English

Reading and Viewing

This term in Reading, Year Two will explore different types of narratives to build comprehension skills that support literal and inferred meaning. Students will examine literature through a scaffolded and supported approach to deepen students understanding of vocabulary, by analysing sentences with whole class novels and in their roles in literature circles. 

During the second half of the term, the reading focus will shift to viewing and analysing persuasive writing pieces to determine the author’s motives and points of view. We will look at the language used by the author and how words are sequenced in sentences to convince the reader.

To support your child’s learning at home, you could: 

• Show your child advertisements, brochures and articles. Ask them what they think the author is trying to say? Are they trying to persuade you? What could be the reasons?
• Encourage your child to monitor their own reading when the meaning of the story is lost. They can do this by rereading, using illustrations, context or by asking themself what do I know about this story already? 
• Encourage your child to explore the text prior to reading. Have them discuss any unfamiliar vocabulary with you. After the text is read, ask your child was if they can make any further predictions of what could happen next to the characters if the story continued.

Speaking and Listening

Students will focus on consolidating their speaking and listening skills, focusing on grammar with the sequencing of new vocabulary in sentences. Students will be encouraged to use collaborative and conversational skills when analysing texts within class-created Book Clubs. Through the Book Club experiences, students will discuss a shared study text with a purposeful role to add to conversations and co-construct comprehension of their study text. Some examples of roles could include connector, summariser, character analyser and word whiz.

To support your child’s learning at home, you could: 

• Storytelling and retelling: Encourage your child to tell stories or retell events from their day. This helps develop their narrative skills, vocabulary, and coherence in speaking. Listen attentively and provide feedback or ask follow-up questions to expand the conversation.
• Play verbal games: Engage in fun verbal games that promote communication skills, such as "I Spy," charades, or word association. These activities encourage active listening, turn-taking, and verbal expression.
• Model effective communication: Be a role model for effective communication by speaking clearly, using proper grammar, and actively listening when your child speaks. Encourage turn-taking during family discussions and model respectful listening and responding.

Writing

This term, students will explore the explore the excitement of writing narratives. Students will utilise literary elements such as character, setting, plot and messages to create their own narratives. Through developing writing skills such as paragraphing, descriptive language and character dialogue, students will work towards creating an exciting and original story. Furthermore, students will experience different forms of narrative, such as linear, quest and viewpoint. They will also continue building on the skill to create a sequential, understandable resolution to a problem to end their stories. At the conclusion of the Narrative unit, students will create their very own story book as authors and illustrators. 

During the second half of the term, students will continue to build on their research skills to persuade the audience on different topics. Students will write persuasive texts on different topics, from world to classroom issues. Through looking at different language conventions to structure a persuasive piece, students will foster their skills to influence a reader’s opinion. 

Throughout the term, students will have the opportunity to revise and edit their work, ensuring correct spelling, sentence-boundary punctuation, and text structure.

We are excited to see our Year 2 students develop their narrative and persuasive writing skills and we look forward to sharing their published pieces with you. 

To support your child’s learning at home, you could: 

• Narratives: 
  • Write stories about anything and everything! As a family, think of an interesting topic to write about.
  • Read the beginning of a book and let them create their own ending to the story. 
  • Describe a character to them and let them draw what they think they look like. 
• Persuasive: 
  • Have a great debate! Pick a topic from the daily news and ask them for their opinion! Have a debate as a family, starting with “I agree because...” or “I disagree because...”
  • If technology time is limited at home, ask them to write you a persuasive letter listing the reasons why they think they should have more technology time!

Celebrate achievements: Celebrate your child's accomplishments by displaying their narratives and persuasive texts at home or sharing them with relatives and friends. This will boost their confidence and reinforce the value of their hard work.

Spelling

This Term, our focus in spelling will continue to be driven by the needs of the cohort. These needs have been identified through the writing of the Year 2 students. The students will be reviewing compound words, apostrophes and quad-graphs.

1. Compound words: Students will revise two existing words that make up one big word. For example, football, afternoon, basketball, grasshopper etc. Students will also explore when to use a hyphen for a word, for example, ‘check-in’. 
2. Apostrophes: Students will be revising how to use a possession apostrophe in contrast to a contraction apostrophe.
3. Quad-graphs: Students will be exploring quad-graphs such as ‘eigh, ough, augh’. 
4. SCHWA sounds: balloon, problem, support, family, etc. 
5. Words investigations: Students will be learning about the etymology of words.
6. Syllabification: Students will be supported with this strategy to chunk complex, unfamiliar words into syllables to support their spelling. 

To support your child’s learning at home, you could: 

• Encourage your child to practice writing regularly. The more they write, the more they will become familiar with the different spelling patterns and rules they are learning.
• Play word games that incorporate spelling and phonics, such as Scrabble, Boggle or Hangman. This can make spelling practice fun and engaging.
• Read aloud with your child regularly and ask them to spell unfamiliar words they encounter. This will help them develop their phonics skills and reinforce spelling patterns.