'y' are four different, letter combinations that make the 'ee' sound.

WhiIe most children will become free readers (children who are no longer reading books from a phonics scheme) by around eight years old, I have not come across a school at which some children are not still learning their phonics in Year 6. 

Vowels

Make sure that the learner knows all of the vowels. They are a; e; i; o; u. Sometimes y acts like a vowel.

Try learning the mnemonic: An elephant in orange underpants. The first letter of each word begins with a vowel.

Consonants

All the letters which are not vowels are consonants.

Digraphs and trigraphs

A two-letter combination that makes one sound when read aloud is called a digraph. Examples include: 'aw' and 'or'.

A three-letter combination that makes on sound is called a trigraph. Examples include: 'igh' and 'ing.'

A split digraph is a letter combination that is made up of two letters that have a letter between them. For example in 'grape' the 'a' and the 'e' form a split digraph because the fact that there is just one syllable between the letters means that the 'a' has a long sound. A second example is rope. The o and e form a split digraph. Because there is just one consonant between  'o' and the 'e', the 'o' has a long sound.

The order in which phonics are learnt

The following lists are the sets of sounds which are taught using the excellent: Read Write Inc. system. There are other good providers such as Jolly Phonics. The Mr Thorne series on Youtube is also worth investigating.

Read Write Inc. Speed Sounds

Set 1 (The beginning)

m, a, s, d, t

I, n, p, g, o

c, k, u, b, f

e, l, h, sh, r

j, v, y, w, th

z, ch, qu, x, ng

Set 2

ay (as in: May I play?)

ee (as in: What do you see?)

igh (as in: Fly high)

ow (as in: Blow the snow)

oo (as in: Poo at the zoo)

….

oo (as in: Look at a book)

ar (as in: Start the car)

or (as in: Shut the door)

air (as in: That’s not fair)

ir (as in: Whirl and twirl)

Set 3

ea (as in: Cup of tea)

oi (as in: Spoil the boy)

a-e (as in: Make a cake)

i-e (as in: Nice smile)

o-e (as in: Phone home)

u-e (as in Huge brute)

aw (as in: Yawn at dawn)

are (as in: Care and share)

ur (as in: Nurse with a purse)

er (as in: Better letter)

ow (as in: Brown cow)

as (as in Snail in the rain)

oa (as in: Goat in a boat)

ew (as in: Chew the stew)

ire (as in: Fire, fire)

Letters and Sounds - Phase 5

https://www.cherrygardenprimary.co.uk/learning-zone/english/phonics/phase-5

a-e as in came

au as in Paul

aw as in saw

ay as in day

ee as in these 

ew as in stew

ew as in chew

ey as in money

i-e as in like

ir as in girl

o-e as in bone

oe as in toe

ou as in out

oy as in boy

ph as in phone

u-e as in June

u-e as in huge

ue as in clue

u-e as in due

wh as in when

Jolly Phonics

Jolly Phonics is a phonics programme that teaches the order in a different order to Read Write Inc. It links song,s music and movement to the sounds. It's very good.

http://jollylearning.co.uk/overview-about-jolly-phonics/

Set 1: s; a; t; i; p; n

Set 2: ck; e; h; r; m; d

Set 3: g; o; u; l; f; b

Set 4: a; j; oa; ie; ee; or

Set 5: z; w; ng; v; oo (as in book); oo (as  in zoo)

Set 6: y; x; ch; sh; th; th

Set 7: qu; ou; oi; ue; er; ar

The actions are written between the brackets. THIS SECTION IS NOT YET COMPLETE. I WILL COMPLETE IT A.S.A.P.)

