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English
The Teaching of English at Kings Hill
We aim to teach the following lessons each week to ensure coverage of skills and progression in all areas of the English curriculum.
We follow the Talk for Writing approach to our writing.
- Monday - Reading lesson
- Tuesday - SPAG lesson
- Wednesday - Friday - Writing skills lessons
We aim to enable our children to:
- Enjoy quality experiences that will enhance their writing, knowledge, skills and understanding.
- Be enthusiastic and critical readers of stories, poetry and drama as well as non-fiction texts.
- Become lifelong learners as readers and writers through the Talk for Writing approach.
- Explore global issues through writing (for example, persuasive writing and spoken language).
- Write with confidence, fluency and understanding, orchestrating a range of independent strategies to self monitor and correct.
- Write a range of text types each seasonal term (fiction and non-fiction) and in a range of genres and be able to write in a variety of styles and form, appropriate to the situation.
- Increase their ability to use planning, editing and drafting to improve their work.
- Use a variety of mediums to express their written ideas, e.g. ICT and Drama.
For more information about our curriculum, please click here.
Talk for Writing
Talk for Writing starts with enjoying and sharing stories. Throughout the school, we place a strong emphasis on children reading stories and enjoying a range of high quality literature. Through regular reading, we want children to build up an extensive and rich vocabulary for use in their own writing.
During the initial 'imitation' stage of Talk for Writing, children learn to tell a story off by heart. They retell a text with expression and actions and make use of a story map to support their retelling. Once the story is learnt, children are encouraged to adapt it. We then work on skills and ideas to develop the child's own writing. Many writing opportunities (through Reading, Spag and Writing lessons ) will take place in a learning sequence and finally will result in the "invention" stage where children will be challenged to write their own version (or invention) of the story or text independently.
To find out more, please visit Talk4Writing
Reading
Accelerated Reader
Accelerated Reader (AR) is a computer programme that helps teachers monitor and manage children’s independent reading practice. Children choose books from their own level, read them at their own pace and then, when finished, quiz on the book at school on our Ipads or Macs. Feedback and results provided from the quiz allows the child and the teacher to choose new books, discuss strategies for reading and plan the next steps for their child's comprehension skills.
To search and find a book from the Accelerated Reader scheme please click the link below:
Spelling
Following the Government’s introduction of the new framework, spelling expectations for each year group have become more specific and detailed. Recognising the new higher expectations and specific emphasis on spellings, at our school we focus on daily teaching of spelling and phonics. We use a range of fun, investigative and interactive methods to teach new spelling patterns and rules.
Spelling is a key part of becoming a successful writer. It:
- helps children to write more fluently, dedicating more of their energies towards creative writing (rather than the mechanical process of spelling);
- helps children to attempt to spell unfamiliar words, enriching their vocabulary;
- gives children opportunities to investigate and understand the true meaning of words;
- develops confident writers and readers.
Oracy
Oracy - the four strands are:
1. Physical
2. Linguistic
3. Cognitive
4.Social and Emotional
Please see the links below for useful Oracy information.
Giving Proof of Listening Means