1. Learning to read/Reading to learn

2. We all know that reading opens the door to all learning… … A child who reads a lot will become a good reader… A good reader will be able to read challenging material… A child who reads challenging material is a child who will learn… The more the child learns, the more the child wants to find out… (Ruth Miskin 2007)

3. Pause for thought… ‘ Any child who cannot read can never access a broad curriculum…’

4. It is therefore vital that all children find learning to read and write a rewarding and successful experience…

5. How do we teach reading at Stamfordham First School?

6. We use a variety of methods to teach reading as a discrete skill. Read, Write Inc. Phonics and later Spelling and Comprehension Listening to children read individually. Guided Reading. Shared reading, as a whole class or smaller group. Sending home scheme reading books and monitoring progress through the home/school reading records and diaries. Sending home Literacy homework when the children are in Key Stage 2.

7. Read, Write, Inc. The Read, Write, Inc programme is for primary school children learning to read and write. It enables every child to become a confident and fluent reader at the first attempt. Every child who completes Read, Write, Inc. learns to read fluently and confidently…

8. So how does it work? It is systematic. It is lively. It is organised by an in-school manager. All staff are trained. The children read and write for an hour each day, grouped according to their reading level. Children do not struggle because the work is too difficult or get bored because the work is too easy. A few children will need extra support to maintain progress with a reading tutor for 10 minutes a day to ensure that they do not fall behind…

9. Read, Write, Inc. Phonics Begins with discrete teaching of the individual sounds saying their pure forms (Fred talk), not with an additional ending which we as children were often taught, eg, ‘ffff’, not ‘fuh’, ‘llll’ not ‘luh’, ‘mmmm’, not ‘muh’, ‘rrrr’ not ‘ruh’. Once initial sounds have been learnt it is at this point that the letter names are taught.

10. Read, Write, Inc. Phonics then teaches blends in groups that say the same sound. Children learn to split words into graphemes and use ‘Fred fingers’, to identify the sounds. A grapheme is one letter or one group of letters used to write one sound eg the sound ‘igh’ can be written with the grapheme ‘igh’ (night) or ‘i’ (knife) or ‘ie’ (tie).

11. What happens next? When children reach Level 2a in Reading (approximately at the end of Year 2 at our school), the children go on to Read, Write, Inc. Spelling which continues to teach the more difficult blends and ‘Red words’ and works alongside Read, Write, Inc. Comprehension.

12. Read, Write, Inc. Comprehension Uses a variety of stimulating Fiction and Non-Fiction texts to extend the children’s reading skills and understanding. These include; asking more difficult and probing questions about the characters, settings, plots or facts in the texts, finding evidence to substantiate their opinions or predicting story lines, character behaviour etc.

13. Read, Write Inc Progress Results We have now been teaching RWI in it’s present form for over a year. Children have been assessed termly and results confirm that reading standards have improved so that children are now between 6 months and one year ahead of previous reading levels. As well as these fantastic results, children’s ability to understand more complex texts, whilst also tackling probing questions with confidence, has also improved significantly.

14. These are the foundations upon which all future successes in reading, writing, spelling, maths … are built. Enjoyment/Quotes from the children.

15. Guided Reading What is it?

16. Guided reading at SFS: begins at the end of Reception or beginning of Year 1 is a teaching strategy which allows staff to work very closely with groups of children in one or more aspects of reading which are linked to planned objectives is organised in ability groups is carried out in a quiet space is learning reading skills rather than practising reading takes place at regular intervals – usual once a week per child

17. The texts used: are carefully chosen to challenge without discouraging can be read with 90 – 95% accuracy are a selection of fiction, poetry and non-fiction

18. What does it look like? For children just beginning to read, it includes oral work on vocabulary and high frequency words. It also involves blending letter sounds to form simple words and children answering questions about the text. For more fluent readers, children read quietly to themselves, out loud or silently. They discuss and answer questions about the text by referring closely to it.

19. Progress in guided reading: Can he/she use a range of strategies to read and understand the text? Can he/she retrieve information from the text? Can he/she infer meaning from the text? Can he/she identify the organisation of the text? Can he/she explain the author’s use of language? Can he/she comment on the author’s purpose and view? Can he/she relate texts to their traditions?

20. How can parents help? At Stamfordham First School we ask parents to read as often as possible with their child at home. To help with this, we send school scheme books home. This is made up of a variety of different schemes, although mainly Oxford Reading Tree, which are organised by colour coded level.

21. How often is often? The more time you are able to spend reading at home, the quicker children will progress. In Key Stage 1 and 2 (5-9 years old) books are sent home at least three times a week. Please remember that it is vital that children read a breadth of texts within a level before being moved onto the next level. This will ensure that our children experience a wide variety of text types and genres.

22. Helping your child to become a successful and life-long reader. Your child needs support to sound out unfamiliar words: Use pure sounds ‘m’ not ‘muh’, ‘s’ not ‘suh’, wherever possible and then blends such as ‘ow’ for ‘snow’ and also ‘cow’. Understanding/comprehending the text is also vital. Ask your child questions about the topic of a book before reading it. Ask them to guess what might happen next in a story. Ask them open-ended questions, not questions always answered with yes or no.

23. Ask ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘when’, ‘where’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ questions about a book eg:…….. How did …. Why did ……. What does the word …….. mean/imply about…….. Why did the author choose to …… How does this layout help to …….. How has the choice of words created a feeling of …… Give two ways in which you know this is a modern story …… What if …….. Which is your favourite character? After reading a book, ask your child to tell you what they remember about the story/text and what their favourite part of the book was.

24. Handouts Red word charts Spelling grapheme chart Questions parents can ask their children

25. Any questions?