1. Pop-up training
November 2015

3. What Word Study isn’t! Word Study is not about passive learning.
It is not about memorising words for a weekly spelling test and then forgetting them thereafter.
It is not taught in isolation from reading and writing.
A true partnership between teacher and pupil, hypothesizing, sharing, checking, refining ideas and applying them.
Resources such as Spelling Bank (1999) and Support for Spelling advocated an investigative approach to spelling. This is not a radically new idea. It should build on really well from the phonic phases and bridge the gap between KS1 and KS2.
Word Study promotes a more cohesive approach to English-linking spelling, vocabulary, reading and writing closely.

4. What is it then? Active learning
Based on a belief that most words do follow spelling patterns
Deepening understanding of how words are built and then applying this knowledge in reading and spelling
Comparing and contrasting words, sorting, manipulating them and classifying them
By applying their learning to other words they will learn far more words that learning a selection of words for a weekly test. It links visual, auditory and kinesthetic learning.
Approx 85% of words do follow a regular spelling pattern.
The teaching sequence will incorporate different types of sorts such as the open sort we did with the names this morning, to closed sorts where the criteria is stated, blind sorts where the children work with a partner and read the word aloud for the other child to point out which group it will belong in.

5. How does it work?
Overall aim is to support students on a developmental journey from relying on letter sounds to using visual patterns and word origins and meanings as spelling strategies
Sound
pattern
meaning
Progression in skills across school from reliance on phonic sounds in FS/KS1, through patterns in lower KS2, to in upper KS2 and beyond using knowledge of meanings to make assumptions about spelling

6. Stages of Spelling Development
Spelling Stage
Features
1 Emergent
The distinction between drawing and writing,
How to make letters
The direction of writing on a page
Some letter-sound matches
2 Letter-name alphabetic
Grapheme-Phoneme Correspondence
Blending and segmenting
Consonant sounds
Short vowel sounds
Consonant blends and digraphs
3 Within Word Pattern
Alternative vowel spellings
More complex consonant patterns
Spellings for all syllables
4 Syllables and Affixes
Moving away from sounds to visual representations, and an understanding of orthography
Inflectional endings (-s, -es, -ed, -ing)
Rules for adding inflectional endings
Syllabication
Homophones
5 Derivational Relations
Consonant alternations (e.g., soft–soften, magic–magician)
Vowel alternations (e.g., please–pleasant, define–definition, explain–explanation)
Greek and Latin affixes and root words
Etymologies
Sound
pattern
meaning

7. Stages of Spelling Development
Spelling Stage
US age range
1 Emergent
Age 3-5
2 Letter-name alphabetic
5 to 7 year olds
Grades 1-3
3 Within Word Pattern
5-9 year olds
4 Syllables and Affixes
9-11 year olds
5 Derivational Relations
Age 11 – 14, Grade 7 onwards
UK curriculum, equivalent skills taught, age range
FS1 and 2, Phase 1
3 and 4 year olds
Phase 2 – 4, FS
4 and 5 year olds
Phases 5 and 6, Years 1 and 2
5 – 7 year olds
Phase 6, from Y1 in new curriculum
5 – 11 year olds
Throughout KS2 into KS3
7 – 14 years old
Sound
pattern
meaning

8. Teaching Sequence

9. This is the first step always, and approached differently at different ages. The starting point is always: what do we already know about this word? How then does this word compare to the next word I look at? The aim is to help the children use what they know about words to make judgements and comparisons between them.

10. Word Study lesson
Insert video in here

11. Use what the children already know about words!
Children already know many technical terms for describing words
Phoneme
Grapheme
Digraph
Trigraph
Syllable
Vowel
Consonant
Rhyme
Root
Prefix/suffix
Word class – noun, adjective etc
If you don’t know what all these things are, you need to learn as the children already do by the time they are in KS2 and they are the fundamentals of describing what words are.
See phonics crib sheet – and join in with phonics training session if you want to

12. Word Sorts
Show sheet and explain that it will be stuck in the home learning book
Show word study books

13. Do a word sort…

14. Once these observations and investigations are carried out, the children will be given challenges to complete, sometimes independently and sometimes in groups or at home. These challenges focus on the meaning of the words and the ways and contexts in which they are used. It’s really important for us to support the children in their vocabulary acquisition and development at every stage of their spelling and language journey. Research all over the world has identified that a the greater the vocabulary a child has by the time they are nine, the greater their success in any subject across the curriculum.

15. Once these investigations and challenges are carried out, the children will be given consolidation activities and games. Once again, the aim is to get the children to speak, read and write the words in context as much as possible so that the words and their patterns become familiar.
It is of course true that some words don’t fit patterns and rules. The “tricky” words that the children spent time learning in year One are examples of these. We will still have some irregular words that we ask the children to learn out of context, but our aim is to focus on teaching words in context. Research into teaching and learning spellings has shown that context and use of language is much more effective in the long than rote learning.

16. 6 lists per year group to cover whole currlculum
Talk to Sarah if would rather follow spellingplay scheme and she can cross reference with you so you can use the same resources

17. Demo what’s on the site, tell people to write names down and I will invite them to it