Foundation Stage Teaching Reading, writing & phonics

Introduction How we teach reading at school How you can help your child to read at home Homework Phonics Writing

Teaching children to read Our aims Teaching reading at school Supporting with reading outside of school

Our Aim To give children the best start possible to become accomplished readers by developing a skill for life with confidence and enjoyment. Children need to master the basics of reading as early as possible so they can then go on to explore the magical and powerful books. Children are reading less as their lives become more crowded with other activities. 17% would be embarrassed if a friend saw them with a book. Develop a love for reading. 3 in 10 youngsters read daily in their own time. Reading outside lessons was linked to strong academic achievement. Young people who read outside class on a daily basis were 13 times more likely to read above the expected level for their age.

Research Reading outside lessons was linked to strong academic achievement. Young people who read outside class on a daily basis were 13 times more likely to read above the expected level for their age. BBC – National Literacy Trust Sept 2012

Activities in school Cross Curricular Listening/reading Corner Word games Puzzles Learning environment Shared Reading Guided Reading Personal Reading Daily Phonics Individual reading Use of Technology

Reading at home Enjoy It! Make reading an enjoyable experience. Give your child lots of praise and reward for their reading. Have fun looking at the pictures and relating the story to the children’s own life and experiences. Make Time! Choose a good time when you and your child can be together. Try to make sure you are not disturbed and avoid distractions such as the T.V. Let your child hold their book themselves. This helps them to learn which way up the book should go and where the beginning is. They will also learn to hold their book and turn the pages carefully.

Reading at home There is more to being a good reader than just being able to read the words accurately. Express yourself! If your child is reading the words accurately encourage them to add expression to their reading. You do it first, then ask your child to have a go. You could also search for punctuation in the text e.g. ?, !, and discuss what these mean. Practice, Practice, Practice! Regular practice will make all the difference to your child’s reading. Spending a little time reading each day and filling in your child’s reading diary will help to build their confidence and pride in what they are achieving. What happened? Talk to your child about the book; about the pictures, the characters, how they think the story will end, their favourite part. This will show you that they have understood the story.

Supporting reading at home Reading books Reading diary Phonic Pack Websites

Reading activities at home You can support your child at home by: 1. Getting them to open the book by themselves 2. Locating the author, title and start of the story 3. Discussing the front cover, predict story 4. Finding words on a page that they know and can read 5. Reading the story with them or to them 6. Asking questions about what they have read or heard 7. Encouraging them to join in with parts they know 8. Asking them to tell the story from the pictures 9. Trying to sound out unfamiliar words 10. Leaving a word out that they don’t know and read the sentence again, guessing what it could be 11. Retelling the story in their own words 12. Talk about the characters or the setting

Reading activities at home You can support your child at home by: 13. Re-reading for accuracy and identify own mistakes 14. Using language features – speech marks, exclamation marks etc 15. Sharing their own reading material – comics, information books, packets, newspapers, cookery books etc 16. Discussing new vocabulary and what it means 17. Comparing stories, discussing which was their favourite 18. Visiting the school or local library 19. Tricky words 20. Find sounds they know in the text

Homework Why? An essential part of good education Develop the skill of independent learning Enable pupils to make maximum progress Promote cooperation between home & school Provide educational experiences not possible in school Consolidate and reinforce learning in school Practice skills taught in school Develop good work habits for the future Keep parents informed about their child’s learning

Synthetic phonics “An approach to the teaching of reading in which the sounds (phonemes) associated with particular letters (graphemes)”. News – phonic check

Developed by Ruth Miskin All children will learn to read and write quickly and easily Widely used and tested and has been hugely successful in many schools All of our staff have been trained in this system Instruments Matching sounds Animals Body percussion Nursery rhymes Making sounds with their voice

Terms you may hear Phoneme – the sound you make Grapheme- one letter or one group of letters used to write one sound ‘f’ can be written with the grapheme f(fun) or ff (huff) ‘igh’ can be written with the grapheme igh(night) or i(knife) or ie(tie) Blending- how sounds are blended to create the word

Principles Pace Praise Purpose Participation Passion

Speed sounds Set 1 m a s d t I n p g o c k u b f e l h sh r j v y w th z ch q x ng nk Set 2 Ay ee igh ow oo oo ar or air ir ou oy Oxford Owl website

Complex speed sounds-one sound-many graphemes a-e ea i-e o-e u-e aw are ur er ow ai oa ew ire ear ure tious tion

How do we teach the children? Sound-letter pictures lively mnemonics Blending and segmenting Applying phonic knowledge to reading books at child’s own level

Fred Talk Fred is a puppet who says, reads and spells words in pure sounds; he never says the whole word so the children do this for him. He never adds ’uh’ after a consonant sound e.g. fuh luh muh

c-a-t p-i-g w-i-sh f-u-ll r-ai-n m-oo-n c-r-u-n-ch

Red Words – word recognition Learn when introduced in ditty or storybook. These words contain graphemes thata re not on the chart. The grey letters are the ‘grotty’ graphemes. I the you your said

Blending Assisted blending-Fred puppet Blending with cards-chart Blending with magnetic letters-individual boards with magnetic letters Independent blending-Fred fingers Independent spelling-Fred fingers Reading (blending) Blending is the third of the 5 basic skills: Words can’t be blended if only one letter sound has been taught. However, the first stage in learning to blend can be taught. This is to listen for the word when the teacher or parent says the sounds. For example, f-u-n makes ‘fun’. Activity Choose simple words from the picture on screen and call out the sounds. Ask everyone to listen for the word and call it out. (Sample set of words: s-u-n, d-o-g, b-oy, m-ou-s-e, f-i-sh, n-e-s-t.) In the beginning a little practice is needed most days. Children who can hear immediately that s-u-n is ‘sun’ tend to have a naturally good ear for sounds. They rarely have problems with learning to blend sounds by themselves. With practice, all children become successful. However, it does take longer for some, and these children find learning to read more difficult. Doing this type of activity at home is hugely beneficial.

Reading books Ditty books Storybooks

Holding a pencil

Practise daily Chalks Felt tips Whiteboards and pens Clipboards

Activities to develop fine motor skills Using pincers Using pegs Manipulating play dough Picking up small objects & putting in a bottle Lego

Handwriting script

Cursive Handwriting Script AIM: That all children develop a legible, fluent and fast handwriting style. Letters are produced in a flowing movement, which helps the development of a physical memory of how each letter is written. Promotes hand eye coordination, motor skills & brain function. Letters all start in the same place and flow from left to right, which reduces the likelihood of reversal mix-ups such as b/d and p/q. Because of the smooth flow, writing soon becomes quicker and easier. A cursive style of handwriting is recommended by the British Dyslexia Association. Eventually it becomes neater than script

Organisation RWI leader FS children will be taught as a whole class for around 6 weeks RWI leader will regularly assess all children to ensure they are in the correct groups Children placed in small groups depending on progress Individual work will be done with children if needed