Year 4

Word reading

Pupils should be taught to:

  • apply their growing knowledge of root words, prefixes and suffixes (etymology and morphology) as listed in English Appendix 1, 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

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 reader’s interest and imagination
    • recognising some different forms of poetry (e.g. free verse, narrative 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

Transcription

Spelling (see TJ Spelling Progression)

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
  • Place the possessive apostrophe accurately in words with regular plurals [for example, girls’, boys’] and in words with irregular plurals [for example, children’s]
  • 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

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, e.g. by ensuring that the down strokes of letters are parallel and equidistant; that lines of writing are spaced sufficiently so that the ascenders and descenders of letters do not touch

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 (for examples headings and sub-headings)
  • Evaluate and edit by:
    • assessing the effectiveness of their own and others’ writing and suggesting improvements
    • proposing changes to grammar and vocabulary to improve consistency, including 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

Vocabulary, grammar and punctuation

Revision/consolidation of Y1/2 /3 Objectives

And:

  • The grammatical difference between plural and possessive -s
  • Standard English forms for verb inflections instead of local spoken forms (e.g. we were instead of we was, or I did instead of I done)
  • Appropriate choice of pronoun or noun within a sentence to avoid ambiguity and repetition
  • Fronted adverbials (e.g. Later that day, I heard the bad news.)
  • Use of paragraphs to organise ideas around a theme
  • Appropriate choice of pronoun or noun across sentences to aid cohesion and avoid repetition
  • Use of inverted commas to punctuate direct speech
  • Apostrophes to mark singular and plural possession (e.g. the girl’s name, the boys’ boots)
  • Use of commas after fronted adverbials