English in Year Five and Year Six
Spoken Language (in all years)
Pupils should be taught to:
- 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.
Writing - Transcription
For spelling, please visit the 'Supporting Learning' area in the main site (link below).
Handwriting and presentation
Pupils should be taught to:
- write legibly, fluently and with increasing speed by:
- choosing which shape of a letter to use when given choices and deciding whether or not to join specific letters
- choosing the writing implement that is best suited for a task.
Writing Composition
Pupils should be taught to:
- plan their writing by:
- identifying the audience for and purpose of the writing, selecting the appropriate form and using other similar writing as models for their own
- noting and developing initial ideas, drawing on reading and research where necessary
- in writing narratives, considering how authors have developed characters and settings in what pupils have read, listened to or seen performed
- draft and write by:
- selecting appropriate grammar and vocabulary, understanding how such choices can change and enhance meaning
- in narratives, describing settings, characters and atmosphere and integrating dialogue to convey character and advance the action
- précising longer passages
- using a wide range of devices to build cohesion within and across paragraphs
- using further organisational and presentational devices to structure text and to guide the reader [for example, headings, bullet points, underlining]
- evaluate and edit by:
- assessing the effectiveness of their own and others’ writing
- proposing changes to vocabulary, grammar and punctuation to enhance effects and clarify meaning
- ensuring the consistent and correct use of tense throughout a piece of writing
- ensuring correct subject and verb agreement when using singular and plural, distinguishing between the language of speech and writing and choosing the appropriate register
- proof-read for spelling and punctuation errors
- perform their own compositions, using appropriate intonation, volume, and movement so that meaning is clear.
Writing - vocabulary, grammar and punctuation
Pupils should be taught to:
- develop their understanding of the concepts set out in English Appendix 2 by:
- recognising vocabulary and structures that are appropriate for formal speech and writing, including subjunctive forms
- using passive verbs to affect the presentation of information in a sentence
- using the perfect form of verbs to mark relationships of time and cause
- using expanded noun phrases to convey complicated information concisely
- using modal verbs or adverbs to indicate degrees of possibility
- using relative clauses beginning with who, which, where, when, whose, that or with an implied (i.e. omitted) relative pronoun
- learning the grammar for years 5 and 6 in English Appendix 2
- indicate grammatical and other features by:
- using commas to clarify meaning or avoid ambiguity in writing
- using hyphens to avoid ambiguity
- using brackets, dashes or commas to indicate parenthesis
- using semi-colons, colons or dashes to mark boundaries between independent clauses
- using a colon to introduce a list
- punctuating bullet points consistently
- use and understand the grammatical terminology in English Appendix 2 accurately and appropriately in discussing their writing and reading.