Year 3/4 Bulletin

Spelling

We have a whole school approach to teaching spelling. Our program is a combination of MSL (multi-sensory structured language) that focuses on the 7 syllable types and 6 spelling rules, and Letters and Sounds that focuses on phonics and morphology.

We use Letters & Sounds as a whole school phonics approach. We explicitly teach phonics during our reading and spelling sessions, and we are guided by the diagnostic assessments we administer – phonemic segmentation, phonemic blending, onset and rhyme.

Morphology is the study of words, how they're formed and their relationship with other words in the same language. Morphology analyses the structure of words, such as stems, root words, prefixes, and suffixes,and parts of words.

Understanding morphology can help children with spelling strategies. For example, knowing that ‘medicine’, ‘medical’ and ‘paramedic’ all share a common root.

To assess students, we complete 1:1 assessments during small groupwork. We use flashcards to assess three main areas;

Recognising and writing phonemes
Blending
Segmenting

Once these assessments have been completed, we use the data to inform areas of growth for individual student needs.

Learning Intention: To recognise and represent patterns in words and the sounds they make:

Grapheme

-ion

mansion

depression

procession

adhesion

ammunition

aviation

adoption

What is guided discovery?“An alternative teaching method to the traditional "lecture style" that places emphasis on critical thinking, active learning, and self-discovery. In a guided discovery lesson, the students will decipher language rules and knowledge for themselves rather than being explicitly told by the teacher.”

Students may be on the floor with whiteboards, or sitting at their tables with their spelling books having a go at spelling the words. After the word list has been vocalised, prompting questions are provided to students.

Teachers ask students:

What do you hear that is the same about these words? What is the common pattern?
Where is the pattern located?
What other patterns do you know that make this sound?
What other words do you know that follow this pattern?

After the words are unpacked together and the correct spelling is identified, students are encouraged to add to their word list to find other words that follow the same pattern.

After this has been completed, an accompanying short task helps students consolidate their understanding.