Guidance for Parents & Carers Phonics & Reading at Holy Trinity C.E (C) Primary

Reading Skills Taught Two key skills are taught: Word recognition – phonics; Language comprehension – understanding and gaining meaning from what has been read. “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” Dr Seuss

Phonics definitions: A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a word A grapheme is a letter or group of letters representing a single phoneme (sound): t ch igh eigh

Oral Blending & Blending & Segmenting Oral Blending - Hearing a series of spoken sounds and merging them together to make a spoken word. No text is used. For example, when a teacher calls out b – u – s, the children say “bus”. This skill is usually taught before blending and reading printed words. Blending – Merging the individual phonemes together to pronounce a word. Recognising the phonemes (letter sounds) in a written word, for example c – u – p, and merging or synthesising them in the order in which they are written to pronounce the word “cup”. Segmenting – Hearing and saying the individual phonemes within words. Identifying the phonemes (individual sounds) in a spoken word, for example h – i – m, and writing down or manipulating letters for each sound to form the word “him”.

Word recognition Synthetics Phonics: 26 letters of the alphabet 44 phonemes (sounds) 120 combinations. Is taught through the programme ‘Letters & Sounds’; Consists of six phases; Daily phonics/spelling session for all children. In KS2, this is combined with a spelling programme.

The daily phonics lesson at Holy Trinity… Revisit and Review Teach Practise Apply

Letters and Sounds Phase One Introduces oral blending and segmenting; Explore and experiment with sounds and words; Show a growing awareness and appreciation of rhyme, rhythm and alliteration; Speak clearly; Distinguish between different sounds in words.

How to help at home Reading lots of stories together, e.g. having a regular bedtime story; Singing lots of nursery rhymes and action songs; Have a go at making up some nonsense songs together! Talking about the different sounds you hear when you are out and about; Model words through repetition (positive reinforcement), e.g. Child says ‘A tat’; adult responds ’Yes, a cat!’

Letters and Sounds Phase Two Introduces 19 grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs); As soon as children have a small number of grapheme/phoneme correspondences, blending and segmenting can start ( s/a/t/p/i/n/); ‘Tricky’ words – High Frequency Words.

Letters and Sounds Phase Three Introduces another 25 graphemes; Most comprising two letters e.g. sh, th; One representation of each of 44 phonemes; Reading and spelling two syllable words and captions.

How to help at home Magnetic letters - Find out which letters/phonemes have been taught – have fun finding these. Making little words together it, up, am, met, pick. As you select the letters, say them aloud: ‘a-m – am’, ‘m-e-t – met’. Breaking words up-Robot voices: “Can you get your c-oa-t, Put on your s-o-ck” etc. Don’t forget the writing box! - Praise, don’t criticise. Little whiteboards and pens, and magic boards, are a good way for children to try out spellings and practise their handwriting. Make or buy an alphabet poster. Play tricky word games e.g. fast find, pairs.

Letters and Sounds Phase Four To teach children to read and spell words containing adjacent consonants, e.g. dog, black, flat, strip, chest.

Letters and Sounds Phase Five Teaching children to recognise and use alternative ways of pronouncing the graphemes and spelling the phonemes already taught, e.g. may, make, pain.

Letters and Sounds Phase Six Teaching children to develop their skill and automaticity in reading and spelling, creating ever-increasing capacity to attend to reading for meaning.

Phonics (& reading) Websites (games) (games) (games – American, some phonemes good to use!) (games) (both)

How is reading taught here at Holy Trinity? Integrated into daily phonics sessions; Reading in all curriculum areas; Shared reading as a class; Guided reading – group mini-lesson teaching strategies to develop independent reading; Group / paired reading. 1:1 reading.

EY/KS1 Reading Strategies Tool Kit: Look at the pictures! Break up the words into phonemes! Sound it out! Is it a long word or a little word? Cut it out! Come back and have a go! Use all your tools together!

Emerging Reading Strategies

Developing Reading Strategies

Enhancing Reading Strategies

Reading at Home 1. Establish a regular time and place for daily read-aloud sessions, such as before bed or during bath time. 2. Keep on hand a variety of reading materials: picture books, chapter books, atlases, dictionaries, magazines, and newspapers. They also get library cards for everyone and use them often. 3. Share their love of books and reading. Parents may say to children, "This was my favourite book when I was your age," or "I can't wait to start my new book."

Reading at home continued… 4. Talk about what they read and encourage children to think, solve problems, and make predictions. Parents may discuss the books a child is reading, then ask questions such as, "Did you ever...?" or "How would you feel if that happened to you?“ 5. Have plenty of paper and writing tools. 6. Store books and writing materials in places children can reach. 7. Have frequent conversations with each child, as well as with the family as a whole. Parents should encourage everyone to express their ideas, opinions, and feelings.

Reading at home continued… 8. Reinforce language and literacy skills by doing puzzles and playing games that reinforce literacy, such as Lotto, Happy Families, Concentration, Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit. 9. Model reading and writing for pleasure and for specific uses, such as making a shopping list. 10. Respond positively to children's reading and writing efforts. 11. Set aside plenty of time for reading, by balancing time devoted to sports, television, and other activities.

If your child finds reading a word tricky, try… Breaking up (segmenting) the word, sound it out, blend the phonemes (sounds) together. Use the pictures as clues. Modelling first then ask your child to repeat. Reading on, missing out the tricky word. Allow time for your child to self-correct before asking – “What word would fit / make sense?” Prompting them to use our reading tool kits / strategies taught. Remember PPP: PAUSE, PROMPT, PRAISE!