Year 3-4 English Curriculum

Year Three & Four English Curriculum SPOKEN LANGUAGE Pupils should be taught to: listen and respond appropriately to adults and their peers

ask relevant questions to extend their understanding and build vocabulary and knowledge articulate and justify answers, arguments and opinions

give well-structured descriptions and explanations 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 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.

Year Three & Four English Curriculum READING Word reading Pupils should be taught to: 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 Pupils should be taught to:

Develop positive attitudes to reading and understanding of what they read by: listening to and discussing a wide range of fiction, poetry, plays, non-fiction and reference books or textbooks reading books that are structured in different ways and reading for a range of purposes using dictionaries to check the meaning of words that they have read increasing their familiarity with a wide range of books, including fairy stories, myths and legends, and retelling some of these orally identifying themes and conventions in a wide range of books preparing poems and play scripts to read aloud and to perform, showing understanding through intonation, tone, volume and action

discussing words and phrases that capture the readerâ€&#x;s interest and imagination recognising some different forms of poetry Understand what they read, in books they can read independently, by: checking that the text makes sense to them, discussing their understanding and explaining the meaning of words in context asking questions to improve their understanding of a text drawing inferences such as inferring characters' feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions, and justifying inferences with evidence predicting what might happen from details stated and implied identifying main ideas drawn from more than one paragraph and summarising these identifying 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.

Year Three & Four English Curriculum WRITING Composition Pupils should be taught to: Plan their writing by: discussing writing similar to that which they are planning to write in order to understand and learn from its structure, vocabulary and grammar discussing and recording ideas Draft and write by: composing and rehearsing sentences orally (including dialogue), progressively building a varied and rich vocabulary and an increasing range of sentence structures organising paragraphs around a theme in narratives, creating settings, characters and plot in non-narrative material, using simple organisational devices such as headings and sub-headings Evaluate and edit by: assessing the effectiveness of their own and othersâ€&#x; writing and suggesting improvements proposing changes to grammar and vocabulary to improve consistency, e.g. the accurate use of pronouns in sentences Proof-read for spelling and punctuation errors.

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

WRITING Handwriting Pupils should be taught to: 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, e.g. 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.

Year Three & Four English Curriculum WRITING Spelling Pupils should be taught to: use further prefixes and suffixes and understand how to add them spell further homophones spell words that are often misspelt use the first two or three letters of a word to check its spelling in a dictionary write from memory simple sentences, dictated by the teacher, that include words and punctuation taught so far.

WRITING Spelling Pupils should be taught to: The /i/ sound spelt y elsewhere than at the end of words (myth) The /u/ sound spelt ou (young, trouble) Words with the /ay/ sound spelt ei, eigh, or ey (vein/they/weigh) Words with the /k/ sound spelt ch (Greek in origin) (chemist) Words with the /sh/ sound spelt ch (mostly French in origin) (chef/chalet) Words with the /s/ sound spelt sc (Latin in origin) (science/discipline)

Prefixes Like un–, the prefixes dis– and mis– have negative meanings.

The prefix in– can mean both „not‟ and „in‟/„into‟. In the words given here it means „not‟.

Before a root word starting with l, in – becomes il Before a root word starting with m or p, in – becomes im–.

Before a root word starting with r, in – becomes ir–. re– means „again‟ or „back‟. sub– means „under‟. inter– means „between‟ or „among‟. super– means „above‟. anti– means „against‟. auto– means „self‟ or „own‟.

