Mrz or any other experts what can I do at home to improve my Y3 ds's writing and phonic phase?

[MrsHeffley]

Ds is left handed and on phase 4 phonics.He's a very fluent reader and learnt to read fluently in Rec and flew through his phonics.Now he's in Y3 they've put him on Phase 4 as he's not using his phonics in his writing.He finds his phonics homework v easy but I get their point (even though he's been doing Letters and Sounds for bloody ages and has now dropped phases).

He's not joining yet either and get the impression he cant be arsed with writing as doesn't really enjoy it.

Worried as he's quite with it and I'm worried he'll get bored, not focus on other subjects iykwim and actually get behind.He's more than capable to be towards the end of L&S.

Has got a nice teacher who he loves and who we've now got a good level of communication with (although she doesn't teach his phonics). Concentration was a problem but he's improving greatly.

So what to do?Don't want to overload him as he gets 2 X homework a week and reads every night but I do think I could/should be doing something daily/weekly to get his writing/phonics flowing. Don't want to sit back and regret it later. Also the longer he's on 4 the longer he's missing out on what he should be doing.He has a sibling in Y3 next year who is already on phase 5 I think,they mix the year groups in phonics and if she's higher his confidence that has increased rapidly the last few months will just disappear.

Was wondering about daily dictated sentence incorporating the Phase 3 sounds but have no idea if this would be useful or if I should do something else.He just writes so very little with no real effort towards spelling,hand writing and actually punctuation if I think about it.He is capable and when you point things out he immediately self corrects correctly most of the time.

He should be producing far,far more in joins,using his phonics,correct punctuation etc and I wouldn't mind if he wasn't capable.

Would be very grateful for any advice.

Are you meaning phase 4 letters and sounds? Current guidance says that if they haven't "got it" by Y3 then you need to do it a different way - I currently use a computer programme called "Nessy", aimed at dyslexic children but fantastic for many who are needing that extra boost - there is a free area of the site which you can do games on to see if it's any use. Also multisensory spelling - the idea being that not all of us are great with pencil and paper, it makes much more sense if you bombard as many of the senses as possible with the info (can ramble on for ever on this if you push my "play" button, heehee)
There is a point to doing games and silly stuff instead of the serious reading and making it seem like "work" iyswim. Children at my school love working with Mrs Shrek because they think we just play and not work and we do

What is his writing level at the moment? If you knew this then you would be able to plan activities to move him into the next sub level, ie from a 2a to 3c. I find that engaging them in writing tasks related to a subject that really engages them crucial, especially with boys. Used a gory Romans text with a group today to work on comprehension and connectives for example. Work on handwriting, spelling patterns would also help, also using quite a bit of the "jumpstarting sentences" materials which have been great, lots of work on mini whiteboards which lets the writing really flow. I assume his tracher drums into them the think, say, write, check, improve approach? HTH, sounds like he has lots of skills and strategies :)

Yes, would also agree that hammering to death letters and sounds would probably not be worthwhile in Y3.

PS the L&S website has phase 3 (and possibly p4) words on trucks. Do stuff with them - make them a motorway, a lorry park (a lot of black paper and a bit of white chalk?) and start driving them round. the decodable ones (mainly ccvc) are great fun, esp if you can only go on the fast motorway if you've read the word first

agree with lulu about the boys thing. They certainly need a "hook" to get em interested!

Oh many,many thanks for that.He's such a fluent reader so I don't get why he's not using the sounds in his writing.He learnt them really easily in rec(I know reading is different to writing) but even so you'd have thought it would help a bit.

Do you think he's got problems then or that he's just not a phonetic speller? He learns spellings by heart v quickly.I think he was 2b at writing in his SATS.Just had a look in his rough work book and I am a actually a bit at his spelling,well his writing full stop to be honest.

His twin was level 3 and has finished L&S I think,seems to be doing other stuff now.There is a huge difference between both boys writing and it's getting bigger.Dd in Y 2 produces masses and I'm seriously worried she's going to overtake him.

I was a teacher and literacy(can't you tell) so he's been totally immersed in literacy,phonics etc hence being an early reader. but I've been out 8 years so I just don't know.I know he's an able boy but the writing thing just isn't making sense.I thought it was lack of effort,not sure what to do.