a = ants on my arm (Waggle your fingers above your elbow as though ants are crawling on you while saying a, a, a)

b = Bring your bat (Pretend to hit a ball with a bat and say b, b, b, b)

c = Weare clicking castanets (Raise your hands and snap your fingers as though you are playing castanets and say ck; ck; ck; ck)

d = see my play on my drum (Beat your hands up and down as though you are playing a drum and say d, d, d, d)

e = eggs in the pan (Pretend to crack an egg against the side of a pan with one hand. Use both hands to open the shell. Say eh,eh, eh, eh)

f = my friends and I went to the beach with my floating fish (Let your hands come together gently as though an inflatable fish is deflating and say "Ffff"

g = the water gurgles down the drain (Spiral your hand down as though water is gurgling down a drain and say "G g, g, g"

h = I like to hop, hop, hop (Hold a hand to your mouth as if you are panting and say "H, h, h, h)

i = Ink the mouse is my pet (Pretend to be a mouse by wiggling your fingers at the end of your nose and squeak i, i, i)"

j = Pretend to wobble jelly on a plate while saying "J, j, j, j"

Short and Long sounds

Every letter of the alphabet has both a short sound and a long sound. The differences are highlighted in the examples below:

short a = hat; maths

long a = ate; flavour

short e = met; bench

long e = me; she

short i = slip; drink

Short o = hot; lost

Long o = over; hotel

short u = under; run

long u = united; U.F.O.  

Vowels

Hopefully your child will know what these are by now, but unfortunately, many will not. The vowels are: a, e, i, o and u. Sometimes y acts as a vowel.

Check that your child knows how to pronounce both the letter names and the letter sounds.

Reading

The National Literacy Trust is a charity with some great suggestions for reading with children. Doing so is an amazing way to ignite and prolong their interest in reading. Children are never too old to enjoy being read to by an adult. Some oft their suggestions and some of my own are below:

1) Bring the story to life by using different voices for the characters.Try out a soft, gentle tone for the BFG or a young and happy voice for another character.

2) Stop at exciting points and ask your children what they think will happen next.

3) Let your child choose what they want to read. It doesn't have to be books. Newspapers, comics, e-books, etc. all count.

Punctuation

Capital letters.

Every sentence that begins with a letter must begin with a capital letter.

Names of specific people or animals begins with a capital letter. Remember that both the first name and the surname begin with a capital letter. If the text is about a person or an animal, but not a specific animal, it begins with a lower case letter.

Names of specific places begin with a capital letter. For example, the names of towns, counties, cities, countries, continents, seas and oceans begin with a capital letter. Each word in a school must begin with a capital letter.

The days of the week all begin with a capital letter.

The months of the year all begin with a capital letter.

Names of religious festivals and events begin with a capital letter. For example: Christmas, Eid, Ramadan and Yom Kippur. 

Names of specific periods of time begin with a capital letter. For example: Victorian, Ancient Egypt, Elizabethan.

Commas

Commas can change the meaning of words

Take a short breath whenever you see a comma.

• The old lady collected all sorts of things: silver, paper, hats, clocks and tablecloths.
• The old lady collected all sorts of things: silver paper, hats, clocks and tablecloths.
• The old lady collected all sorts of things: silver, paper hats, clocks and tablecloths.

Commas are used to break up longer sentences into smaller parts to make more sense.
When he saw the pirate ship on the horizon, the captain gave the alarm.
She called as loudly as she could, but no-one could hear her.

Commas are used to separate any extra information that is added.
The words enclosed by the commas could be left out without changing the general meaning of the sentence.

Commas in lists.

A comma can be used to separate items in a list. However, they are not used for the last item on a list when you use and.

Speech marks. These are properly called inverted commas.

Inverted commas look like this: " "

Whenever a person is speaking, their words should be written inside inverted commas. All punctuation should be written inside the inverted commas. Commas often follow speech. When this happens, the comma must be put inside the inverted commas. 

Apostrophes

Apostrophes look like this: '

Apostrophes can be used to show:

• who owns what (possession.) For example: This is Ann's car. (The cat is owned by Ann.)
• letters that are missing in a word or words. I shan't do it. (Shall not has been abbreviated (shortened.) Other examples include: won't, can't, haven't, wouldn't, couldn't. Words are not contracted when  formally speaking or writing.

Colon

A colon looks like this :

Colons are often used to introduce information.

http://www.wikihow.com/Sample/Colon-Usage

Ellipsis

An ellipsis looks like this: …
An ellipsis is often used to create a feeling of tension or concern (worry) in the reader so they want to know what happens next.

