Using Spelling Shed alongside your phonics scheme

Does your Systematic Synthetic Phonics scheme meet the National Curriculum statutory requirements for KS1? Does it prepare your children for the more complex code they will encounter in their reading and writing in Year 3 and beyond? The simple answer is that almost all Government Validated Phonics Schemes do not adequately cover the National Curriculum …

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Top tips for using formative and summative assessment in phonics

What is summative and formative assessment? Formative assessment •Observation-led – responses to tasks and questions – assessing their input, instigating peer discussions, and completing a review of work covered during the plenary. •Planning prompts – For example, recapping the grapheme-phoneme correspondence (GPC) taught, particularly as part of the plenary. Each lesson plan has an assessment …

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Etymology

How to use etymological information can improve understanding in reading and aid spelling Morphology and etymology go hand in hand and when joined together with orthographical mapping, they become a powerful trio in the learning of spellings.  Other words with Greek origins: dolphin elephant alphabet hyphen triumph How do we use etymology in Spelling Shed …

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Using Actions to Support Your Phonics Teaching

Why use actions in phonics sessions? •Promotes active engagement and participation – research suggests that the longer a child is actively participating in a lesson, the higher their academic success. •Targets kinaesthetic types of learners – movement •Helps to distinguish between similar sounds •Visual prompt – if a child is unsure of the GPC they …

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Choosing and Using Flashcards to Accelerate Learning in Phonics

Why flashcards? The scientifically proven best way to learn is practicing recall by spaced repetition. You repeat the process of recall in certain time intervals (every day, every weekend etc.), and that’s how information gets stored in your long-term memory. Spaced repetition indicates that it’s better to learn every day for one hour, than one …

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