Parent Information Evening

Reading – decoding and comprehension Decoding is the skill of reading itself, sounding out and blending the word together Comprehension is the understanding of what is being read and using pictures for inference

Decoding At the children’s stage of development, reading is recognising speed sounds, both in isolation and context The next stage is oral blending – where the children can blend two sounds together if said aloud Blending the sounds together independently following with their finger, is the next stage. As children grow more confident, they will begin decoding CVC words. Decoding – reading Encoding – spelling CVC- consonant, vowel, consonant words e.g. cat, bop, pin

Homework Pointing to each speed sound jumping between them all and asking children to say the sound aloud When reading the text, at the early stages you will be asking the child to find specific sounds within the text. E.g. can you see ‘s’? Following this, you could put two sounds together and ask the child to blend e.g. ‘I’ ‘p’ = ip. These should be real words as well as nonsense. Ensure you ask your child if the word is a real word or nonsense.

Comprehension In the early stages of reading, a lot of the answers to the comprehension questions will be seen in the pictures. The first reading books your child will take home will be word less texts. These books will be purely for comprehension skills and to allow the child to understand how a book is held, which way the pages turn, where we begin to read etc.

Model questions Who is in this picture? What do you think their names are? What are they doing? Where are they going? Why do you think that? Do you think it is hot or cold? Why? Why are they holding on to the rails? What might happen next?

Common Exception Words Exception words are words in which the English spelling code works in an unusual or uncommon way. They are not words for which phonics 'doesn't work', but they may be exceptions to spelling rules, or words which use a particular combination of letters to represent sound patterns in a rare or unique way. Some exception words are used very frequently, which is why children are introduced to them very early on in their phonics learning. These will be taught to the children as High Frequency words. High frequency words are words we teach the children to read from heart as they will come across the most frequently in their early stages of reading.

Reception High Frequency Words These words will be sent home to be learned by heart. Alongside these laminated cards, we will also send home some game ideas of different activities you could play with your child to support them in their learning.

Rules for reading! Ensure your child always follows the text with their finger Ensure to ask your child questions about character, plot and setting as you read Ensure to pronounce the sounds phonetically and not as the letter names Ensure you give your child time to hear the sounds and think about them, repeat if necessary Ensure to have fun when reading! We want children to enjoy and develop a passion for reading in these early stages that will stay with them as they grow into adults.

Questions?

Useful websites https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8m6YFr0gig – pronunciation of set one speed sounds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zlfDcEP_78 - pronunciation of set one speed sounds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMy7mqjaWNc – model reading of ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2tOsrgftwQ – How reading is taught in Early Years