Phonics and Reading

What is phonics? Phonics is a way of teaching children to read quickly and skilfully. They are taught how to: Recognise the sounds that each individual letter makes; Identify the sounds that different combinations of letters make - such as ‘sh’ or ‘oo’; and Blend these sounds together from left to right to make a word. Children can then use this knowledge to ‘de-code’ new words that they hear or see. This is the first important step to helping them read

It is used by a large number of schools with great results. Letters and Sounds Why Letters and Sounds? This is the Government recommended scheme provided by the old Primary National Strategy to support the learning of phonics. It is used by a large number of schools with great results.

How often, long and when? Your child will receive a daily phonics session lasting approximately 10/20mins (Depending on their age). They will be taught by their class teacher as a whole class at the appropriate level for the year group. Any child who needs additional support and requires further consolidation of the previous sounds taught will receive a short individual/small group session at another time in the day from either the class teacher or one of our highly skilled LSAs.

How is it taught?   The short lessons are fast paced and consist of four parts. Review and Revisit – the sounds from previous learning. Teach – a new sound every day Practise – games / word cards etc incorporating these sounds Apply – read or write a caption using one or more of known high frequency words and words containing the new sounds. Teachers will use a range of resources and techniques including magnetic letters, buckets of water, white boards, letter fans, letter cards, games, robot talking and phoneme fingers, to make the lessons fun and interactive.

What order? There are six phases to the programme and it is hoped that most children will complete these whilst with us at the infant school. Phase One – Children are taught to hear and distinguish sounds from their environment. They learn to hear rhyme and alliteration (words starting with the same sound). They explore instrumental sounds and learn to make different sounds with their own mouths. A child needs to be proficient in these areas before they can even begin to tune into discreet phonic sounds which make up our language system.

Phase Two – The first set of phonemes are introduced over a period of 6 weeks. The order allows children to begin to make words and segment (separate) and blend (join together) letters after only 1 week. How many words can you make with these letters? s a t p i n Now compare this with the first 6 letters of the alphabet. a b c d e f

Phase Three – Teaches the children a further 25 sounds over a ten week period. With these learnt a child can make a phonically plausible attempt at any word they like as they have been taught every sound in the English language. At this point it does not matter that the children are not spelling accurately. It is about having the confidence to have a go and be successful as independent learners. Phase Four – Provides a four week consolidation of the above sounds ensuring the children can read and write them with confidence.

Phase Five – This is where the fun starts Phase Five – This is where the fun starts! At this point we teach the children the alternatives and help them to learn how to choose between the digraphs (two letters making 1 sound) so they get the spelling right. This is no easy task as some sounds are made in many different ways. This is because our language originates from many different countries. Look at all these words that have the ‘ai’ sound in them and note the spelling: ai = pain ay = day a-e= make

Tricky Words or High Frequency Words Phase Six – This last phase looks more at spelling rules and patterns and gives children a real love of words Tricky Words or High Frequency Words There are many words that recur frequently in much of the written material young children read and that they need to write. These are taught early on as ‘Tricky’ words. The children just need to be able to look at these and recognise them without relying on their phonic knowledge. ‘the’ ‘he’ ‘want’ ‘was’

Some terminology explained Robot or Fred Talk – This is when words are broken down into each discreet sound. Phoneme Fingers – This is when the phonemes are counted and the matching number of fingers are held up. Phoneme – this is a discreet unit of sound. Digraph – where two letters make one sound (er, sh, ee) Trigraph – where three letters make one sound (igh, ear) Grapheme – the written form of the sound

Sausage and beans ai

pain

aim

wait

zait

prain

splaid

Helping at home Just knowing some of this information will support you when you are reading with your child. You will know whether or not they are able to sound out a word or whether you should tell them the word and help them be more confident and fluent. When your child is writing at home, again you will have some idea as to whether they can sound it out and will celebrate with them if they have applied the right sounds even if you, as an adult, know the spelling is incorrect.

Reading

Why is reading important? Creating a love of reading in children is potentially one of the most powerful ways of improving academic standards in school. Success in reading is fundamental to success in school. Reading is all about acquiring meaning; for enjoyment, information and understanding. It is not a performance. It is not a test.

Being able to read requires two 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.

Being able to read requires two skills 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.

Reading in School Children have access to books throughout the learning environment Library once a week- Children can choose between fiction and non- fiction Colour coded reading books based on their level- Can change as often as they like Phonics Guided Reading Laptops Reading around topics

Reading Scheme Books We have a variety of books within our reading scheme Children will be levelled by their teacher and given appropriate book colour Children may be able to read the book with ease but they may be struggling with comprehension so will not be moved on Children are encouraged to change these as often as they like- In year 1 and 2 it is their responsibility

Reading at home Make reading visible; have books available in your home Share books every day- it is ok for you to read to your child! Boys need to see that reading is something men do. Talk about books. Sit and listen - don’t do chores around the reader! Respect choices. Bug Club

Improving Comprehension Discuss the front cover of the book Is this book fiction or non-fiction? How do you know? Who is the author? Have we read any other books by this author? What is the title? What do you think is going to happen? Why do you think that? What type of character do you think … is?

Improving Comprehension Can you tell me who is the good/bad character in this book? Why? How is Chip feeling? How do you know that? Does it tell you in the text? What do you think is going to happen next? What has happened so far? What is the theme of this book? How would you feel if this happened to you? Can you remember a time when we went out on our bikes? Can you think of any other stories that had the same themes? Why do you think Julia Donaldson uses rhyme in her books?

Supporting Reading Use phonics first. What sound does the word begin with? Can you say the sounds in the word? Blend them together. Read to the end of the sentence. What would make sense? What is the text about – what might fit here? Does it sound right? Look at the picture. Does it help? Reread the sentence so the children can hear themselves reading fluently

Any Questions?