Laurance Haines School Year 2 Spelling

Most people read words more accurately than they spell them. The younger pupils are, the truer this is. By the end of year 1, pupils should be able to read a large number of different words containing the sounds that they have learnt, whether or not they have seen these words before.

How children learn to spell Spelling, however, is a very different matter. Once pupils have learnt more than one way of spelling particular sounds, choosing the right letter or letters depends on their either having made a conscious effort to learn the words or having absorbed them less consciously through their reading. Younger pupils have not had enough time to learn or absorb the accurate spelling of all the words that they may want to write.

Year 2 Spelling Curriculum Phonic knowledge continues to underpin spelling in year 2. Alternative sounds are taught – for example in year 1 and reception the children knew the sound r and now in year 2 an alternative wr is taught. Teaching spelling rules is a core part of the spelling programme. The rules for adding prefixes and suffixes correctly is taught e.g adding ful, ness, ment, ly to make new words Also contractions such as did not - didn’t

Year 2 Spelling Curriculum Children are taught to recognise the difference in homophones sea see won one son sun Finally and importantly the common exception words are taught. These are words that do not follow the phonic patterns the children have been taught e.g. would, people and because.

Spelling at Laurance Haines Many of our year 2 children are following the RWInc programme, spelling is taught daily as part of their phonics teaching. We call the words that can be spelt with phonics green words. The children also learn common exception words each week. We call these red words. Some children have left the programme and are taught spelling twice a week in the afternoons. The spellings taught are reinforced in our English lessons. The children are encouraged to apply learnt spellings in other curriculum areas.

How do we teach? Green words – phonics Say the word for your child- put it into a sentence Child puts hands behind their backs. Fred fingers, squeeze the sounds onto your fingers Say the letter names, model it if needed Then the child writes the words down, underlining special friends Children check

How do we teach Red words – Common Exception Words Read the words, explain if needed Look for the tricky bits, underline or put a ring around them and discuss Squeeze the sounds onto the fingers Say the letter names, emphasising the tricky parts Write it down and check

How you can help at home Spellings are sent home each week. Practise these each week, as well as previous weeks spellings. They will need to be practised more than once if your child is to become secure in the spellings Only point out spelling errors of words you think your child should be able to spell when they are writing independently. Praise attempts at spelling and don’t worry if they are not all correct. Can they spell more than at the beginning of the week?

Assessment In the new curriculum this year, spelling is very high profile. In the SPAG English tests 50% of the marks are for spelling. To achieve age appropriate expectation children must be able to spell, punctuate, have clear correctly formed letters and grammatically correct writing. Each one of these strands has to be achieved. See hand-outs for sample spelling test and Year 2 spelling words.

Questions