Read Write Inc Spelling

At Olton Primary School, in Year 2, we start our spelling program using Read, Write Inc Spelling. We do this because:

• To enable to allow us meet the spelling expectations of the National Curriculum 2014
• To raise standards in spelling
• To provide consistency and progression in the teaching of spelling
• To help support children to enable them to be more confident at spelling. 

How does this programme support your child in learning to spell?

RWInc. Spelling is an interactive programme which teaches spellings in a fun and engaging way. Each unit is introduced with a short video. It helps children to learn spellings with common patterns and uses rules in order to help them recall spellings as well as teaching exceptions to these rules.

Individual workbooks allow children to practise their spellings and the teaching naturally follows on from the Spell Review part of the RWInc phonics programme taught as soon as the children enter our Early Years Foundation Stage at Olton.  Therefore the children are already proficient at using dots (for individual sounds) and dashes (for digraphs) and prefixes and suffixes can be added to root words to help them to spell with greater accuracy, understanding and confidence.  Log books give children ownership of their spellings and further consolidation at home.

Handy Tips for supporting your child with spelling

• Make sure that the log book is used to practise the tricky spellings regularly. 
• Revisit spellings from previous weeks.
• Ask your child to explain the rule for the week and get them to give you example words so that you can build up a word bank that can be referred to frequently.
• When your child is writing in their learning log remind them to use their dots and dashes and ‘fred fingers’ to spell.
• Encourage your child to edit their own writing for misspelt words using the sounds chart in the log books to choose the right grapheme.
• Use the Log Book to log high frequency words which you notice your child is spelling wrong (remember that these are quite often RED WORDS and that you ‘Can’t fred a red!’)
• Play homophone games where you give them a word like right/write and they write you both spellings and show you on the sounds chart which graphemes they would choose to spell them right! Make sure they know which one is which!
• Play hold a sentence dictation where you give the child a short sentence with one of their spellings in which will help them to understand the meaning of the word and spell and punctuate correctly
• Always ensure that your child has their Log Book in school every day. 

Building independence

Giving children weekly spellings to be tested (even when they do score 10/10!) does not mean that they will apply these in their own written work. With this new approach to the teaching of spellings we hope to support and encourage your child to become both more confident and independent spellers which will help them become better writers.  Revisiting spelling patterns and rules regularly is key to them becoming successful spellers.

Remember that the Spelling Programme is there to help them to become better at spelling with positive praise and encouragement and that, like everything, this will take practice.

Supporting Your Child's Spelling at Home 

To help you to support your children at home with their spellings on a weekly basis, the children will be given 6-8 spellings from the unit they are currently on which will follow a set pattern (these are explained at the bottom of each page in their Spelling Log Books). They will be tested on these the following week. In addition to these your child will also be given 6 red or orange words to learn from the National Curriculum word lists which are words the children are expected to know for their age range. These are listed in the back of their Spelling Log Book so you can keep overlearning them throughout the year.

In Years 3 to 6, at Olton Primary School we use 

Spelling shed

At Olton and in years 3-6 our spelling programme- Spelling Shed- is the most up to date curriculum, based on the science of reading about spelling instruction. Each lesson is designed to be highly effective in the teaching and delivery of spellings. The lessons incorporate a variety of phonics, morphology and etymology elements and include a variety of instructions and activities that engage and challenge children with their learning. The spelling shed’s approach to spelling involves the relationship between sounds and written symbols as well as learning to spell the word through meaning. The programme offers full research designed scheme with detailed lesson plans, PowerPoints and worksheets including weekly spelling lists.