Suffixes Adding suffixes beginning with vowel letters to words of more than one syllable (forgotten, gardening) The suffix –ation The suffix –ly The suffix –ous Words with endings – sure, ture, sion Endings which sound like /shun /, spelt –tion, –sion, –ssion, –cian Words ending with the /g/ sound spelt –gue and the /k/ sound spelt –que (French in origin) (league/antique)

Possessive apostrophe with plural words (girls‟/children‟s) Homophones or near-homophones

Year Three & Four English Curriculum Word list for years 3 and 4 accident(ally) circle Famous island peculiar sentence actual(ly) complete favourite knowledge perhaps separate address consider February learn popular special answer continue forward(s) length position straight appear decide fruit library possess(ion) strange arrive describe grammar material possible strength believe different group medicine potatoes suppose bicycle difficult guard mention pressure surprise breath disappear guide minute probably therefore breathe early heard natural promise though/although build earth heart naughty purpose thought busy/business eight/eighth height notice quarter through calendar enough history occasion(ally) question various caught exercise imagine often recent weight centre experience increase opposite regular woman/women century experiment important ordinary reign certain extreme interest particular remember Teachers should continue to emphasise to pupils the relationships between sounds and letters, even when the relationships are unusual. Once root words are learnt in this way, longer words can be spelt correctly, if the rules and guidelines for adding prefixes and suffixes are also known.

Examples: business: once busy is learnt, with due attention to the unusual spelling of the /i/ sound as „u‟, business can then be spelt as busy + ness, with the y of busy changed to i according to the rule. disappear: the root word appear contains sounds which can be spelt in more than one way so it needs to be learnt, but the prefix dis- is then simply added to appear.

Understanding the relationships between words can also help with spelling.

Examples: bicycle is cycle (from the Greek for wheel) with bi– (meaning two) before it. medicine is related to medical so the /s/ sound is spelt as c. opposite is related to oppose, so the schwa sound in opposite is spelt as o.

Year Three & Four English Curriculum WRITING Vocabulary, grammar and punctuation Pupils should be taught to:

WRITING Vocabulary, grammar and punctuation YEAR THREE Pupils should be taught to: Word Develop their understanding of the concepts: Formation of nouns using a range of prefixes, such as extending the range of sentences with more than one super–, anti–, auto– clause by using a wider range of conjunctions, e.g.

Use of the forms a or an according to whether the next when, if, because, although word begins with a consonant or a vowel (e.g. a rock, using the perfect form of verbs to mark relationships of an open box) time and cause Word families based on common words, showing how choosing nouns or pronouns appropriately for clarity words are related in form and meaning (e.g. solve, and cohesion and to avoid repetition solution, solver, dissolve, insoluble) using conjunctions, adverbs and prepositions to Sentence express time and cause Expressing time, place and cause using conjunctions using fronted adverbials (e.g. when, before, after, while, so, because), adverbs Indicate grammatical and other features by: (e.g. then, next, soon, therefore), or prepositions (e.g. using commas after fronted adverbials before, after, during, in, because of) indicating possession by using the possessive Text apostrophe with singular and plural nouns Introduction to paragraphs as a way to group related using and punctuating direct speech material Use and understand the grammatical terminology accurately Headings and sub-headings to aid presentation and appropriately when discussing their writing and reading.

Use of the 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) Punctuation Introduction to inverted commas to punctuate direct speech Terminology for Pupils adverb, preposition conjunction word family, prefix clause, subordinate clause direct speech consonant, consonant letter vowel, vowel letter inverted commas (or „speech marks‟)

Year Three & Four English Curriculum WRITING Vocabulary, grammar and punctuation YEAR FOUR Pupils should be taught to:

Punctuation Use of inverted commas and other punctuation to indicate direct speech e.g. a comma after the reporting Word clause; end punctuation within inverted commas (e.g.

The grammatical difference between plural and The conductor shouted, “Sit down!”) possessive -s Apostrophes to mark singular and plural possession Standard English forms for verb inflections instead of (e.g. the girl‟s name, the girls‟ names) local spoken forms (e.g. we were instead of we was, or Use of commas after fronted adverbials I did instead of I done) Terminology for Pupils Sentence determiner Noun phrases expanded by the addition of modifying pronoun, possessive pronoun, adjectives, nouns and preposition phrases (e.g. the adverbial teacher expanded to: the strict maths teacher with curly hair) Fronted adverbials (e.g. Later that day, I heard the bad news.)

Text Use of paragraphs to organise ideas around a theme Appropriate choice of pronoun or noun within and across sentences to aid cohesion and avoid repetition