Tuesday, 31 May 2016

Spelling Strategies and Activities

SPELLINGS STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES

These three activities I have used with individual students who are finding spelling very tricky. I find that they help to develop their understanding of phonemes and to develop their confidence in their abilities. 


BOGGLE: children choose 12 letters randomly and then use the letters selected to make words.  I have colour coded the vowels in red as some of my students are unsure which letters the vowels are.  I have included the phonemes and blends for students who are unsure of these and to help them recognise that they make one sound.

a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
o
p
q
r
s
t
u
v
w
x
y
z
ai
ee
ie
oa
ue
sh
ch
th
th
ng
oo
oo
ar
er
or
oi
ou
ck
ll
ff
zz
qu
a-e
ay
ea
i-e
igh
y
o-e
owsnow
ue
u-e
ew
ir
ir
ur
or
au
aw
al
oy
owcow
ear
air
ure
ss
br
cl
cr
dr
sm
st
pl
sk
spl
tw
squ
thr
nd
lk
ft
nch
mp
ct
bl
ph
tch
tion
wh
dg
ea
ough
a
e
i
o
u
c
d
g
n
p
r
t
a
e
i
o
u
a
e
i
o
u



SPLAT:  In example I have used the letters b, d and p, however, I have used this activity with homophones too.  Say the letter to the student who them has to “Splat” the letter with their palm or make a zapper using a card shape.



b
b
b
b
b
d
d
d
d
d
p
p
p
p
p
d
b
p
d
p
b
d
b
p



 
ONSET AND RIME
This activity helps the student to recognise that many spellings follow a pattern (letter strings and letter families).  Often I will ask the student to tell me or to write down a sentence using the words. 










 
 ook


l
t
b
h




 









The activities can be easily adapted and used with other strategies, for example recording the words created playing Boggle on coloured paper with felt pens; using  shaving foam or sand to write the letter b or d; and using plastic spoons or lolly sticks to create onset and rime resources. 

Above all else I aim to make the activities purposeful and fun for the student.








Wednesday, 4 May 2016

Strategies to Improve Writing

Strategies To Improve Writing 


As part of the National Curriculum, your child will write in a variety of styles; ranging across fiction (imaginative stories or descriptions) and non fiction (writing reports or persuasive letters). In addition, they will be expected to use a range of punctuation marks, adverbs, prepositions and phrases to add detail and clarity to their writing. Children will become familiar with the features of different types of writing but some may find it more difficult to edit and improve their writing once they have completed it.


The following strategies support the development of editing skills. Individual sentences can be extended and developed by asking these questions: who, what, when, where, why?

 For example; 

 The boy ate his lunch. 
The who and what questions have already been answered. The sentence is extended further by answering when, where and why? 

 At midday, the boy ate his lunch in the park because he was very hungry. 

 The ISPACED mnemonic was originally designed as a strategy to vary sentence starts (see below) however, it can be used to support students to independently edit writing generally.

I - ing words. Use powerful verbs (action) words. Munching and crunching, the boy ate his lunch. 

S- similes. Similes describe and can be identified by the words as and like. Like a hungry lion, the boy ate his lunch. As hungry as a lion, the boy ate his lunch. 

P - preposition. State where the action takes place. In the park, the boy ate his lunch like a hungry lion. 

A - adverbs. Use -ly words to describe how something is done. Hungrily, the boy ate his lunch. 

C - connectives (joining words) Finally, the boy ate his lunch. 

E- ed words. Tired, the boy ate his lunch. 

D- drop in a phrase or clause. Add some extra information using commas or parenthesis (brackets). The boy (who had not eaten for hours and hours) ate his lunch, munching and crunching like a lion. 

Encouraging your child to read their writing through carefully, checking punctuation and adding any of the above elements will improve their writing.