Spelling

Focus on learning high frequency words. These are words that you should expect to write a lot. For example:

• Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday
• January, February, March, April, May, June, July August, September, October, November, December
• The 5 Ws and an H: Who, what, when, where, why, how
• Because
• Fire
• Dear
• Sincerely
• Conclusion

There are lists of words that your child can spell listed in the National Curriculum in the section on English. I recommend ignoring what year group it says it is for and working through the spellings in order. Note that just because your child has spelt a word correctly once or twice, this does not mean that they will necessarily remember how to spell it later on. Those who read more, generally spell better than those who read less.

Personally, I am not a fan of children being given lists of 10 or more new spellings to learn each week. This is because if the child got a spelling wrong, and then they are given new spellings, they have not learnt the first set of spellings. I prefer for each child to have a list of up to eight spellings (certainly no more) to learn. When the child has spelt the word three separate times, it is removed from the list and a new word replaces it. While the number of spellings that the child will encounter will be smaller, they are more likely to remember the correct spelling for the long-term.

Look for patterns in words to help you spell

Educators talk of letters having both names and sounds. This is perhaps best explained by way of examples:

The letter sound of a is pronounced ah, as in cat. However, the letter name of a is pronounced ay as in mate.

The letter sound of h is pronounced h, as in the sound made when your first start to breath out when panting. Take note: It is not her! However, the letter name of h, is pronounced aych, as in Rachel.

If c is followed by an e, ce is pronounced: as s. Example include: ice, certain and vice.

If c is followed by an i, ci is pronounced: as s. Examples include: circle

If c is followed by a y, cy is pronounced: sy. Examples include: cycle and  bicycle 

If 'g' is followed by an i, gi is pronounced: j. Examples include: giant, ginormous.

If 'g' is followed by an e, ge is pronounced: j. Examples include: gentle and generous.

If g is followed by a y, gy is pronounced: jy. Examples include: energy and sociology.

Site/CAMRA words and spelling

There are many words that do not seem to fit spelling patterns or rules. Unfortunately, the most common way of remembering these is by repeatedly seeing them and writing them. These include: the, who, what and why.

Please visit Spelling for more information on this topic.

How children are assessed

In Primary schools, two very widely used types of assessment tools are the National Curriculum and the I.T.A.F.s. I.T.A.F. is short for Interim Targeted Assessment Framework. There is a Year2 version and a Year 6 version. The I.T.A.F. is largely based on the National Curriculum. These checklists are used by teachers to give the children a level and to assess progress. They also inform teachers about what their future teaching should focus on. Teachers assess various pieces of work against the criteria. Typically at least three separate pieces of work will be needed for the teacher to say that a particular criterion has been achieved.

The Year 2 English Writing Exemplification Overview for working at the expected standard is below:

The pupil can, after discussion with the teacher:

Write simple, coherent narratives about personal experiences and those of others (real or fictional).

Write about real events, recording these simply and clearly.

Demarcate most sentences in their writing with capital letters and full stops and use question marks correctly when required.

Use the present tense and the past tense mostly correctly and consistently.

Use co-ordination (e.g. and/but/or) and some subordination (e.g. when/if/that/because) to join clauses.

Segment spoken words into phonemes and representing these by using graphemes. They must spell many words correctly and make phonetically plausible attempts at others. (For example, if a child writes ‘fone’ instead of phone, the spelling is considered plausible because both ‘f’ and ‘ph produces the same sound.

They must spell many common exception words. See the Spellings section of this website to see the list.

Form capital letters and digits of the correct size, orientation (way around) and relationship to one another and to lower-case.

Use spaces between words that reflect the size of the letters.

The Year 2 English Writing Exemplification Overview for working at greater depth is below:

The pupil can, after discussion with a teacher:

Write effectively and coherently for different purposes, drawing on their reading to inform the vocabulary and grammar in their writing.

Make simple additions, revisions and proof-reading corrections to their own writing.

Use the punctuation taught at Key Stage 1 mostly correctly.

