English Year 2

Year 2 programme of study

 

Reading – word reading

 

Statutory requirements

Pupils should be taught to:

  • continue to apply phonic knowledge and skills as the route to decode words until automatic decoding has become embedded and reading is fluent
  • read accurately by blending the sounds in words that contain the graphemes taught so far, especially recognising alternative sounds for graphemes
  • read accurately words of two or more syllables that contain the same graphemes as above
  • read words containing common suffixes
  • read further common exception words, noting unusual correspondences between spelling and sound and where these occur in the word
  • read most words quickly and accurately, without overt sounding and blending, when they have been frequently encountered
  • read aloud books closely matched to their improving phonic knowledge, sounding out unfamiliar words accurately, automatically and without undue hesitation
  • re-read these books to build up their fluency and confidence in word reading.

 

Reading – comprehension

 

Statutory requirements

Pupils should be taught to:

  • develop pleasure in reading, motivation to read, vocabulary and understanding by:
  • listening to, discussing and expressing views about a wide range of contemporary and classic poetry, stories and non-fiction at a level beyond that at which they can read independently
  • discussing the sequence of events in books and how items of information are related
  • becoming increasingly familiar with and retelling a wider range of stories, fairy stories and traditional tales
  • being introduced to non-fiction books that are structured in different ways
  • recognising simple recurring literary language in stories and poetry
  • discussing and clarifying the meanings of words, linking new meanings to known vocabulary
  • discussing their favourite words and phrases
  • continuing to build up a repertoire of poems learnt by heart, appreciating these and reciting some, with appropriate intonation to make the meaning clear
  • understand both the books that they can already read accurately and fluently and those that they listen to by:
  • drawing on what they already know or on background information and vocabulary provided by the teacher
  • checking that the text makes sense to them as they read and correcting inaccurate reading
  • making inferences on the basis of what is being said and done
  • answering and asking questions
  • predicting what might happen on the basis of what has been read so far
  • participate in discussion about books, poems and other works that are read to them and those that they can read for themselves, taking turns and listening to what others say
  • explain and discuss their understanding of books, poems and other material, both those that they listen to and those that they read for themselves.

 

Writing – transcription

 

Statutory requirements
Pupils should be taught to:
  • spell by:
  • segmenting spoken words into phonemes and representing these by graphemes, spelling many correctly
  • learning new ways of spelling phonemes for which one or more spellings are already known, and learn some words with each spelling, including a few common homophones
  • learning to spell common exception words
  • learning to spell more words with contracted forms
  • learning the possessive apostrophe (singular) [for example, the girl’s book]
  • distinguishing between homophones and near-homophones
  • add suffixes to spell longer words, including –ment, –ness, –ful, –less, –ly

 

Writing – transcription

 

Statutory requirements

Pupils should be taught to:

  • spell by:
  • segmenting spoken words into phonemes and representing these by graphemes, spelling many correctly
  • learning new ways of spelling phonemes for which one or more spellings are already known, and learn some words with each spelling, including a few common homophones
  • learning to spell common exception words
  • learning to spell more words with contracted forms
  • learning the possessive apostrophe (singular) [for example, the girl’s book]
  • distinguishing between homophones and near-homophones
  • add suffixes to spell longer words, including –ment, –ness, –ful, –less, –ly

 

Writing – composition

 

Statutory requirements

Pupils should be taught to:

  • develop positive attitudes towards and stamina for writing by:
  • writing narratives about personal experiences and those of others (real and fictional)
  • writing about real events
  • writing poetry
  • writing for different purposes
  • consider what they are going to write before beginning by:
  • planning or saying out loud what they are going to write about
  • writing down ideas and/or key words, including new vocabulary
  • encapsulating what they want to say, sentence by sentence
  • make simple additions, revisions and corrections to their own writing by:
  • evaluating their writing with the teacher and other pupils
  • re-reading to check that their writing makes sense and that verbs to indicate time are used correctly and consistently, including verbs in the continuous form
  • proof-reading to check for errors in spelling, grammar and punctuation [for example, ends of sentences punctuated correctly]
  • read aloud what they have written with appropriate intonation to make the meaning clear.

