Common Exception Words
Alongside the teaching of spelling patters, there are also common exception words that the children need to learn, these are words that don't necessarily follow the 'normal' rules or may have a particular spelling. These words are set for the children in six-week blocks and are included in the Key Learning Documents that are sent home termly which can be found on the Class Pages.
For your reference, all the common exception words can be found below.
Spelling Lists
The children are introduced to a range of strategies for learning their spellings. This enables pupils to choose the strategies they find most effective for learning different words. The learning strategies that are taught are detailed below.
Spelling Strategies
Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check
This is probably the most common strategy used to learn spellings.
Look: first look at the whole word carefully and if there is one part of the word that is difficult, look at that part in more detail.
Say: say the word as you look at it, using different ways of pronouncing it if that will make it more memorable.
Cover: cover the word.
Write: write the word from memory, saying the word as you do so.
Check: Have you got it right? If yes, try writing it again and again! If not, start again – look, say, cover, write, check.
Trace, Copy and Replicate (and then check)
This is a similar learning process to ‘look, say, cover, write, check’ but is about developing automaticity and muscle memory. Write the word out on a sheet of paper ensuring that it is spelt correctly and it is large enough to trace over. Trace over the word and say it at the same time. Move next to the word you have just written and write it out as you say it. Turn the page over and write the word as you say it, and then check that you have spelt it correctly. If this is easy, do the same process for two different words at the same time. Once you have written all your words this way and feel confident, miss out the tracing and copying or the tracing alone and just write the words.
Segmentation Strategy
The splitting of a word into its constituent phonemes in the correct order to support spelling.
Other Strategies
Other methods can include:
- Rainbow writing. Using coloured pencils in different ways can help to make parts of words memorable. You could highlight the tricky part s of the word or write the tricky part in a different colour. You could also write each letter in a different colour, or write the word in red, then overlay in orange, yellow and so on.
- Making up memorable ‘silly sentences’ containing the word
- Saying the word in a funny way – for example, pronouncing the ‘silent’ letters in a word
- Clapping and counting to identify the syllables in a word.
