When PI is new, where to start with juniors for spelling?

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debbie
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When PI is new, where to start with juniors for spelling?

Post by debbie »

When the Phonics International programme is first adopted in a primary school, teachers of the junior-aged children (around 7 to 11) often ask for a steer on 'where to start?'. Over time, teachers of the older children will inherit children who have already made a start with the Phonics International programme - the core resources and routines - and this information will be provided for the next teacher to continue with the progression.

With any core teaching in literacy and maths, teachers with a new class will want to conduct their own baseline assessment to get an indication if some children have significant gaps in their alphabetic code knowledge (the letter/s-sound correspondences). I find the assessment below particularly helpful - it is a code and word-level assessment that can be used for both decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling) purposes:

http://www.phonicsinternational.com/uni ... 20grid.pdf

There are two parallel versions of the assessment above, and you can find the assessment at the bottom of the 'Range of free Assessments' on the PI 'Free CPD Resources' page:

https://phonicsinternational.com/free-resources/

Assessment will only give you an indication of children's code/decoding/encoding profile and then you need to link that to a 'best fit' approach for selecting your PI resources. To help with this, get to know the core 'Sounds Book Activity Sheets' and the 'I can read' texts in PI programme. Your choice of 'where to start' will be a combination of your assessment, your judgement, and knowing the resources well.

Don't forget, children may know the letter/s-sound correspondences and perform relatively well on a code-assessment, but it does not mean their spelling is secure. That is where the 'I can read' texts will help. I promote the notion of 'self-dictation' where children can work at their own speed and level, re-reading the texts bit-by-bit and then writing out each sentence, from memory, in their exercise books with writing lines - good handwriting too please! Teachers need to 'sweat the small stuff' when it comes to their ethos and aspirations for children.

Here is some further guidance for spelling in Key Stage 2 or juniors:


Even though the core Sounds Book Activity Sheets start off with a bank of cumulative words for decoding first and foremost, they are also spelling word banks in effect. They are the starting point and still ‘core and essential’ even for the spelling routines.

Looking at words and decoding them grapheme by grapheme still supports spelling. The beauty of continuing to use them for spelling is that this also helps weaker decoders to hone their decoding skills. Older children may be able to read ‘at a glance’ the words in the higher Units but it is surprising how a word that is ‘unknown’ to the child in every sense can trip up the weaker readers and they take a ‘look-alike’ guess at such words.

So: Continue with the Sounds Book Activity Sheets for every teaching and learning cycle.

The ‘I can read’ texts are excellent for spelling because children are actively doing a ‘grapheme search’, underlining with a sharp pencil, then counting how many they find (this keeps them focused on not missing any, and gives the teacher the ability to glance around the class to see if everyone is more or less on track.

Then, the reading, re-reading, any copywriting and/or self-dictation, and comprehension follow-up (either orally or in writing) helps with the overall spelling – and also helps to embed that ‘I can read’ story in memory to help with recalling ‘which’ words are spelt in a particular way.

The Mini Poster range may be of usefulness as this provides a kernel of spelling word banks – especially in the latter half of PI – in large font.

Then, in the ‘Extras’ webpage, you can find a Phonics Spelling Dictionary, which perhaps the teacher can have a class copy which she, or he, builds up over time to add more and more words to the various sections.

There are also the National Curriculum word lists for KS 2 via the ‘Extras’ webpage.

From Unit 6 onwards, there are extra sheets provided in the form of ‘grids’ in the Sounds Book Activity strand. These are optional for teachers either giving words for the children to spell in the correct column (not generally as a test, so ask the children first to ‘point’ to which column they need) – or, again, the teacher can use these to keep filling in for the phonics and spelling display wall in the classroom – or build up a browse book in the classroom.

For the ‘I can read’ texts, there are also black and white line drawings which often include extra words of the focus code which can be used for the children to write an additional, short, paragraph to include those extra words to expand on the ‘I can read’ texts.

In Units 1 to 6 (especially word-rich in Units 5 and 6), there are ‘Read the words, make up a story’ with additional words that focus on a piece of code the children may know, but not all the words themselves – so this can further build up children’s spelling and stock of words.

Because the PI programme has not been used building up throughout the school, for this year, teachers may need to make choices as to ‘which’ Units and letter/s-sound correspondences to undertake in their classes. So, for example, the teachers of Y5 and Y6 may benefit from taking a collective look around the later Units of work to see what they think will be most useful with the remaining time the children have in school.

They may have noticed particular weaknesses in spelling generally and then they can look in the PI programme to see ‘where’ they can find resources to support spelling.

For example, in Unit 8, there is quite a lot of material of ‘-ti’, ‘-ci’ ‘-ssi’. Seek out the ‘Mini Posters’ for Unit 8 to see how I’ve provided different posters to exemplify that it isn’t just about ‘tion’ words as there are other letter strings such as ‘tial’ and ‘tient’ and so on.

Dependent on the analysis of the school, you may decide that such spelling lessons occur twice a week – or once a week with a follow-up homework. You should find that children get very quick and getting on with the routines when they know what to do. They can be self-motivating because they have routines they know, and plenty of content to get on with their practice. Working in pairs in KS 2 with dictionary work etc can work very well (but matched pairs otherwise the quicker child always tends to do the work – this is what we want to avoid as every child must attend to their practice and learning).

If possible, really build in the ethos of neat work and good handwriting. These are the opportunities for ‘the minutiae’ and setting high standards for attention to detail.

Generally speaking, KS 2 should be working around the Unit 6 (if needed) to Unit 12. For the future, try to create, between the staff with discussion, an order and pace that can work systematically throughout KS 2.

Finally, time and teaching must be built in to check on children’s growing knowledge of spelling word banks. This can be done in inbetween moments, for example, “Who can remember the ten words from yesterday’s (or last weeks) spelling word bank for this grapheme…? Can you write down the list of words and check to see if you’ve got the correct spelling for those one or two particularly unusual spellings (such as ‘choir’).�

You’re really looking for children grasping the nettle themselves for their own spelling progress.

These little posters are really helpful to add to the spelling and phonics display wall throughout the school:

https://phonicsinternational.com/FR_PI_straight.pdf

https://phonicsinternational.com/Let_me ... l_that.pdf

I hope this helps.

Best wishes to everyone,

Debbie
Debbie Hepplewhite
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