 

Writing – vocabulary, grammar and punctuation

 

Statutory requirements

Pupils should be taught to:

  • develop their understanding of the concepts set out by:
  • learning how to use both familiar and new punctuation correctly (see English Appendix 2), including full stops, capital letters, exclamation marks, question marks, commas for lists and apostrophes for contracted forms and the possessive (singular)
  • learn how to use:
  • sentences with different forms: statement, question, exclamation, command
  • expanded noun phrases to describe and specify [for example, the blue butterfly]
  • the present and past tenses correctly and consistently including the progressive form
  • subordination (using when, if, that, or because) and co-ordination (using or, and, or but)
  • the grammar for year 2
  • some features of written Standard English
  • use and understand the grammatical terminology in discussing their writing.

Spelling - work for year 2

 

Revision of work from year 1

 

As words with new GPCs are introduced, many previously-taught GPCs can be revised at the same time as these words will usually contain them.

 

New work for year 2

 

Statutory requirements

 

Rules and guidance (non statutory)

Example words (non statutory)

The /dʒ/ sound spelt as ge and dge at the end of words, and sometimes spelt as g elsewhere in words before e, i and y

 

The letter j is never used for the /dʒ/ sound at the end of English words.

At the end of a word, the /dʒ/ sound is spelt –dge straight after the /æ/, /ɛ/, /ɪ/, /ɒ/, /ʌ/ and /ʊ/ sounds (sometimes called ‘short’ vowels).

After all other sounds, whether vowels or consonants, the /dʒ/ sound is spelt as –ge at the end of a word.

In other positions in words, the /dʒ/ sound is often (but not always) spelt as g before e, i, and y. The /dʒ/ sound is always spelt as j before a, o and u.


 

badge, edge, bridge, dodge, fudge

 

age, huge, change, charge, bulge, village
 

gem, giant, magic, giraffe, energy
jacket, jar, jog, join, adjust

The /s/ sound spelt c before e, i and y

 

 

race, ice, cell, city, fancy

The /n/ sound spelt kn and (less often) gn at the beginning of words

 

The ‘k’ and ‘g’ at the beginning of these words was sounded hundreds of years ago.

knock, know, knee, gnat, gnaw

The /r/ sound spelt wr at the beginning of words

 

This spelling probably also reflects an old pronunciation.

write, written, wrote, wrong, wrap

The /l/ or /əl/ sound spelt –le at the end of words

 

The –le spelling is the most common spelling for this sound at the end of words.

table, apple, bottle, little, middle

 

Statutory requirements

 

Rules and guidance (non statutory)

Example words (non statutory)

The /l/ or /əl/ sound spelt –el at the end of words

 

The –el spelling is much less common than –le.

The –el spelling is used after m, n, r, s, v, w and more often than not after s.

camel, tunnel, squirrel, travel, towel, tinsel

The /l/ or /əl/ sound spelt –al at the end of words

 

Not many nouns end in –al, but many adjectives do.

metal, pedal, capital, hospital, animal

Words ending –il

 

There are not many of these words.

pencil, fossil, nostril

The /aɪ/ sound spelt –y at the end of words

 

This is by far the most common spelling for this sound at the end of words.

cry, fly, dry, try, reply, July

Adding –es to nouns and verbs ending in
–y

 

The y is changed to i before –es is added.

flies, tries, replies, copies, babies, carries

Adding –ed, –ing, –er and –est to a root word ending in –y with a consonant before it

 

The y is changed to i before –ed, –erand –est are added, but not before –ingas this would result in ii. The only ordinary words with ii are skiing and taxiing.

copied, copier, happier, happiest, cried, replied

…but copying, crying, replying

Adding the endings –ing, –ed, –er, –est and –y to words ending in –e with a consonant before it

 

The –e at the end of the root word is dropped before –ing, –ed, –er,
–est, –y or any other suffix beginning with a vowel letter is added. Exception: being.

hiking, hiked, hiker, nicer, nicest, shiny

Adding –ing, –ed,
–er, –est and –y to words of one syllable ending in a single consonant letter after a single vowel letter

 

The last consonant letter of the root word is doubled to keep the /æ/, /ɛ/, /ɪ/, /ɒ/ and /ʌ/ sound (i.e. to keep the vowel ‘short’).

