1. Year 2 Reading, GPS and Handwriting Evening Mrs Keogh and Mr Herring

2. New Curriculum  Second year of being assessed on new curriculum for year 2  Will include a compulsory Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPAG) test in May (if government does not accidentally leak it again!)

3. Reading – word reading  Pupils should be taught to:  Continue to apply phonic knowledge and skills to decode words until reading is fluent  Read accurately by blending the sounds in words  Read accurately words containing two or more syllables  Read words containing common suffixes  Read further common exception words (high frequency words)  Read most words quickly and accurately without sounding (high frequency words)  Read books aloud, sounding out without hesitation  Re-read books to build up fluency and confidence

4. Reading – comprehension  Information retrieval  Inference  Book talk - author’s intention, language used for effect, layout  Creative Questioning  Themes and Conventions  Bug Club

5. Spelling  Learn spelling rules  Plurals – add s, es (if word ends in s, x, z), take of the y and add ies  Doubling consonant before adding suffix eg jogging, swapping, travelling  -ge and –dge (badge, age)  Rule – short vowel sounds are followed by ‘dge’ eg badge, dodge, judge; long vowel sounds are followed by ‘ge’ eg cage, age, huge  J before ‘a’, ‘o’, ‘u’ eg jam, jog, junction  G ‘before’ ‘e’, ‘i’, ‘y’ eg gem, giraffe, gym  Homophones, contracted forms, possessive apostrophe

6. Grammar  Prefix un-  Suffix –er, -s and –es (plurals), -est, -ed, -ing, -ly, - ment, -less, -ful  Need to know the words adjective, adverb, verb, tense (past and present), apostrophe, comma, compound, suffix, noun, noun phrase, statement, question, exclamation, command, subordinate clause

7. Word Classes  Every word belongs to a word class which summarises the ways in which it can be used in grammar. The major word classes for English are: noun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, determiner, pronoun, conjunction. Word classes are sometimes called ‘parts of speech’.  AdjectiveDescribing word before noun or after a verb  Nounpeople, places or things  Verb often an action, can have a tense  Adverbtime, manner (often ending ‘ly) or place  ConjunctionLinks two words or phrases together

8. Colour Coding  The old man quickly ran to the shop because he needed some milk.

9. Handwriting  At St John’s we use the Nelson handwriting script. All letters start from the top except d and e. These two letters start from the middle. Capital letters can start from anywhere but most people find it convenient to start from the top. Capital letters should be the same height as ascenders. Ascenders include: b, d, f, h, k, l. The letter ‘t’ is not as high as an ascender. It is about three quarters as high. The letters f, g, j, p, q, y are descenders. The technical name for the tail that goes below the line is a ‘flourish’. The cross stroke of the ‘t’ and ‘f’ should be the same height as the other lower case letters.

10.  Handwriting joins  Letters that end at the top are joined horizontally: f, o, r, t, v, w, x  Letters that end at the bottom are joined diagonally: a, c, d, e, h, i, k, l, m, n, u  Letters that are not joined include: b, g, j, p, s, q, y, z  These are not joined because they end in the opposite direction (left) to the direction of writing (right)

11.  In general, children who feel good about their handwriting are far more motivated to write. Reluctant writers often have poor handwriting and often have a poor self-image of themselves as writers. Children who have neat cursive writing are often better at spelling than those with poor handwriting or those who print. Underachievement in any curriculum area that involves writing can often be the result of poor handwriting.