Becoming a Remarkable reader How we teach reading at Ravensmead Primary School

How do we learn to read? Reading is not just the skill of linking letters and sounds but this does play a BIG part!

Fostering a love of books and language? Language, books stories, songs, rhymes and even more language!

Phonics- linking letters and units of sound Phonics is children learning to differentiate sounds and understanding that those sounds can be recorded by writing letters in a specific order. To be ready to learn which letters make which sounds, children need to be able to: Hear sounds in words and segment them Put sounds together to say a word Discriminate between different sounds Play with rhyme and alliteration

Phonics- Terminology Grapheme- the written letters which make a phoneme Phoneme- a sound Letter name- the way a letter is named (as in the ABC song) Syllables- a unit of pronunciation Digraph- when 2 letters make 1 sound Trigraph- when 3 letters make 1 sound Segment- breaking a word into it’s phonemes Blend- put the phonemes together to say the whole word

Sight words Children need to read some words ‘on sight’ as they are ‘tricky words’ that will not sound out phonetically

Building up their vocabulary Always expose your child to new words, the more challenging the better as children love learning new words and phrases. You may need to explain what the word means and to use it in different contexts but your child will start to use that word! Children also love learning idioms, synonyms and antonyms. Be a magpie! Steal other people’s good words

Developing fluency Children need to read and keep re-reading, especially when they come across new words or unfamiliar terms/vocabulary- just as we do as adult readers. At the end of Year 2, there is an expectation that children should be reading approximately 90 words per minute!

Comprehension Children need to understand what they read otherwise, why read? For example: The panda eats, shoots and leaves.

Comprehension Bloom’s Taxonomy- a progressive approach to checking children’s understanding and helping them to think more deeply about what they read.

A quick recap… To be a independent, fluent reader who understands the texts they read, please support your child by: modelling being a reader & showing that it is important; exposing your child to new and exciting language and vocabulary (don’t be afraid that they won’t understand); practise reading common exception words (tricky words that will not sound out); practise recognising the phonemes they are learning at school; reading regularly to build fluency; discussing the books you and your child read and share together and build in some opportunities to question them (but not every time)