Spoken Language

• Ask relevant questions to extend their understanding and knowledge; take opportunities to learn new vocabulary across all subjects
• Explain what their opinions are and why they hold them, giving evidence in an increasingly articulate manner; give well-structured descriptions, explanations and narratives for different purposes, including for expressing feelings (to a level appropriate to age)
• Maintain attention and participate actively in collaborative conversations such as working together on a curriculum activity, staying on topic and initiating and responding to comments; use spoken language to develop understanding through speculating, hypothesising, imagining and exploring ideas (to a level appropriate to age)
• Speak clearly and audibly and fluently with an increasing command of Standard English; participates in discussions, presentations, performances, role play, improvisations and debates
• Gain, maintain and monitor the interest of the listener(s); consider and evaluates different viewpoints, attending to and building on the contributions of others; select and use appropriate registers for effective communication

Word Reading

• Apply their knowledge of root words, prefixes and suffixes (etymology and morphology) to read aloud and to understand the meaning of new words they meet
• Read exception words, noting the unusual correspondences between spelling and sound, and where these occur in the word

Reading - Comprehension

Engagement in Group and Class Reading

• Listen and discuss a wide range of fiction, poetry, plays, non-fiction and reference books or textbooks
• Read books that are structured in different ways and reading for a range of purposes
• Use dictionaries to check the meaning of words that they have read
• Increase their familiarity with a wide range of books, including fairy stories, myths and legends, and retells some of these orally
• Identify themes and conventions in a wide range of books
• Prepare poems and play scripts to read aloud and to perform, showing understanding through intonation, tone, volume and action
• Discuss words and phrases that capture the reader’s interest and imagination
• Recognise some different forms of poetry [for example, free verse, narrative poetry]

Independent Reading

• Check that the text makes sense to them, discuss their understanding and explains the meaning of words in context; ask questions to improve their understanding of a text
• Draw inferences such as inferring characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions, and justify inferences with evidence; predict what might happen from details stated and implied
• Identify main ideas drawn from more than one paragraph and summarises these
• Identify how language, structure, and presentation contribute to meaning

Writing

Spelling

• Use prefixes and suffixes and understand how to add them (see English Appendix 1)
• Spell further homophones
• Spell words that are often misspelt (English Appendix 1)
• 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
• Ensure 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

Grammar

• Extend sentences with more than one clause by using a wide range of conjunctions, including when, if, be-cause, although
• Use the present perfect form of verbs in contrast to the past tense; chooses nouns or pronouns appropriately for clarity and cohesion and to avoid repetition
• Use conjunctions, adverbs and prepositions to express time and cause
• Use fronted adverbials with commas
• Use the possessive apostrophe with plural nouns; use and punctuate direct speech
• Use the grammatical terminology in English Appendix 2 accurately and appropriately when discussing their writing and reading

Composition

• 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; discuss and record ideas
• Compose sentences orally (including dialogue), progressively building a varied and rich vocabulary using an increasing range of sentence structures
• Organise paragraphs around a theme; in non-narrative material, using simple organisational devices [for ex-ample, headings and sub-headings]
• Create settings, characters and a plot (during narrative writing)
• Evaluate and edit by assessing the effectiveness of their own and others’ writing by suggesting improve-ments; propose 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.