The year 3 and 4 English curriculum plays a key role in pupils’ English development, with an increased focus on spelling, and trickier concepts such as writing composition and reading comprehension.
Now, let’s look in more detail into what pupils will be learning about and what aims they need to meet by the end of the year 3 and 4 English curriculum.
What areas of study are covered in the year 3 & 4 English curriculum?
So, now that we know a bit about the national curriculum, what are the key areas of focus for the year 3 and 4 English curriculum?
There are 3 curriculum areas covered in the year 3 and 4 English curriculum. They are:
- Reading- the ability to read and understand a variety of words and texts.
- Writing- the ability to compose and write a variety of text types and genres. Also includes handwriting skills and spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPaG)
- Spoken Language- developing confident and competent speaking and listening skills. The aims for spoken language remain the same across KS1 and KS2.
Each of these areas develops important life skills such as being able to communicate with others, filling in and understanding important documentation, and being able to interact with and enjoy the world around you.
Let’s dive into what each of these topic areas covers and the aims in support of each of them. We’ve also included some resources to help your children meet these aims.
Reading
The year 3 and 4
National curriculum for reading focuses on 2 main aspects – word reading (using phonics to decode and read words) and comprehension (the ability to understand what they are reading).
Word Reading:
Pupils should be taught to:
- apply their growing knowledge of root words, prefixes and suffixes (etymology and morphology) both to read aloud and to understand the meaning of new words they meet.
- read further exception words, noting the unusual correspondences between spelling and sound, and where these occur in the word.
Put simply, this just means that children should continue to work on their reading!
By the time they reach the year 3 English curriculum and progress into year 4, children will most likely have worked through all 6 phases of the phonics programme and will have the tools they need to be able to read or decode hundreds of words. Depending on their reading fluency, your child might:
- Read words automatically.
- Decode them quickly and silently.
- Decode them aloud.
The best way to support your child’s reading skills is to read lots at home, and to take note of how easy or hard they find reading certain books. This will ensure that they’re reading books at the right level, putting them on the right track to achieving goals in the year 4 and year 3 english curriculum
Comprehension:
In the year 3 and 4 English curriculum, teaching comprehension will usually take precedence over teaching word reading directly. This means that the focus moves on from teaching children to read, to making sure they understand what they’re reading.
Pupils should be taught to:
- develop positive attitudes to reading, and an understanding of what they read, by:
- listening to and discussing a wide range of fiction, poetry, plays, non-fiction and reference books or textbooks
- reading books that are structured in different ways and reading for a range of purposes
- using dictionaries to check the meaning of words that they have read
- increasing their familiarity with a wide range of books, including fairy stories, myths and legends, and retelling some of these orally
- identifying themes and conventions in a wide range of books
- preparing poems and play scripts to read aloud and to perform, showing understanding through intonation, tone, volume and action
- discussing words and phrases that capture the reader’s interest and imagination
- recognising some different forms of poetry [for example, free verse, narrative poetry]
- understand what they read, in books they can read independently, by:
- checking that the text makes sense to them, discussing their understanding, and explaining the meaning of words in context
- asking questions to improve their understanding of a text
- drawing inferences such as inferring characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions, and justifying inferences with evidence
- predicting what might happen from details stated and implied
- identifying main ideas drawn from more than 1 paragraph and summarising these
- identifying how language, structure, and presentation contribute to meaning
- retrieve and record information from non-fiction
- participate in discussion about both books that are read to them and those they can read for themselves, taking turns and listening to what others say
While that might all sounds a little daunting, the best way to check comprehension is simply to read with a child, then ask them questions about the text. These questions could get progressively more difficult as comprehension improves. Some ideas to help with comprehension are:
- Ask your child questions about characters and key events which have happened in the story
- Ask your child to write down the key events in the order they happened
- Ask your child to tell you why they think characters behaved in a certain way
- Ask your child to make predictions about what might happen next, or continue the story once you’ve finished it.
Writing
Just like the reading curriculum, the year 4 and year 3 English curriculum for writing is broken down into sections:
Spelling:
In the year 3 English curriculum and in year 4, pupils should be taught to:
- use further prefixes and suffixes and understand how to add them
- spell further homophones
- spell words that are often misspelt
- 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 2 or 3 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:
By this stage, handwriting children should have mastered basic letter formation. In the year 3 and 4 English curriculum, the teaching of handwriting focuses on improving and refining handwriting.
Pupils should be taught to:
- 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
- increase the legibility, consistency and quality of their handwriting, [for example, by ensuring that the downstrokes of letters are parallel and equidistant, and that lines of writing are spaced sufficiently so that the ascenders and descenders of letters do not touch]
Composition:
Composition simply refers to the process of planning and writing a text. This can be a piece of fiction, such as a story or poem, or a non-fiction text like a report or some instructions.
In the year 3 English curriculum and in year 4, pupils should be taught to:
- 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
- discussing and recording ideas
- draft and write by:
- composing and rehearsing sentences orally (including dialogue), progressively building a varied and rich vocabulary and an increasing range of sentence structures
- organising paragraphs around a theme
- in narratives, creating settings, characters and plot
- in non-narrative material, using simple organisational devices [for example, headings and subheadings]
- evaluate and edit by:
- assessing the effectiveness of their own and others’ writing and suggesting improvements
- proposing changes to grammar and vocabulary to improve consistency, including the accurate use of pronouns in sentences
- proofread for spelling and punctuation errors
- read their own writing aloud to a group or the whole class, using appropriate intonation and controlling the tone and volume so that the meaning is clear
Vocabulary, grammar and punctuation:
Vocabulary, grammar and punctuation are often taught and referred to alongside spelling. Together, they are known as SPaG.
Pupils should be taught to:
- extending the range of sentences with more than one clause by using a wider range of conjunctions, including: when, if, because, although
- using the present perfect form of verbs in contrast to the past tense
- choosing nouns or pronouns appropriately for clarity and cohesion and to avoid repetition
- using conjunctions, adverbs and prepositions to express time and cause
- using fronted adverbials
- indicate grammatical and other features by:
- using commas after fronted adverbials
- indicating possession by using the possessive apostrophe with plural nouns
- using and punctuating direct speech
- use and understand the grammatical terminology in English appendix 2accurately and appropriately when discussing their writing and reading
Spoken Language
In the year 3 and 4 English curriculum, the aims for spoken language remain the same across KS1 and KS2. There is less direct teaching focus on these aims, as they are expected to be addressed in the reading and writing aims.
- listen and respond appropriately to adults and their peers
- ask relevant questions to extend their understanding and knowledge
- use relevant strategies to build their vocabulary
- articulate and justify answers, arguments and opinions
- give well-structured descriptions, explanations and narratives for different purposes, including for expressing feelings.
- maintain attention and participate actively in collaborative conversations, staying on topic and initiating and responding to comments
- use spoken language to develop understanding through speculating, hypothesising, imagining and exploring ideas
- speak audibly and fluently with an increasing command of Standard English
- participate in discussions, presentations, performances, roleplay/improvisations and debates
- gain, maintain and monitor the interest of the listener(s)
- consider and evaluate different viewpoints, attending to and building on the contributions of others
- select and use appropriate registers for effective communication
