In first and second level, pupils follow the Active Literacy Programme for Spelling and Reading.

Spelling

Pupils are taught new phonemes (sounds) and common words weekly. These are appropriate and relevant to their current age and stage.

Taught Spelling Strategies:

• Knowledge and use of phonics – using Elkonin Boxes and the Diacritical Spelling Code (see below)
• Syllabification—breaking words into syllables. Each syllable will contain a vowel.
• Words within words—e.g. country: count   try
• Compound words—e.g. breakfast: break   fast
• Using analogy—if you know some words you can spell others e.g. knowing how to spell light means you can spell bright, sight, fright etc.
• Mnemonic—children use or create their own memory aid.
• E.g. because ‘big elephants can always understand small elephants’
• Spelling Rules (if appropriate) – eg. ‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c

Elkonin Box

th

r

ough

Diacritical Marking

Reading

Supporting your child to read aloud

When children encounter a word that they are unfamiliar with, they are encouraged to use a variety of strategies. First, encourage your child to:

• Sound out all letters and blend them together
• Look at the first letter or letters
• Break the word in phonemes
• Break the work into syllables
• Look at the last letter

This process is called the Word Attack Strategy, as outlined in the chart below:

Word Attack Strategy
Look closely at the word.	Sound it out.	Blend it together.	Read the word.	Check. Does it sound right? Does it make sense in the sentence?

What if that doesn’t work?

• Read the sentence again
• Check for picture clues
• Use the “read around strategy”. Children read the rest of the sentence or paragraph. What word might make sense in this sentence?

Reading for Understanding – How to Support your child

Pupils from P4-7 follow the Active Literacy Reading Programme. This follows six key taught strategies:

• Prior Knowledge
• Metalinguistics
• Visualisation
• Inference
• Main Ideas
• Summarising

How you can help at home?

Strategy 1: Prior Knowledge

Discuss with your child what they already know about the context of the book. Can the child link this to real experiences your family have had?

Strategy 2: Fluency and Metalinguistics

Discuss what unknown words and phrases might mean from the content of the chapter. Help children use a variety of sources such as the internet or dictionaries to confirm their ideas.

Strategy 3: Visualisations

Ask children to describe mental images they may have. Ask them what characters look like and how they know.

Strategy 4: Inference

Ask children a variety of questions while reading. Get them to infer the message that they think the author may be hinting at.

Strategy 5: Main Ideas

Ask children to explain what they think the main message of the chapter was. What was the key feature?

Strategy 6: Paraphrasing and Summarising

Ask children to describe in their own words what happened in the chapter. What were the key events?

Reading at Home

• Encourage children to read books that interest and excite them
• Question children about what they have read
• Make sure there is time set aside everyday to enjoy reading
• Visit the local library
• Children are never ‘too old’ to enjoy books with parents
• Model reading yourself!