Reading Meeting for Reception Class Parents at Newton Farm School 2014 From Learning to Read to Reading to Learn

6 Reading Literacy Reading literacy is defined as the ability to understand and use those written language forms required by society and/or valued by the individual. Young readers can construct meaning from a variety of texts. They read to learn, to participate in communities of readers in school and everyday life, and for enjoyment. 19

9 The elusive ‘magic key’.. “Reading is much more than the decoding of black marks upon a page; it is a quest for meaning and one which requires the reader to be an active participant. “ Brian Cox 1991

3 International Comparison Surveys: PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) in 2006 England had fallen from 7 th position to 17 th in literacy in terms of performance of 15 year-olds. National Data- OFSTED’s 2010 report “Reading at Six” states:” Too many children do not read or write well enough by the time they leave primary school. The proportion of 11-year-olds that reach the expected level (L4) in English has stalled at around 80% and the national average point score for reading at the end of key Stage 1 has remained between and 15.7 for the last 4 years”. Policy.....Government review... Rose, Reading by 6, Excellence in English, Phonics screening test, New 2014 Primary National Curriculum Ofsted-New framework – September 2014 Subsequent policy shift to the teaching of reading. Why are we here?

4 The current climate..... "Children who cannot read are condemned to spend their entire life in a prison house of ignorance.” "It is a scandal that so many children leave school unable to use the English language with fluency and confidence. Their horizons are narrower and their opportunities more limited." Michael Gove : June evening Standard

Headline Results Ofsted’s 2010 report, Reading by six, said: Too many children do not read or write well enough by the time they leave primary school. The proportion of 11-year-olds that reach the expected level (Level 4 of the National Curriculum) in English has stalled at around 80% and the national average point score for reading at the end of Key Stage 1 has remained between 15.6 and 15.7 for the last four years.

Systematic Teaching of Phonics Teaching phonics is not the answer to the UK’s economic problems, but improving the teaching of reading, particularly at the earliest stages, might go some way to improving standards, not just in literacy but more generally across the curriculum.

OFSTED REPORT November 2010 Reading by six: how the best schools do it “The best primary schools teach virtually every child to read, regardless of the social and economic circumstances of their neighbourhoods, the ethnicity of their pupils, the languages spoken at home and most special educational needs or disabilities.” “The diligent, concentrated and systematic teaching of phonics is central to the success of all the schools that achieve high reading standards in Key Stage 1.”

Home Parents are a child’s first educator and have the greatest influence on their child’s educational development. This important fact is borne out by a wide range of research that can be summed up by the following conclusion: “Parental involvement in their child’s reading has been found to be the most important determinant of language and emergent literacy.” - Bus, van Jzendoorn and Pellegrini, 1995

Attitudes ‘Being more enthusiastic about reading and a frequent reader was more of an advantage, on its own, than having well-educated parents in good jobs.’ Reading for Change, PISA OECD, 2002

How parents can support their child to become successful readers and have a genuine love of books and reading Spend 10 minutes a day reading together. Make it fun. Talk about the picture and characters and make up stories of your own. Buy your child books as presents. Make a special place to keep books. Make sure your child sees you reading and talk about what you are reading, e.g. newspapers, magazines, etc. Encourage your child to sound out on food packets when you are unloading the shopping or cooking with your child. Get your child to make up plays when their friends come to play, play eye spy type of word games. Praise is really important when encouraging your child top read. Talk to your child and try to answer questions they ask. Don’t stick them in front of the television! Go to the school website and look at the good practice videos with your child on phonics. Come and borrow resources from the Friday morning Parents’ Library sessions in school.

Talk to your child!!! Children from “Talk-a-lot” families arrive at school with 11.2 million words. Children from non “Talk-a-lot” families arrive at school with 3.2 million words. That’s a gap of 8 million words. Research also showed that some parents spent more than 40 minutes in an average hour interacting with their child, while other parents spent less than 15 minutes. Some spoke an average of more than 3,000 words per hour to their child, while others spoke fewer than 500 words. Many parents spoke what is commonly known as “business talk”: things like “Put that down” or “Come here”. Parents that reached or exceeded the 30,000 words a day tended to narrate what they were doing, or chatter at their kids. All the kids, whether their parents were talkative or not, heard language. But by age three, the differences in how many words each child heard was significant: some children had heard over 11 million words per year; others only 3 million. So the message is expose your child to the vocabulary by talking with them and creating an environment at home where reading and communication is valued and enjoyed.

How do children learn to read? Through phonics – Phonics is a method of teaching reading. We teach children the sounds that the letters make. Through sight recognition – Some words cant be decoded using phonics, for example “one”. We learn these words by reading them often.

Phonics explained Every letter has a name and a sound – these sounds are called phonemes. “a,b,c,d,e,f” Sometimes two letters put together make a sound – these are called digraphs. “ay, ee,oo” When three letters together make one sound – this is a trigraph. “igh, ing”

Phonics in class 20 minute sessions per day Literacy lessons Incorporated through “independent learning”

What can you do at home? Cease opportunities! – sound out words in newspapers, signs, recipes, books etc. Let your child be the teacher! – Show you the actions and sounds that they have learned. Practice, practice, practice!

Reading in Reception Reading scheme matches up to phonics scheme. Children can read as soon as they learn their first three sounds. Guided reading – In groups with an adult, discussing the book and reading together. Listening to individuals read as much as possible.

Reading: Comprehension. Reading bookmark - Reception 1.What is the title of your story? 1. What is the name of the author? 1.Can you name the characters in the story? 1.What was your favourite part of the story? Why? 1.What happened in the beginning, middle, and end of the story? 1.Did you find any interesting words? What do they mean? 1.What was your favourite picture and why 1.What was the story about?

What will you get each week from the school? Reading book from Bug Club Scheme. Reading book from class library (Read by the parents). Children will get new books every Monday. It is vital for books to be returned on time It is very important to comment in the children’s reading diary.

What can you do at home? Seize opportunities! Read to your child Ignite your child's love for reading! Ask children questions. Blending simple words together everyday to aid reading sentences. Comment on your child’s development in reading by writing in the Book Diary. And the most important thing?