Teaching Notes for the 'Wordshark' Course

Short explanation of what teaching notes cover

Units 1-4 matching speech to written symbols

The teaching notes include different approaches and may well open doors less often mentioned. This gives them great potential value for working with older non-readers, for those with dyslexia and for all poor spellers. Teaching notes with word lists Wordshark Course (Units 1-44) (pdf)

Unit 5 teaching notes bring the game changer

The Teaching notes stress the important game changer of where more than one letter can represent a single sound. Poor readers and spellers will need help particularly with this idea and the encouragement to recognise all future patterns that they will meet in reading and spelling. Teaching notes with word lists Wordshark Course (Units 1-44) (pdf)

Units 7–9  practical and effective suggestions

The Teaching Notes include using how we produce speech sounds and how this can help to address English consonant blends – a tricky part of English reading and spelling for many. Teaching notes with word lists Wordshark Course (Units 1-44) (pdf)

Unit 10 and beyond

Teaching Notes for these later stages describe the ‘rules’ and concepts which underpin English spelling. For each Unit they will act as a reminder of what the concepts are behind each list, and what to look out for when the students open up their ‘My Play Words’. Teaching notes with word lists Wordshark Course (Units 1-44) (pdf)

Lessons can be planned with help of the TEACHING NOTES, to take account of the learning intention for each list.

Also by careful consideration of the course summary and the Teaching Notes, you can assess whether you are happy with the placement, speed and progress of your students. For some you may wish to accelerate their movement through certain parts of the course. You can move them manually using the tab Set work > Supershark-Change Level.

TEACHING NOTES pdf document (pdf)

The Teaching Notes offer help on how to introduce content and also help with lesson plans when needed.

TEACHING NOTES pdf (with word lists Wordshark Course) (Units 1-44) (pdf)

The 'Wordshark' Course

Summary: Wordshark Course (pdf) 

Full document: Wordshark Course (pdf)

• The course begins with letter sounds and simple words and follows through to long and difficult words. 
• Working through the Wordshark course gives confidence to students by always building on what they have previously learned.

• The course developed over many years. The order of lists was then extensively tested and refined to meet the needs of  the ‘Supershark’ automatic progression mode, introduced with Wordshark Online.

• The Wordshark Course is available...
  

1. In 'Supershark', automatic progression
   
2. You can use it when setting work
   
3. Students can reach it via Free Play if Free Play has been allowed

Spelling Quiz!! (for teachers)

Here are 20 questions to test your knowledge! The teaching notes provide the answers. Teaching notes with word lists Wordshark Course (Units 1-44) (pdf)

1.      Can you give an example where 3 letters work together to represent one sound?

2.      Give a word where 2 vowels work together to represent one sound

3.      Why do you need a different spelling for mat and mate, and cot and coat?

4.      What is a split digraph and why do learners have such difficulty with it?

5.      One way to spell the /ay/ sound is ‘ai’ in the word ‘rain’ – how many others can you think of?

6.      What often happens when an ‘r’ follows a vowel?

7.      What part of speech do many longer words ending in ‘al ‘ belong to?

8.      Give an example of a soft c and a soft g

9.      What is a ‘long vowel’?

10.  Give a long word that has an ‘open syllable’ in it

11.  Give a long word that has a ‘closed syllable’ in it

12.  What is the ‘doubling rule’?

13.  Give a pair of consonants that work together but one is ‘silent’

14.  What happens to the vowel following a ‘w’ in words like ‘was’?

15.  If unsure, would you choose ‘tion’ or ‘sion’ and why ?

16.  When do you have ‘ck’

17.  How many syllables has ‘metamorphosis’ ?

18.  Why do unstressed vowels account for so many errors?

19.  Can you think of an English word that ends in v not counting abbreviations?

20.  How many sounds can you think of for ‘ea’?

• Related Articles

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• Release Notes

  September 16th, 2025 (Sprints 149 and 150) Added PDFs for student and leaderboard and awards Fixed Bug fix September 2nd, 2025 (Sprint 148) Changed Wording in the administrator/teacher set work information button Fixed Bug fixes August 22nd, 2025 ...

• Wordshark for specific uses

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• Secondary School Use

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