Exception: The letter ‘x’ is never doubled: mixing, mixed, boxer, sixes.

patting, patted, humming, hummed, dropping, dropped, sadder, saddest, fatter, fattest, runner, runny

The /ɔ:/ sound spelt a before l and ll

 

The /ɔ:/ sound (‘or’) is usually spelt as abefore l and ll.

all, ball, call, walk, talk, always

The /ʌ/ sound spelt o

 

 

other, mother, brother, nothing, Monday

 

Statutory requirements

 

Rules and guidance (non statutory)

Example words (non statutory)

The /i:/ sound spelt
–ey

 

The plural of these words is formed by the addition of –s (donkeys, monkeys,etc.).

key, donkey, monkey, chimney, valley

The /ɒ/ sound spelt a after w and qu

 

a is the most common spelling for the /ɒ/ (‘hot’) sound after w and qu.

want, watch, wander, quantity, squash

The /ɜ:/ sound spelt or after w

 

There are not many of these words.

word, work, worm, world, worth

The /ɔ:/ sound spelt ar after w

 

There are not many of these words.

war, warm, towards

The /ʒ/ sound spelt s

 

 

television, treasure, usual

The suffixes –ment,
–ness, –ful , –less and –ly

 

If a suffix starts with a consonant letter, it is added straight on to most root words without any change to the last letter of those words.

Exceptions:

(1) argument

(2) root words ending in –y with a consonant before it but only if the root word has more than one syllable.

enjoyment, sadness, careful, playful, hopeless, plainness (plain + ness), badly

 

 

merriment, happiness, plentiful, penniless, happily

Contractions

 

In contractions, the apostrophe shows where a letter or letters would be if the words were written in full (e.g. can’t – cannot).

It’s means it is (e.g. It’s raining) or sometimes it has (e.g. It’s been raining), but it’s is never used for the possessive.

can’t, didn’t, hasn’t, couldn’t, it’s, I’ll

The possessive apostrophe (singular nouns)

 

 

Megan’s, Ravi’s, the girl’s, the child’s, the man’s

Words ending in –tion

 

 

station, fiction, motion, national, section

 

Statutory requirements

 

Rules and guidance (non statutory)

Example words (non statutory)

Homophones and near-homophones

 

It is important to know the difference in meaning between homophones.

there/their/they’re, here/hear, quite/quiet, see/sea, bare/bear, one/won, sun/son, to/too/two, be/bee, blue/blew, night/knight

Common exception words

 

Some words are exceptions in some accents but not in others – e.g. past,last, fast, path and bath are not exceptions in accents where the a in these words is pronounced /æ/, as in cat.

Great, break and steak are the only common words where the /eɪ/ sound is spelt ea.

door, floor, poor, because, find, kind, mind, behind, child, children*, wild, climb, most, only, both, old, cold, gold, hold, told, every, everybody, even, great, break, steak, pretty, beautiful, after, fast, last, past, father, class, grass, pass, plant, path, bath, hour, move, prove, improve, sure, sugar, eye, could, should, would, who, whole, any, many, clothes, busy, people, water, again, half, money, Mr, Mrs, parents, Christmas – and/or others according to programme used.

Note: ‘children’ is not an exception to what has been taught so far but is included because of its relationship with ‘child’.

 

 

Year 2: Detail of content to be introduced (statutory requirement)

Word

Formation of nouns using suffixes such as –ness, –er and by compounding [for example, whiteboard, superman]

Formation of adjectives using suffixes such as –ful, –less

(A fuller list of suffixes can be found on page 57in the year 2 spelling section in English Appendix 1)

Use of the suffixes –er, –est in adjectives and the use of –ly in Standard English to turn adjectives into adverbs

Sentence

Subordination (using when, if, that, because) and co-ordination (using or, and, but)

Expanded noun phrases for description and specification [for example, the blue butterfly,plain flour, the man in the moon]

How the grammatical patterns in a sentence indicate its function as a statement, question, exclamation or command

Text

Correct choice and consistent use of present tense and past tense throughout writing

Use of the progressive form of verbs in the present and past tense to mark actions in progress [for example, she is drumming, he wasshouting]

Punctuation

Use of capital letters, full stops, question marks and exclamation marks to demarcate sentences

Commas to separate items in a list

Apostrophes to mark where letters are missing in spelling and to mark singular possession in nouns [for example, the girl’s name]

Terminology for pupils

noun, noun phrase

statement, question, exclamation, command,

compound, adjective, verb,

suffix

adverb

tense (past, present)

apostrophe, comma