Spelling Getting it write, wright, right! Claire Ridsdale, Teaching & Learning Adviser (English)

Aims   To know the implications for spelling within the new primary curriculum   To understand how spelling is being taught in school and what is considered to be good practise   To have the opportunity to ask questions   To know how you can support spelling at home

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Spelling is a mental process To support children well, we need to be aware of the mental processes involved Say the word Visual memory of the word The feeling of correctness Correct spelling

New Curriculum Expectations   Significant increase in expectations across all year groups   Greater focus on spelling rules and conventions   Greater focus on word roots and origins   Word lists are particularly demanding   Skills need to be embedded

Spelling Test! accommodatecommittee desiccatedbattalion gaugeprivilege zoology fuchsia

GHOWBTAPTEAU spells..? GH is P, as in hiccough OW is O, as in bow BT is T, as in doubt A is A, as in acorn PT is T, as in pterodactyl EAU is O, as in beau GH OW BT A PT EAU

Spelling Tests: Problems   Children rarely commit spellings learnt for a test to their long-term memory   Some get 10/10 but then fail to spell these words correctly in their writing   Can lead to poor self-esteem for children who practice but then don’t get many correct   Can create an unhealthy competition   Gives teachers little information about the spelling skills children need to develop

What Does The Research Say?   Teaching children strategies for correcting spelling is far more important than giving them the correct spelling of a word   Spelling strategies and major spelling patterns are taught much more effectively through lessons than through workbooks or spelling tests   If children learn spellings for tests and don’t use those words in their own writing, they will forget them within days   Individualised spelling dictionaries are useful as children are trying to get a grasp of new spellings   Children often get key rules wrong. The top 12 misspelt words were the same for the 7-10 age group as for children aged   There’s a need for both schools and parents to spend more time on the basics

What Does The Research Say?   We often wrongly assume that if children read widely they will be good spellers. This presupposes they are understanding and processing every word   Children need to be taught why words are spelt as they are. They love to hear where words come from e.g. ‘ghost’ has an ‘h’ because Flemish typesetters brought it over here used the Flemish word, which was ‘gheest.’

What Are Effective Schools Doing?   Arranging training for all staff   Structuring spelling so that it is taught across several sessions each week   Using the teaching sequence: Revisit - Teach - Practice - Apply   Providing opportunities for children to investigate, make generalisations, discover rules and embed their learning   Supporting the use of individual spelling logs   Using a range of visual, auditory and kinaesthetic approaches   Assessing spelling termly through children's writing and activities (e.g. cloze procedures)   Building the word list words into teaching as appropriate   Keeping parents informed

What we will do at FCCE:  In Reception Blending books and Bug Club Assessed at the end of each phase (Phase 2,3 and 4 assessment will be sent home)  In Key Stage One Teach National Curriculum spelling objectives Teach phonics 4x per week in ability sets (parents informed on termly newsletter of what each set is covering each week) Blending books for identified children Termly test of phonemes, selected HFW and spelling rules (completed termly test will be sent home)

What we will do at FCCE:  In Year 3 and 4 Teach National Curriculum spelling objectives Word books to come home with misspelt words in to practise Termly spelling test covering spelling rules taught and a selection of the Year 3 and 4 New Curriculum spelling list (completed termly test will be sent home)  In Year 5 and 6 Same as Year 3 and 4 but using Year 5 and 6 New Curriculum spelling list

Discussion Discuss these points as a table Capture any questions on the post-it notes

Q&A APPS and Resources

Website Resources

Nessy A Reading and Spelling Program for Key Stage One and Key Stage Two

The Purpose of using ‘Nessy’  It’s fun!  It’s interactive!  It cleverly disguises learning as a series of games.  The phonics rules are very funny and memorable.  Tricky spellings can be practised again and again... Until they get them right!

How do you play?  The aim is to visit an island at a time.  Each island will give you different types of spellings for the children to practise.  Every spelling game allows you the opportunity to win ‘nuggets’.  You can trade ‘nuggets’ in at the fair where you can unlock and play new games.  During the games, clues can be given so that children can play the games completely independent from adult help (if you wish).

What makes it so good?  You can set children specific spellings or get them to work on ‘tricky’ words that they often struggle with.  You can track your child’s progress and set learning at an appropriate level.  Children can complete reading activities as well as spellings.  Children can practise their phonics at home with the animated cartoons and spelling patterns.  You can record your own voice and word lists... Or even get the children to do it for themselves!

What next?  The children will be given time, either as individuals or as a whole class, to play ‘Nessy’ and learn their spellings.  A trial version of ‘Nessy’ can be found at  If you like it enough you can also buy a copy of the program (Nessy gamesplayer) from the same website for £15! The perfect Christmas present!

Recommend Apps  Squeebles  Vocabulary Spelling City  Spell with Pip  Abc pocket phonics  Spelling Monster  Pirate Phonics

Final Thought… I take it you already know Of tough and bough and cough and dough? Others may stumble, but not you, On hiccough, thorough, tough and through. Well done! And now you wish, perhaps, To learn of less familiar traps? Beware of heard, a dreadful word That looks like beard and sounds like bird, And dead: it’s said like bed, not bead – For goodness sake don’t call it deed! Watch out for meat and great and threat (They rhyme with suite and straight and debt). A moth is not a moth in mother, Nor both in bother, broth in brother, And here is not a match for there Nor dear and fear for bear and pear, And then there’s dose and rose and lose – Just look them up – and goose and choose, And cork and work and card and ward, And font and front and word and sword, And do and go and thwart and cart – Come, come, I’ve hardly made a start! A dreadful language? Man alive! I’d mastered it when I was five!