Reading A workshop for parents Welcome Introductions Catherine Bonham (Deputy Head) – to talk about the school reading scheme and approach Wendy Beaver (Community Librarian) – to talk about how we learn to read and how parents can help at home Aims How to help and encourage your child with reading The school reading scheme and approach How the libraries can support A reading approach for you to try at home

How to help with learning at home

What can we do at home..? I could give you endless little reading and writing activities to help at home and am happy to do this BUT – these will be dependent on your child’s needs - some important general points to make Be positive with your child – show them how proud you are of the things they can do. I can can. Your child will have areas of strength – be it at football, dancing, art, taking cars apart! – focus on these as much as you can Any additional reading and writing activities you do do – make fun! Do any of these little and often BUT stop when things get difficult. Keep these activities positive experiences Any little bit of progress needs to be recognised by you Work with the school – best scenario for success for your child is when you and the school work as partnership

c-a-t Learning to read Letters and sounds What do children need to be able to do to read? Alphabetic system Letters are linked to sounds Need to be able to hear sounds c-a-t and blend them to make them into a word So lots of activities that encourage children to her sounds is good (e.g. eye spy, silly names etc) But be careful – we can’t ‘sound out every word in the English language so we need to build up other skills too

Cough feet stick elephant Learning to read… Seeing patterns What do children need to be able to do to read? They also need to be able to see patterns and recognise whole words E.g. recognise that ee, ck, ough E.g. elephant It can take between 4 and 14 times seeing a word to recognise it by sight So lots of reading together and pointing to words is good

The old lady lived in a cottage in the wood Learning to read… Know about language… The old lady lived in a cottage in the wood Children also need to know about how language works – know what word sounds right and have knowledge about grammar The good news is that children learn about language from the day they are born The more we can help children learn about words, the more it will help them with their reading (e.g. ‘the old lady lived in a cottage in the wood’) Reading activity

Reading at School Catherine Bonham (Deputy Head) to talk about the school reading scheme

Why is reading at home so valuable? ‘Children learn to read by reading’ What reading together at home does: Teaches children how reading works We show or model how to read To strengthen children’s language We promote children’s interest and enjoyment of reading Let your child see you reading sometimes Bedtime stories Keep going – don’t stop bedtime stories Story CDs, stories tapes in the car to develop language Shared reading – e.g. a page each Paired Reading

What to do when you read with your child How to do it: Choose a time when children are in the mood for reading Try to share a book that your child want to read – it doesn’t have to be a reading scheme book Talk about what the book might be about Encourage your child to look at the pictures – never cover the pictures Encourage your child to look at letters (particularly the first letter and patterns in words) But take care – don’t encourage your child to overrely on phonics If your child comes to a word they are stuck on, encourage them to look at the letter, look for clues in the pictures and make a guess about what would make sense Always build in time to talk about the story and what might come next

What to read Anything! School reading book Listen to stories that they my not be able to read Story CDs Fiction/non fiction Comics Books without words Ebooks/ Kindle etc …Remember that children learn to read by reading so anything they enjoy reading will encourage them to read even more Look at book display

Wiltshire Libraries Wendy to talk about the local libraries, services and types of books available

And don’t forget And don’t forget… Words are all around us Don’t forget that children are learning to read all the time – in games, on the computer, in the environment E.g. Marie Clay ‘Concepts about Print’

Paired Reading What is it How to do it Paired reading Explain what it is How it helps How to do it Have a go!

Thank you! Thank you for listening Please don’t hesitate to contact me