1. Year 4
Parent Workshop
English
Autumn Term 2016

2. Aims
To inform you of the Year 4 Reading, Writing and SPaG curriculum objectives
To provide ways to support your child at home
To explore websites and strategies for learning.

3. The national curriculum for English aims to ensure that all pupils:
read easily, fluently and with good understanding
develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage
write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas
are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.

4. Assessment descriptors
At Avenue, use the terms ‘EMERGING’, ‘EXPECTED’ and ‘EXCEEDING’ to describe your child’s attainment against the expected standard for their year group.
Emerging – means your child is working towards the expected standard for their year group
Expected – means your child is working at the expected standard for their year group
Exceeding – means your child is working at greater depth within the standard for their year group

6. Writing objectives- punctuation
Year 4 focuses:
Inverted commas to punctuate direct speech
Apostrophe for possession e.g. the girl’s hat
Apostrophe for regular and irregular plurals e.g. the girls’ classroom
Comma after fronted adverbial e.g. Last week, We went to the park.

7. Writing objectives- grammar
Year 4 focuses:
Greater variety of conjunctions e.g. because, although, if, when
Present perfect form of verbs in contrast to the past tense
Range of adverbs
Prepositions e.g. before, after, below, across
Use ‘a’ and ‘an’ appropriately
Nouns and expanded noun phrases to add detail
Use paragraphs to group related ideas

8. How you can support with grammar and punctuation at home
IXL
uk.ixl.com
Oxford Owl
Primary Homework Help
primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/interactive/literacy2.htm
Fun English Games
Twinkl

9. Writing objectives- Spelling
Year 4 focuses:
Prefixes and suffixes
Homophones e.g. which, witch, their, there, they’re
Spell words that are often misspelt (common exception words)
Possessive apostrophe accurately in words e.g. children’s, girls’
Use the first two or three letters of a word to check its spelling in a dictionary

10. Spelling Lesson Structure
Review- previous learning from other year groups or within the year group
Teach- explicitly teach spelling rules and share the common exception
words or word list
Practise- pupils work independently so that they can practise their new
learning
Apply- children complete an activity and apply their knew knowledge

11. Strategies to support at home
There are lots of ways to help children with spelling at home.
It is beneficial to provide a range of activities e.g. visual, kinaesthetic.
As well as the activities in the spelling support pack, children could also:
Write shopping list
Stick post-it notes around the house
Be tested on words at random times (in the car)
Discuss spellings when reading
Use a dictionary at home to help with independent spelling activities.

12. Useful websites Topmarks www.topmarks.co.uk Spell Zone
Kids Spell
Key Stage 2 Literacy

13. Reading In Year 4, children enhance their reading
skills by focussing on three main areas.
Reading for pleasure
Read a range of genres that are structured in different ways
Use dictionaries to check the meaning of words that they have read
Discuss words and phrases that capture the reader’s interest
Recognise different forms of poetry e.g. free verse, narrative poetry
Discussion
Participate in discussions about books they have read
Listen to other children’s opinions

14. Reading Understanding texts
Ask questions to improve their understanding
Make predictions
Infer characters feelings, thoughts and actions and justify with evidence
Summarising main ideas from more than one paragraph
Retrieve and record information from more than one paragraph
Reading is taught through either whole class comprehension lessons, where all children will focus on the same book and text, or through differentiated texts, where children work in a focus group with the class teacher.

15. How you can support with reading at home
Children should be reading everyday, either independently or to someone. They should be questioned on what they have read as many children can show good reading skills, but may not understand what they have read.
Use the questioning support in the reading support pack to help you with this.
Explain why a character did something.
Explain a character's different/changing feelings throughout a story. How do you know?
What are the clues that a character is liked/disliked/envied/feared/loved/hated etc…?
What is similar/different about two characters?
Why is 'x' (character/setting/event) question/bullet/subheading/table etc to present the information?
Where does it tell you that…?

16. How you can support with reading at home
Oxford Owl
Twinkl
Primary Resources

17. Any questions?