Spelling Sense
by Glinette Woods

Literacy Hour Vocabulary for Children with Speech, Language and Communication Needs
in mainstream or special education.

Spelling Sense front cover
All the words are taken from the National Literacy Strategy.
The words are set in semantic phrases to enhance comprehension.
There is visual support for each phrase.
The words follow developmental levels taken from Living Language by Ann Locke (published by NFER Nelson).


Introduction

The Vocabulary has been put into the development levels according to Ann Locke's Living Language scheme. This means that a teacher may give the child words to learn at the level of language the child has reached developmentally. It also raises the teacher's awareness of the reason for some words being more difficult than others to learn, regardless of their phonological structure or frequency of use.

The vocabulary has been put into dictation phrases within each year group and each Living Language level. This gives semantic meaning to a spelling list. The child is then more likely to use the words learnt in his/her writing.

There is a picture to go with each phrase to support visual learning.

There are separate lists of the same words to check the spelling and reading in isolation.

IMPORTANT. Talk to the child about the picture and ensure he/she understands the picture and the phrase before asking him/her to learn them.

Some are left blank for the child to draw his/her mum/dad or add a photo.

IMPORTANT. Encourage the child to formulate his/her own phrases to include the target words. He/she will require assistance at first and will benefit from as many examples as the adult can produce.


Literacy Hour reception vocabulary in Living Language Levels.

Pre: no, yes, on, in, up, big

Level 1: look, my, like, I, mum, a, cat, and, dog, it, is, you, go, play

Level 2: here, see, away, help, he, get, the, she, my, this, day

Level 3: we, for, at, am, going, are,they, can, was

Level 4: said, went, of


Literacy Hour Vocabulary Years 1 and 2 in Living Language Levels.

Pre: ball, house, make, more, man, tree, want, water

Level 1: again, boy, by, door, girl, good, have, little, love, night, now, off, one, pull, school, some, take, that, two, yours

Level 2: after, another, be, dig, first, her, him, his, jump, many, much, next, not, push, there, three, where, who

Level 3: about, an, apple, back, because, brother, but, call, can't, do, don,t, half, how, last, man, new, our, saw, sister, their, them, these, us, very, were, when

Level 4: came, from, got, had, if, made, old, once, people, ran, so, took, with

Level 5: has, or, will

Level 6: could, did, would

Miscellaneous: as, been, down, home, just, laugh, live, may, must, name, seen, than, then, time, too, way

Numbers: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty

Colours: red, blue, green, yellow, orange, purple, black, pink

Months: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

Days: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday