Reading in the EYFS Wednesday 11 th February 2015

Early Reading Skills Children’s early experiences of reading begin with: - listening to stories (home/nursery/school) - talking about stories - developing their listening skills Stages of early reading: - discussion books - sharing a book with an adult who ‘models’ reading - sound recognition/blending words/tricky words

Discussion books (no words) Focus on talking about the book and what happens in the story, use the pictures as clues for discussion. Model how to use a book correctly (turning the pages from right to left). Talk about what the story could be about using the front cover.

How do we teach reading at school? We teach children to read by recognising and making the sound of each letter of the alphabet. Children learn to blend: sounds are put together to ‘sound out’ a word. For example c – a – t = cat, sh – o –p = shop All children develop blending skills at their own pace.

Tricky words/High Frequency Words High Frequency Words – The most common words that children will use when they begin to read. For example come, the, to, in, at, look, said. Children need to learn to recognise these words by sight and not rely on blending.

Daily phonics teaching (Letters and Sounds) 20 minute session each day to teach children to link sounds and letters by learning how to say the sound for each letter of the alphabet and groups of letters like sh, ch, th, igh. Letters and Sounds also teaches the skill of blending and segmenting. Jolly Phonics sounds - set 1 - s, a, t, i, p, n set 2 - c, k, e, h, r, m, d set 3 – g, o, u, l, f, b set 4 –ai, j, oa, ie, ee, or set 5 – z, w, ng, v, oo set 6 – y, x, ch, sh, th, set 7 – qu, ou, oi, ue, er, ar *articulation of phonemes (youtube)

Blending – hearing sounds and merging them together to make a word. s – n – a – p = snap p – o – t = pot Segmenting – splitting up a word into its individual sounds to spell a word dog = d – o – g mat = m – a – t

Putting it all together! Early reading skills of blending, high frequency word recognition, using picture cues and discussion skills will all fit together to enable children to read. For example “ Dad was mad at Floppy” red – blended word blue – high frequency words/words learnt by sight

How we assess the children’s reading? Collect evidence in Learning Journeys from observations in the classroom ‘Wow I am so impressed’ comments from home Weekly 1:1 reading sessions Guided Reading Benchmarking – reading an unfamiliar text

Benchmarking We formally assess reading using the Benchmark Assessment Kit. Children individually read an unknown text and a running record is used to record words read accurately. A note is also made of any decoding strategies they are using. They are then asked to ‘re-tell’ the story and a range of comprehension questions are asked. From their reading a percentage score is reached depending on the amount of errors they have made. 95 – 100% correct - Easy 90 – 94% correct - Instructional (Guided Reading) Below 90% correct - Hard Children do not move up to the next level of reading until their word recognition and language comprehension capabilities are equal.

What reading skills can you help your child to develop? Listen to and join in with poems and stories Suggest how the story might end Talk about the pictures in books Handle books carefully, hold them the correct way up and turn the pages Understand the concept of a word Enjoy a range of books Retell a story in the correct sequence

What reading skills can you help your child to develop? Use story language, for example, “once upon a time, run run as fast as you can, you can’t catch me I’m the gingerbread man” Read high frequency words and simple sentences Blend sounds to read words Talk about the characters in a story Read stories to your child to model how pages are turned, how expression is used, how to use different voices for characters and enjoy sharing books and stories together.

What reading skills can you help your child to develop? Reading in real-life – let your child see you read, for example, a recipe, newspaper, magazine, bus sign, shop signs and labels on items in shops. Play games: I-Spy Make up silly rhymes and phrases Choose a category and think of items for each letter of the alphabet apple, banana, cherry and so on Play bingo games or matching pairs with sounds and tricky words.

EYFS – Early Learning Goal What are we working towards? - read and understand simple sentences - use phonic knowledge to decode regular words and read them aloud accurately - read some common regular words - demonstrate understanding about what they have read

Resources for home (after half term) High frequency word keyrings Blending cards Card 3 huff hiss puff fill hill miss kiss cuff

Thank you for coming. Any questions?