1. How and why we teach phonics

2. The way that phonics and reading is being taught has changed as a result of the Sir Jim Rose Report.
As a result of the findings from this report, phonics is now taught in 6 distinctive phases.

3. Phonics at a glance: Part one: Segmenting and blending skills
Part two:
Knowledge of the alphabetic code.

4. Phonics consists of:
Identifying sounds in the spoken word.
Recognising common spellings of each phoneme.
Blending phonemes into words
Segmenting words into phonemes for spelling

5. PHONEME The smallest unit of sound in a word.
There are 44 phonemes that children will be taught unlike the alphabet that has 26 letters

6. Phase 3. (revised in Year 1)
At this stage children are learning all of the 44 most commonly used phonemes.
They are taught to spell common cvc decodable words as well as a small amount of tricky words that cannot be decoded by sound.

7. Phase 3
This is a relatively easy phase until the children reach the diagraphs and trigraphs e.g. sh, ch, ur, th, ure, air, ear, igh.
When reading with your child encourage them to look for letter strings and to use them when trying to decode unknown words.

8. Moving through Year 1 Phase 5
Begin to read phonetically decodable 2/3 syllable words.
Using alternative ways of pronouncing words.
Spell complex words using phonetically plausible attempts.

9. Graphemes and Alternative Graphemes
ay, ou, ie, ea, oy, ir, ue, aw, wh, ph, ew, oe, au, a_e, e_e, i_e, o_e, u_e

10. Using phonics for BLENDING
Recognising the letter sounds in a written word, for example
c-u-p
and merging or ‘blending’ them in the order in which they are written to pronounce the word ‘cup’

11. Using phonics for SEGMENTING
‘Chopping Up’ the word to spell it out
The opposite of blending
Use your ‘ROBOT ARMS’ for each spoken phoneme

12. Segment and Blend these words…
drep
blom
gris
Nonsense games like this help to build up skills – and are fun!

13. Then these are shown with sound buttons.
Segmenting Activity
Use your ‘robot arms’ to say how many phonemes in each word.
shelf
dress
sprint
string
Then these are shown with sound buttons.

14. Did you get it right? shelf = sh – e – l – f = 4 phonemes
dress = d - r - e – ss = 4 phonemes
sprint = s – p – r – i – n – t = 6 phonemes
string = s – t – r – i – ng = 5 phonemes

15. TRICKY WORDS Words that are not phonically decodeable e.g. was, the, I
Some are ‘tricky’ to start with but will become decodeable once we have learned the harder phonemes
e.g. out, there,

16. Year 1
Phonics
Screening

17. Why are the children being screened?
Every Year 1 child in the country will be taking the phonics screening check in the same week in June.
The aim of the check is to ensure that all children are able to read by the end of year two.
This ‘midpoint check’ will ensure that we have a clear understanding of what the children need to learn in Year 2.

18. THIS IS NOT A READING TEST
What will the children
be expected to do?
The check is very similar to tasks the children already complete during phonics lessons.
Children will be asked to ‘sound out’ a word and blend the sounds together.eg d-o-g - dog
The focus of the check is to see which sounds the children know and therefore the children will be asked to read made up ‘nonsense’ words.
THIS IS NOT A READING TEST

19. Examples of words:

20. When will the screening take place?
The screening will take place throughout one week at the beginning of June. The children cannot retake the test at any other time so it is very important your child is in school during this week.
The check has been designed so that children of all abilities will be able to take part.

21. Who will complete the check?
The children will complete the check one at a time in a quiet area of the school.
I will conduct all of the screening checks with the children.
The screening will only take
5-10mins with each child.

23. How can you help? Digraph- 2 letters making one sound cow
Encourage your child to ‘sound out’ when reading or writing. Focusing particularly on spotting more unusual sound patterns. Eg
Digraph- 2 letters making one sound
cow
Trigraphs- 3 letters making one sound
night
Split digraphs- 2 vowels with a consonant inbetween. Use to be known as the magic e!
spine - i_e

24. How can you help? http://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/BuriedTreasure2.html
Encourage your child to use their sound mat when writing and use their actions to find the sound they need.
Children can practise their phonics by playing games online. The children particularly like ‘Buried Treasure’

25. How can you help?
REMEMBER: Phonics is not the only thing needed to become a fluent reader.
Please continue to read with your child each night and encourage them to:
Sound out
Re-read to check it makes sense.
Use pictures for clues.
Ask questions about the book.
And most importantly ENJOY READING!

26. Questions?

27. Now you have the knowledge….

28. How we teach reading in school.

29. How we teach reading Three approaches: Shared reading Guided reading
Independent reading
Purpose of reading is obviously to access the wider curriculum but also leads to independent enjoyment and opportunities to read for pleasure.

30. Shared Reading Whole class text
Texts look different from Reception to Year 6 – examples
Daily story time
Opportunity to teach reading strategies

31. Guided Reading Happens in ability groups of about six
Opportunity to use reading strategies
There is a focus to the session eg use of adjectives; understanding; comprehension
May be teacher or TA led
Will be at least weekly for most children right up to Y6

32. Independent Reading One to one reading with a child
To be instructional the book needs to be at the right level – 90-95% accuracy
Perfect role for parents
In school happens most often with younger children
Opportunity to rehearse the way we approach a text – what clues do we use, which are the most appropriate

33. Book Bands Children’s book bands range from Lilac – Maroon.
Teachers and adults who read with the children frequently assess their ability, and determine whether or not they should change bands.
New guidelines suggest that re –reading a text deepens a child’s understanding and increases their vocabulary.

34. Some tips when you are helping at home
Always be positive, it needs to be quality time…
Try to find a quiet place, no TV in the background, phone switched off ….
If the child is reluctant - begin by reading to them and gently suggest they take over / have a go
If they are stuck on a word, it will depend on the place in the sentence how you help. Sometimes you give them the word – sometimes you read on and come back to it; sometimes you re-run the sentence and look for meaning.
We work out unknown words in three ways – strategies are: phonics, context and semantics. By getting the children confident with all three approaches they begin to use them automatically as we do.

35. I hope you have found this helpful....
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