Plural: -s

Teaching Plurals: -s

• Nouns have two forms: singular (one) and plural (more than one).
• Most nouns simply add s to make their plural form (eg. one table, several tables).
• For nouns that end in the sounds s, sh, ch, z and x, you add -es (eg. one church, two churches).
• Nouns that end in y form their plurals in two ways:
  If there is a vowel before the final y, simply add s (eg. one boy, two boys; one day, seven days).
  If there is a consonant before the final y, change the y to i then add -es (eg. one ferry, a fleet of ferries).

General Tips: Teaching Spelling to Secondary Students

• For young people who struggle with spelling, much of the school day is often a daunting and frustrating undertaking. As of 2019, approximately 7.3 million (44%) Australians aged 15 to 74 years had literacy skills considered low enough to impair their ability to carry out daily tasks and by extension their quality of life. Put simply, too many young people are leaving school without a sufficient grasp on how to communicate effectively, and spelling makes up a big part or this.
• Explicit, direct teaching is required to improve struggling spellers at this age. Do not simply give students a spelling list and expect them to learn it independently: if a student hasn’t learned a spelling pattern or rule independently or “via osmosis” by now, direct intervention is required. Take a look at the High Impact Teaching Strategies (HITS) if you need inspiration or ideas.
• Use data to inform your teaching. Ongoing assessment will help you know where a particular student is struggling and will help you plan your curriculum accordingly. See the Start Here page for some ideas on how to do this.
• One size does not fit all. Giving an entire class the same spelling work is ineffective: use assessment data and your own observations to prioritise, group and teach students based on their needs as learners. See this fantastic article by Alison Clarke of Spelfabet for more ideas for helping teenagers with their literacy.
• Repetition, repetition, repetition. Spelling isn’t a guessing game. Avoid activities like matching games, “look/cover/write/check”, etc and opt for repetition, worked examples and daily use of new words instead. As well as writing the words, give students the opportunity to read them and use them in conversation.
• The importance of a solid reading program. While spelling and phonics intervention alone will help struggling spellers, exposing them to text daily (via silent/choice reading, partner reading, read alouds, guided reading, etc) will greatly enhance their chances of success and will help boost their literacy across the board.

Rule or Pattern	Lessons and Resources	Victorian Curriculum
Plural -s that says /s/ and /z/		Level 2: Learn some generalisations for adding suffixes to words (VCELA217)
Plural -s		Level 3: Recognise most high-frequency words, know how to use common prefixes and suffixes, and know some homophones and generalisations for adding a suffix to a base word (VCELA250)
Plurals: -s and -es (as in puppets and churches)		Level 5: Understand how to use banks of known words, syllabification, spelling patterns, word origins, base words, prefixes and suffixes, to spell new words, including some uncommon plurals (VCELA312)
Plurals, mixed (as in directions, knives, phoneys, echoes, photocopies and celebrities)		Level 6: Understand how to use banks of known words, word origins, base words, prefixes, suffixes, spelling patterns and generalisations to spell new words, including technical words and words adopted from other languages (VCELA354)
Plurals – mixed (as in accidents, missionaries and successes)	Stone and Stave: Lesson: Plurals – mixed (.pptx) Elsewhere Online: Plurals of Nouns (Oxford Dictionaries) Published Resources: Clutterbuck, P. (2010): Successful Spelling Book 7. Clayton South, Australia: Blake Education. Marrett, V. (2014): Successful Spelling: Australian Homeschooling Series: Book 7. Seven Hills, Australia: Coroneos Publications.	Level 8: Understand how to apply learned knowledge consistently in order to spell accurately and to learn new words including nominalisations (VCELA417)