English

Spoken Language

  • listen and respond appropriately to adults and their peers
  • ask relevant questions to extend their understanding and knowledge
  • use relevant strategies to build their vocabulary
  • articulate and justify answers, arguments and opinions
  • give well-structured descriptions, explanations and narratives for different purposes, including for expressing feelings
  • maintain attention and participate actively in collaborative conversations, staying on topic and initiating and responding to comments
  • use spoken language to develop understanding through speculating, hypothesising, imagining and exploring ideas
  • speak audibly and fluently with an increasing command of Standard English
  • participate in discussions, presentations, performances, role play/improvisations and debates
  • gain, maintain and monitor the interest of the listener(s)
  • consider and evaluate different viewpoints, attending to and building on the contributions of others
  • select and use appropriate registers for effective communication

 

Text types

Myths and legends

Folk tales

Reference books

Textbooks

Dictionaries

Non-fiction texts with contents and index pages

Plays

Letters

Diary

Instructions

Poetry (free verse, narrative poetry) 

Vocabulary, Grammar and Punctuation

form nouns using a range of prefixes, e.g. super–, anti–, auto–

use ‘a’ or ‘an’ according to whether the next word begins with a consonant or a vowel, e.g. a rock, an open box

understand word families based on common words, showing how words are related in form and meaning, e.g. solve, solution

express time, place and cause using conjunctions, e.g. when, before, after, while, so, because, adverbs, e.g. then, next, soon, therefore, or prepositions, e.g. before, after, during, in, because of

understand paragraphs as a way to group related material

understand how headings and sub-headings aid presentation

use present perfect form of verbs instead of the simple past, e.g. ‘He has gone out to play’ contrasted with ‘He went out to play’

begin to use inverted commas to punctuate direct speech

See appendix 2

Terminology: preposition, conjunction, word family, prefix, clause, subordinate clause, direct speech, consonant, consonant letter, vowel, vowel letter, inverted commas

  • (Formally introduce time adverbs (rather than time words)

Spelling

add prefixes dis-,mis-, re-, prefix ‘b’ and ‘re’

add suffix ‘-ly’ with no change root, root words ending in ‘le’ and ‘ic’ & ‘al’ & exceptions

     Words with sounds spelt, ei, eigh, ey

     sounds spelt ‘ou’, word with ‘k’ spelt ‘ch’, words with ‘ch’

     words ending ‘sure’ and ‘ture’

     words ending ‘g’ spelt ‘gue’ and ‘k’ spelt ‘que’

    words ending ‘y’ not at end of word

 add suffixed beginning with vowels to words of more than one syllable

spell homophones & near-homophones

See annotated appendix 1 for year 3 spelling focus

 

Handwriting

use the diagonal and horizontal strokes that are needed to join letters and understand which letters, when adjacent to one another, are best left unjoined

increase the legibility, consistency and quality of their handwriting (for example, by ensuring that the downstrokes of letters are parallel and equidistant; that lines of writing are spaced sufficiently so that the ascenders and descenders of letters do not touch)

Word Reading

apply their growing knowledge of root words, prefixes and suffixes (etymology and morphology), both to read aloud and to understand the meaning of new words they meet

read further exception words, noting the unusual correspondences between spelling and sound, and where these occur in the word

 

Reading Comprehension

Develop positive attitudes to reading, and an understanding of what they read.

  • Listen to and discuss a wide range of fiction, poetry, plays, non-fiction and reference books or textbooks
  • read books that are structured in different ways and read for a range of purposes
  • use dictionaries to check the meaning of words that they have read
  • increase their familiarity with a wide range of books, including fairy stories, myths and legends, and retelling some of these orally
  • identify themes and conventions in a wide range of books
  • prepare poems and play scripts to read aloud and to perform, showing understanding through intonation, tone, volume and action
  • discuss words and phrases that capture the reader’s interest and imagination
  • recognise some different forms of poetry

 

In books read independently:

  • check that the text makes sense to them, discussing their understanding and explaining the meaning of words in context
  • ask questions to improve their understanding of a text
  • draw inferences such as inferring characters' feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions, and justify inferences with evidence
  • predict what might happen from details stated and implied
  • identify main ideas drawn from more than 1 paragraph and summarise these
  • identify how language, structure, and presentation contribute to meaning
  • retrieve and record information from non-fiction
  • participate in discussion about both books that are read to them and those they can read for themselves, taking turns and listening to what others say

Writing: Composition, Cohesion and Effect

Write in a range of genres/forms, taking account of different audiences and purposes.

Planning

  • compose and rehearse sentences orally, using a range of sentence structures
  • rehearse dialogue, discuss and record ideas
  • identify key features in similar texts (structure, vocabulary and grammar)
  • make decisions about how the plot will develop

Drafting and writing

Narrative

  • create settings, characters and plot
  • identify a clear structure for the story (opening, dilemma, resolution, ending)
  • write an effective ending for a story
  • organise paragraphs around a theme
  • use range of sentence structures
  • begin to use figurative language
  • use some detail in the description of setting or characters’ feelings or motives
  • use dialogue to reveal detail about character/ move the narrative forward
  • attempt to adopt a viewpoint
  • imitate authorial techniques gathered from reading narrative

Poetry

  • write poems using the features of poetic forms studied

Non-narrative

  • use simple organisational devices in non-narrative material, e.g. headings
  • make notes from several sources of information and turn them into sentences
  • group information, often moving from general to more specific detail
  • begin to use paragraphs to group related materials
  • use organisational devices to aid conciseness, e.g. numbered lists or headings
  • attempt to adopt a viewpoint
  • imitate authorial techniques gathered from reading
  • select and use formal and informal styles and vocabulary appropriate to the purpose/reader

Proof-reading, editing and evaluating

  • proof-read for spelling and punctuation errors
  • evaluate and edit by proposing changes to vocabulary to improve consistency, showing awareness of the reader
  • evaluate and edit by assessing the effectiveness of their own and other’s writing and suggesting improvements

Presenting

read aloud own writing, to a group or the whole class, using appropriate intonation and controlling the volume so that the meaning is clear