The Spelling Book: Transforming the Teaching of Spelling (Year 3)

I am a huge fan of the Write stuff and hooked on books and I was keen to get the year 2 spelling book. Unfortunately, it seems to me to be very flawed. It has no cohesion and it jumps from one spelling pattern to another. In week 2 they cover il, /ee/ sound as y, convert incorrect spellings of common exception words. contractions, sorting words into pronunciation of a. I don't see how this learning will stick if they only do it once in a week. There are no small steps or linked learning. In another week, it asks children to do tasks which they don't have the prior knowledge to tackle. For example, asking children to convert present tense words into regular and irregular spellings before they have learned how to convert regular words into the past tense and the rules associated with them. I haven't had the training that goes with this book so I tried listening to the sunday session on Youtube. Jane says that her spelling series is heavily influenced by phonics teaching. I have taught in KS1 for lots of years and have had good quality phonics teaching. For me, good phonics involves following a well structured sequence of lessons with a cohesive curriculum that doesn't jump around from day to day. There are nice activities and ideas in this book but I wouldn't choose to follow the lesson sequence in it. Coming in a year where we are recovering from Covid I can't understand why she would advocate teaching prefixes from the year 3 spelling appendix in year 2. I believe our children need to develop a deep understanding of year 2 rules such as adding ing and ed to words not a shallow understanding of year 2 and year 3 rules.

I genuinely cannot wait to implement this with my new class in September then roll out to wider school when I can demonstrate how it works. After many years of teaching (and saying that spelling tests achieve nothing) I am so excited to see investigations, discussions and the teaching of sounds and words throughout primary school. Spelling is so important even in this technological age! After watching the online Sunday Spelling sessions I am so excited to get started. Thank you Jane, Ian and team for your fantastic resources.

Having watched all of JC’s Sunday Sessions and other videos during lockdown, I was excited to hear that a spelling book was coming out to further enhance my teaching or writing. I know from my experience of following JC’s approach that her ideas really do result in progress. Now that I’ve looked through this book, I’m excited to get started and am sure it will ‘transform’ my teaching.The book is a practical week by week guide for teaching spelling to whichever year group you pick. Excellent layout and fabulous ideas. I’d recommend this book and her equally excellent writing/reading books.

This book is clear, easy to follow and makes you feel excited about a skill that we have all found to be dull and prescriptive in the past. You receive a year’s worth of spelling activities to help engage your children with their spelling and word understanding and it helps you make connections to other areas of the curriculum. I highly recommend.

What a fantastic new view on spelling! Can’t wait to try something fresh and new next year and see a revolution take place. I bought this to get some ideas and we are now implementing it whole school in September. So excited to start!

It’s about time troublesome tests were thrown out, as they make very little difference to many children’s ‘application’ of spellings within their written work. I’ve trialled a couple of Year 4 lessons with my class, which follow on nicely from our phonics programme. I can’t wait to see the impact of full implementation next year. Thanks Jane!

Arrived quickly - excellent service.Introducing this to my Year 5s in September but I've been testing out the structure with my current y4 class. This approach to spelling is a breath of fresh air for teachers. No matter how many tests children do, they don't build up the skills to apply their knowledge of spelling into their independent work. Jane's 'Spelling Books' completely changes this. It transforms the teaching of spelling. Absolutely amazing.

I love Jane’s new spelling books! We have been looking to reform the way we teach spellings and this makes so much sense. A real focus on phonics, investigation, discussion and deep understanding of words. No more testing, just proper learning and in a way that will engage and motivate the children. Another winner from Jane!