All about reading!

How do we teach

our children to read?

© Crown Copyright 2006

http://www.st-bernadette.blackpool.sch.uk/

Working together

• Lots of people in school are working together, to help your child make good progress in reading and writing.

• Head teacher, teachers, teaching assistants and volunteers, that have connections to St Bernadette’s, are working together to improve your child’s reading.

•

How do your children learn to read?

As parents, you’ve already startedbecause from the moment your child isborn, you are teaching him. We talk toour babies, we read to them, we sing tothem, and we recite silly little verses atbedtime. We hug and cuddle ourchildren, we play with them and welaugh with them. In this way you are……

“teaching your child to read”

Different methods

• Phonics ( learn the letter sounds) • ‘Look and say’ approach (recognise whole

words or sentences)• Language experience approach (uses

child’s own words)• Whatever method is chosen, it is

important to realise that the formative years are crucial and most children should be able to read reasonably well between the ages of 4 and 8.

•Children are taught to read by breaking down words intoseparate sounds or ‘phonemes.’ They are then taught how toblend these sounds together to read the whole word.

•Children in Reception and throughout Years 1 and 2, have a 20minutes phonics lesson each day and they are encouraged to usethese strategies to read and write in other lessons. InReception, they use the Jolly phonics programme linked with theletters and sounds programme. This method teaches actions foreach of the 42 letter sounds. The multi-sensory method is verymotivating for children and helps them to remember thephonemes.

What is phonics?

Phonics is about children knowing how letters link to sounds (graphemes to phonemes)…

c as in ‘cat,’ ll as in ‘fell,’ ee as in ‘sheep.’

Children need and use this phonic knowledge when they read and write.

Count the phonemes…

• thin

• well

• sprint

• sail

• know

• bright

Count the phonemes…

th-i-n 3w-e-ll 3s-p-r-i-n-t 6s-ai-l 3kn-ow 2b-r-igh-t 4

Saying the Sounds (phonemes)

Phonemes should be articulated clearly and

precisely.

Articulation of phonemes

How do we implement ‘letters and

sounds?’

• All children in Reception and KS1, are assessed and put into individual phonics groups. High quality phonics work is timetabled every day for 20 minutes.

In St Bernadette’s

Letters and Sounds…

• 6 phase phonic teaching programme…

• designed to be taught through pre-school,

the Reception class, into Year 1 and Year 2

and then sometimes into the junior classes, to help children become better readers and writers.

Learning about sounds - Phase 1

Starts in nursery or playgroup…

Teachers:• plan activities that will help children

listen to sounds around them;• teach nursery rhymes and songs;• read good books to, and with the

children;• show the children how to ‘sound-talk.’

Phase 2The children are taught the phonemes (sounds)

for a number of letters (graphemes).

They will:• see letters in words, as well as hear them;

• learn how to make little words (CVC words) e.g. pushing magnetic letters together;

• learn how to blend and segment the CVC words; c- a- t

• learn some tricky words…the, to, I , go, no.

Phase 3

• teach more graphemes, most of which are made up of two letters e.g. boat;

• Practise blending and segmenting more words e.g. fizz, chip, sheep etc;

• learn to read more tricky words;

• read and write words in sentences

• We aim for most children to have completed phase 3 in Reception.

Phase 4

• Children continue to practise previously learnt graphemes and phonemes.

• They learn how to read and write longer words CVCC words – tent, damp, toast, chimp.

and• CCVC words – swim, plum, sport,

cream, spoon.• More tricky words.

Phase 5 – Years 1 and 2

In Phase 5 the children will learn that most

sounds (phonemes) can be spelt in more

than one way.

rain saymake

Same letters, different sounds

(phonemes)

mean

bread

read

Phase 6 – Years 2 /3

• Teaching children to develop their skills in reading and spelling, so that they can attend to reading for meaning.

Getting ready for writing…

• Teachers will model how to form letters (graphemes) correctly.

• Handwriting skills develop over a long period of time.

• In the early phonic phases children use letter cards or magnetic letters.

• Children are taught lower case, as well as capital letters.

Reading together- how can you

help?• Enjoy books together. Now your child has settled into

Reception class, Mrs Dowling will be sending home readingbooks for your child to use as their home/school reader.Don’t worry if they have no words! In partnership withyou, we want to increase your child’s vocabulary. Thiscan be achieved by talking about what is happening in thepictures - ask lots of questions and maybe add soundeffects!

• When your child is ready , they may move onto books withwords. They could be phonics based books (sounding outto blend) or books that are heavily reliant on highfrequency words (sight words) that the children need tolearn.

Reading together- how can you

help?

• Your child also has a reading record diaryfor you to be actively involved in your child’sreading. All we ask is that you try to hearyour child read for ten minutes a day andthen sign it. Please feel free to record acomment, however, a signature will do!

• Research indicates that you can make aprofound difference in your child’s ability toread by spending just ten minutes a dayhearing your child read.

Now it’s your turn to have a

go!

Phonics Screening

Test

•Every Year 1 child in the country will be taking thephonics screening check in the same week in June.

•The aim of the check is to ensure that all childrenare able to read by the end of year two.

•This ‘midpoint check’ will ensure that we have a clear understanding of what the children need to learn in year 2.

•The check is very similar to tasks the children alreadycomplete during our phonics lessons.

•Children will be asked to ‘sound out’ a word and blendthe sounds together as in d-o-g dog.

•The focus of the check is to see which sounds(phonemes) the children know and then the childrenwill be asked to read made up ‘nonsense’ words. Thenonsense words are accompanied by an alienillustration. The children are familiar with the alienwords through their daily phonics lessons.

•The screening will take place throughout the weekbeginning Monday 15th June. The children cannotretake the test at any other time so it is veryimportant your child is in school during this week.

•The check has been designed so that children of all abilities will be able to take

part.

•The children will complete the check one at a time in a quiet area of the school.

•I will conduct all of the screening checks with the children.

•The screening will only take 5-10 minutes with each child.

•Encourage your child to ‘sound out’ when reading or writing. Focusing particularly on spotting more unusual sound patterns.

Eg

Digraph- 2 letters making one sound

cow

Trigraphs- 3 letters making one sound~

night

Split digraphs- 2 vowels with a consonant in-between. This was often referred to as the magic e!

spine - i_e

•Encourage your child to use their sound mat when writing and use put the action to the sound they need.

•Children can practise their phonics by playing games online. They particularly like ‘Buried Treasure.’

•http://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/BuriedTreasure2.html

•REMEMBER: Phonics is only one method needed to become a fluent reader.

•Please continue to read with your child each night and encourage them to:

•Sound out

•Re-read to check it makes sense.

•Use pictures for clues.

•Ask questions about the book.

•And most importantly ENJOY READING!

•In the Summer term, we will send a letter home outlining theresults of the test and the next steps, if any, which may beneeded for your child to become more secure with their phonicsskills for reading.

Please don’t hesitate to speak to your child’s teacher if you needfurther advice or information regarding the test.

I have included the following website to help with any further questions you may have

www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/.../phonics