Reception Reading and Writing Workshop 2:30 – 3:00pm November 15th 2017

Aims To look at how children learn to read and write. To provide strategies to support your child at home.

The Power of Reading Creating a love of reading in children is potentially one of the most powerful ways of improving academic standards in school. There can be few better ways to improve pupils chances in school, or beyond in the wider world than to enable them to become truly independent readers. Reading is all about acquiring meaning; for enjoyment, information and understanding. It is not a performance. It is not a test. Every time you finish a book - do always choose a harder one next time?

Understanding Being able to read does not mean you understand what you read. Your child might sound like a good reader but may not necessarily understand what the text means. The best way to develop understanding is to talk about texts.

Reading requires two key skills: Understanding The ability to understand the meaning of the words and sentences in a text. The ability to understand the ideas, information and themes in a text. If a child understands what they hear, they will understand the same information when they read. Phonics and Word Recognition The ability to recognise words presented in and out of context. The ability to blend letter sounds (phonemes) together to read words.

Blending and Segmenting sh ar p sharp Blending for reading and Segmenting for spelling

Reading in School Phonics Shared reading Guided reading Independent reading Personal reading Focused reading activities Reading across the curriculum Class Story Time School readers Home readers

Reading at Home Make reading visible; have books available in your home Share books every day; Talk about books. Sit and listen - don’t do chores around the reader! Respect choices.

Reading Strategies The cat is in bed. Check for ‘tricky’ words Use a pointy finger under each word Check the first sound against the picture What makes sense? Sound out and blend using Phonics

Questions about the story What do you like about this book? What do you think of this character? Why do you think this is a good story? What’s great about reading? Why are you a good reader? What is it about these stories that you like so much? Do you like this book? Do you like this character? It’s a good story isn’t it? Do you like reading? Are you good at reading? Do you like this kind of story? Change these questions so that the answers cannot be yes or no.

Understanding Finding information on the page. Being able to find information that is not on the page. Looking for clues. Thinking about situations and predicting what might happen. Putting yourself in a character’s shoes and understanding what is going on from their viewpoint. Remember it should be fun!

Hearing your child read Choose a quiet time and give your child your full attention; Give support if required using the strategies explained earlier; Explain the meaning of new words; Talk about the text using open questions.

Reading to your child Introduce your children to different types of books; classic fiction, chapter books, short stories, joke books, poetry, non-fiction. Read them the book that was your favourite when you were a child. Read slowly, with expression. Try to use different and funny voices for characters. Follow the words and read the story using the pictures. Talk about what is happening and what might happen next. Leave the story on a cliffhanger!

Writing Children enjoy making marks from an early age. How can we encourage our children to become confident and successful writers?

Developing Confident and Fluent Speakers Many children come to us having experienced up to 3 or 4 stories a day read to them from a very early age. This means for some children they have enjoyed thousands of texts before they have even started school. In and out of school we encourage all our children to develop their love of shared stories and information books so they may explore and repeat much of the language they hear! At school and at home all children need to be exposed to a wide and varied vocabulary. They need to hear a variety of words and understand the meaning of words.

The Development of Motor Skills Alongside speaking and listening activities, other activities are designed to help and improve motor skills (gross and fine). Big and small movements are encouraged to develop and strengthen muscles in arms and fingers and continue to build on children’s early fascination with making marks.

The Early Stages of Writing Preliterate: Drawing & Scribbling As children progress through this stage they begin to understand that drawing and writing is a purposeful means of communication. However, some children quickly become aware and anxious that their writing looks very different from that of adults and older children . Some children readily read their scribbles and marks as if they were writing but some do not! Emphasize that we are all learning and praise effort!

How Writing Develops Random-letters or letter strings Using letter sequences, perhaps learned from his/her name Writing the same letters/shapes many times long strings of letters/shapes in random order Letter-like forms shapes in writing actually resemble letters Writing phonetically plausible words and simple sentences.

Opportunities for writing Opportunities for writing are available in all learning areas e.g. construction – make a label or sign for a model role play – write down a message, take an order or issue a speeding ticket! Writing Areas : There is a writing area with a key challenge and various tools and resources are provided to support the children with this. Writing Toolboxes and Bags: These encourage children to explore writing and mark-making through choice. Purposeful Writing: The focus may be ‘The Tiger who came to Tea’ so the children would write witness reports and shopping lists. Children also take ownership of the areas e.g. labels for maths boxes, signs for role-play etc.

Letter Formation, Phonics and Handwriting Phonics and letter formation: Children need to develop a knowledge of the sounds and the letters which make each sound so that they are able to read and write. Phonics is taught daily in Reception, for 20 minutes at a time. The sessions are short, sharp and focused on a particular sound and writing linked to that sound. Handwriting: Adults work with small focus groups on their handwriting. They are mindful to correct misconceptions/incorrect formation as and when necessary so that it does not become a bad habit! Please support your child at home with this. There is a motor skills warm up prior to this session with further motor skills development sessions for all those who need them. At Dorset Road we use cursive handwriting. In Reception we are using precursive.

How to help your child to write at home Talk - Make time to interact with your child in order to develop quality talk e.g. play with them, act out scenarios, model good quality speech and language. Read - Read and share a wide range of books to help your child develop a love of reading. Develop motor skills – Play ball and target games, threading, posting and mini-treasure hunt activities such as picking out grains of rice from a tray of sand to strengthen muscles. Write - Encourage any form of writing and mark making. Spell – Encourage independence - ‘have a go.’ When confident in reading the tricky words begin to try writing them. Look, cover, write, check.

Any questions?