Spell most common exception words. See the Spellings section of this website.

Add suffixes to spell most words correctly in their writing. Examples of suffixes the children should be able to apply include ‘ment’, ‘ness’, ‘full, ‘less’ and ‘ly’.

Use the diagonal and horizontal strokes to join letters.

Sentences (Simple; Compound; Complex)

• A simple sentence includes only one subject (noun) and one verb.
• A compound sentence include a main clause, a conjuction and a main clause.
• A complex sentence includes a main clause that is joined to a subordinate clause with a conjunction. 

Poetry

Types of Poem

I have detailed notes on just some of the many different types of poem.

Remember: Most poems do not rhyme.

Haiku: These are just three lines long. The first line has five syllables, the second line has seven syllables and the the third line has five syllables. Think: 5-7-5

Tanka: These are five lines long. The first line has five syllables, the second line has seven syllables, the third line has five syllables and both the fourth and fifth lines have seven syllables in each.  Think: 5-7-5-7-7.

Cinquain: These are five lines long. These have two syllables in the first line, four syllables in the second line, six syllables in the third line, eight syllables in the fourth line and two syllables in the fifth line. Think: 2-4-6-8-2. 

Shape Poems: These are written in the same shape as the the noun they are describing. For example, a shape poem about a butterfly would have the words appear as though they were traced around the outside of a butterfly.

Nonsense Poems: These use words which are made up. The writer chose the words for the reader to imagine what they might mean. The Jabberworky, by Lewis Carroll, is a famous nonsense poem.

Acrostic Poems

Steps to writing an acrostic poem:
1) Choose a topic;
2) Write your topic vertically (in a column) with the first letter and the last letter at the bottom.
3) Jot down words related words to the topic that begin with letters contained in the name of your chosen topic. This is a thought shower process from which you will choose the most suitable words.
4) Write the words from Step 3 to begin the line of each part of the acrostic;
5) Complete the rest of the line to create a poem. Remember that it does not have to rhyme.

Analysing poems and improving the quality of writing

Figurative Language

Figurative language are words and phrases used to describe things. It includes similes, metaphors, onomatopoeia and personification. These are explained below.

TRAPSAMORR is a very useful acronym for learning what to look out for in a poem. It also makes for a good list of things to try to include in a piece of extended writing.

T = Title and Topic. Does if give a clue about what the text is about. T could also stand for 'title.'

R = Rhyme. Does the poem rhyme?

A = Alliteration. Do several words in the same sentence begin with the same initial (starting) sound? Alliteration has nothing to do with the initial letter.

P = Personification. Personification is used to describe something by using body parts or feelings that humans have. Examples: 
The face of the clock glowed. (A clock does not actually have a face in the same way that people have faces.) 
The flames licked the walls of the farmhouse. Flames do not actually lick – but it might seem like they do.

S = Similes. Are the phrases 'as a' or 'like a' included to help to describe things.

A = Adjectives. Has a range of adjectives been included. Adjectives can describe the colour, quantity, age, texture, temperature or emotions (feelings).

M = Metaphors. A metaphor is a way of a describing something by giving it a quality or feature that it does have in real life. They involve the writer saying something as though it is a fact, when the author knows it to be untrue. Metaphors are used to exaggerate. Example: 'He's a machine.' Machines are known to never get tired so the writer wrote he's a machine to show that the male he was talking about never gets tired. A vast number of metaphors are used to describe sport. Imagine this football match: "Have you seem David; he's a monster in the area; smashed the ball so hard he tore the net in half. That wizard is on fire." The essence of the speech is: David does not get tired and makes very few errors. He hit the ball extremely hard score. He is so good that it seems like he has special powers over the ball. David's been doing consistently well.

O = Onomatopoeia. Onomatopoeia is words that sound like the objects they name. Examples include: buzz, chop, ding, bang and hum.

http://www.educationquizzes.com/ks2/english/onomatopoeia/ 

R = Rhythm. Should the rhythm be read  in a special way that highlights the rhythm.

R = Repetition. Does the poem repeat particular words or phrases? If so, how?

How to Structure a Simple Story