When you say he is not using his phonics in his writing, what exactly do you mean? Would you be able to give an example of something he has written that would illustrate this?

I think it's things like f for th which is imvho because of speech ie fink instead of think.I cracked down on it at home eg when he says f instead of th for through.He will self correct that now,I notice in his rough book he's crossed the one f out and put in th. Personally I think the th thing is a separate issue as it's pronunciation.He knows to stick his tongue out and will correct himself in speech now.

He has very good speech other than this,fantastic use of language.Also has fantastic hearing as he's just had it tested.

Looking at his book though he gets ai as in straight, igh as in fight,teacher exactly right etc.I think they want every single one cracked but I think it's holding him back as he needs to be cracking on with phase 5 seriously by now.He was doing 5 in y 2 quite happily.

As an aside he's written yoos instead of use wtf!!!!! Runns instead of runs,missed out r in nearly,rockes instead of rocks,really odd mistakes.

Really haven't a clue what to do.

Get hold of a text reading programme (I think there are quite a few free ones available) and buy a programme called AcceleeReadAcceleeWrite (you'll find it on the web). It basically consists of sentences to read, memorise and then spell on the computer. The text to speech programme 'reads back' each word as it is written and it will read exactly what is written. It is excellent for making very explicit the connection between the sounds in words and the way they are spelled. Obviously, if it doesn't 'sound' right at first attempt, child has to try again!

The programme isn't quite 'pure' phonics' but it is structured and cumulative and very effective. I find that children love having the computer read to them!

Two things: try and get an English 'voice' with the text reader, and, turn off the spell checker!

From what you have said, it does sound as if he spells what he hears. Are the school expecting more accurate spelling before he progresses to phase 5? I thought phase 5 was spelling alternatives, so it is hard to see how his spelling can be more accurate without covering phase 5.

Has he tried recording what he wants to write and then listening back to help with sounding out? I come across a lot of children who sound quite like your ds, so ATM I'm doing a "language builders" inset to try to help figure it out! It depends what sort of processing strategies they've got, particularly auditory, obviously. If his auditory processing is his weakest, and for lots of us (including me) it is, then go for giving him extra strategies?

What is the L&S web site please? I think I need those trucks for my phonics group, Mrs Shrek. We also mostly play work very hard.

Oh, get me - I found it here.

Thanks, Mrs Shrek for mentioning it. I am looking forward to using some of those resources!

Thanks for that site Mrs Shrek,some useful stuff.The games for phase 4 seem to be for reading though.

Because he's such a fluent reader I find it hard to think of activities to pitch at his level.Half our problem is he finds a lot of these type of activities too easy and he switches off.They send the grids home with words for me to read out and he just flies through whilst saying why am I doing this?Have to resist saying "because you're not bloody using the sounds you know in your writing"!

The sentences on there look useful.Off to look at Maisie's suggestion site too.

bbc spellits is good if you haven't done it to death? get him on there.

generally though, just get him typing. if his handwriting ain't great and his spelling poor, he too will be dissatisfied by the work he produces.

teach him to type things (set word to underline incorrect spellings and help him right click to carefully choose the correct word - if it's not there he has to try again to spell the word so the pc can guess). Encourage him to type and print letters to all and sundry, highlighting and colouring and changing font size. they're all skills he'll need eventually, and for now it might motivate him a little bit more to "write".

ask school if there is a "sounds mat" on his desk - with the 44 sounds - for him to refer to when writing. if they do, ask for one at home too and coach him to refer to it when writing.

play teachers - get him to read words from his wordlist to you, and you write them down (hide what you write and get them wrong). at the end give it to him to mark against the correct spelling. discuss why you got it wrong.

hope that's of use.

Thankyou very much,some fab ideas.He'll love the testing me thing by wordlist do you mean a list of words with the Phase 3 phonemes in?

i meant weekly spellings (doesn't he get these?, but frankly any ones that he regularly gets wrong would seem appropriate?

No he doesn't.He learnt weekly spellings in Y2 quite easily by memory but I think they want him to be doing this phonic sounding out thing ie using sounds he knows. I guess I could make up a list of words which use these sounds.