1. Let’s Get Reading! Introduction and thank you for inviting me
Literacy has been at the forefront of educational reform for the past five years
Have seen great gains in achievement for children at all stages of their education.
The NLS has shaped the way reading, writing, S & L are taught. Wherever children are taught across the country schools will have adopted NLS and it will have made a difference to children’s education
Money into schools for resources and training
Teachers recognise that reading is at the heart of learning both at school and as children move into adulthood
Also recognise that home environment and home support shapes way see themselves as readers

2. Reading is a basic life skill
Reading is a basic life skill. It is a cornerstone for a child's success in school, and, indeed, throughout life. Without the ability to read well, opportunities for personal fulfilment and job success inevitably will be lost. -- Becoming a Nation of Readers: The Report of the Commission on Reading

3. By reading with your child you are
Stimulating imagination
Helping develop language skills
Demonstrating that reading is important
Giving a great start to your child’s education
So why read
Talk through points
Develops creative ideas
Opportunity for talk
Primary is only beginning - long way ahead - reading is important for all subjects

4. So why is reading so important?
It helps children to develop curiosity about words.
Reading helps to increase vocabulary development.
Children learn how language works.
Good writing starts with good reading.
Helps children to understand the world around them.
Research has shown that reading has a direct link to academic success and good job prospects .
Crucial to learning and becoming an independent learner

5. What makes a good reader?
Learning to read
What makes a good reader?
Decode
Comprehension
Attitude
Helpful to know how we read
What is going on?
Very complex - have not cracked it by seven - or eleven
Set of building blocks which need firm foundation
Decoding - knowing letter sounds, letter stings, recognising words, using pictures, understanding how words work in sentences - both fiction and non-fiction
Understanding - once decoded can talk about what is happening - get information from the text - but also read between lines think about why stories are exciting, predict, talk about characters, skim scan for information
Respond - begin to be more critical, have opinions - likes dislikes, know why one text is more useful than another.
Attitude - most important - need to value reading see as a life skill as well as pleasure - will get much more from it
Respond

6. Reading in other subjects
Reading in School
Independent Reading
Story time
Shared Reading
Guided Reading
Individual Reading
Reading in other subjects
So what happens in school?
Most lessons will involve some reading or development of some reading skill.
Talk through each aspect
During shared and guided reading teacher teaches reading skills ie contextual cues, re-reading something does nor make sense modelling decoding etc - this a key change since introduction of NLS - before hearing children read but not necessarily teaching now teaching very focused - skills gradually built up
Individual reading is important because this is where the children practise the skills taught in reading. Teachers monitor individual reading but shared and guided is where the key teaching takes place.
Signs around school
Whole class texts

7. Guided Reading
Children read in small groups with children of a similar ability (usually on the same book band)
Specific reading skills are taught and assessed during the session
We will stamp your child’s book when they have taken part in a guided reading session

8. Book Banding at St Pauls
A variety of reading schemes banded into coloured boxes.
Within each box is a range of reading schemes and a wide range of texts – fiction ,non fiction, plays, phonics reading books.
Bands get progressively harder
A good book should be 95% ease and 5% challenge
Yellow
Green
Pink
Red
Blue

9. So what can we do at home? Lots
Most important to believe in your child
Reading is a difficult - made up of a complex web of skills Children are just learning how to bring these skills together at the primary school and understand themselves as readers - need nurturing, not all will progress at same pace. Apprentice readers
Try not to compare or worry
Won’t always be smooth - sometimes plateau then make another jump
Lots can be done at home

10. Be a good role model Read lots yourself - be seen reading!
Talk about what you are reading
Look for reading opportunities in everyday life
Read to your child
Be willing to share different books and texts
Most important thing is to value reading yourself
Invite talk about what you are reading ‘listen to this…’
‘ have you seen…’ ‘ you should read…’
Newspapers, maps, cereal packets, cinema times, locating something in supermarket
Read to your child - definitely most valuable even children who don’t like reading will listen to books
Joke books magazines internet pages argos catalogue leaflets etc
Share in the experience

11. Let your child see that reading is important in your life.
A good ten minutes reading is better than a difficult half hour
Reinforce from previous slide
Children are influenced by what you think and believe in - they pick up things that are said and unsaid both at home and at school
Is yours a reading home?
Basket of books
Books for car journeys
Children’s bookcase
Recipe books/ how to books
Attitude!
Be Positive!

12. So what should we read? CD roms TV listings Books Magazines Newspapers
Internet pages
packets
messages
A few ideas
The reading book that children bring home is just small part - opportunity to practice skills learned in school but other opportunities to practice which are real and relevant
Give purpose to reading
Signs and captions
leaflets
teletext
instructions

13. Helping your child to become a confident and expressive reader
Talk about the text
Ask questions and make predictions.
Encourage your child to point underneath the words.
Offer your own ideas
Encourage the children to make up their own stories.
Use the pictures for clues.
Support school reading.
Most important to talk about it not just read - that’s where children develop deeper understanding, respond and foster positive attitude
Readers don’t just read
Don’t expect it all to happen overnight - takes a long time for children to really learn to read and not have to think too much about it.
Your children just starting out and having the right start can make a big difference to the final outcome - not at eleven but when become independent thinking adults who have many choices to make.
Hope that has been helpful in focusing on the importance of good partnership between home and school.
Any questions
Enjoy !

14. Why did Ravi say they can’t play there
Why did Ravi say they can’t play there? How was Ravi feeling how do you know? Do you the big will let Josie and Ravi play on the tyre?

15. Why was mum cross? Why was scruffy looking sad?

16. Phonics Phonics is an approach to teaching reading
and spelling that enables a child to identify,
Blend and segment the individual ‘phonemes’
or sounds that combine to form words

17. What is a phoneme? A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a word.
In English there are 44 different phonemes.

18. What is a grapheme?
A grapheme is a symbol of a phoneme, that is a letter or group of letters representing a sound.
There is always the same number of graphemes in a word as phonemes.
The alphabet contains only 26 letters but we can use them to make all of the graphemes that represent the phonemes of English.

19. c a t b ir d f i sh kn igh 1 2 3 phoneme grapheme Terminology
A sound in a word A letter or sequence of letters
that represent a phoneme. 1 2 3 c a t b ir d f i sh kn
igh
These words each have three phonemes (separate sounds). Each of these phonemes is represented by a grapheme. A grapheme may consist of one, two, three or four letters.

20. How many phonemes are there in the following words?

21. v e t

22. f or k

23. t ee th

24. ee n z ch i m p a

25. Blending and Segmenting
Blending and segmenting are reversible key phonic skills.
Blending consists of building words from their constituent phonemes to read.
Segmenting consists of breaking down words into their constituent phonemes to spell.
Both of these skills are important.

26. Sound Buttons
bag
fish
sheep

27. Phonics at St Pauls
Jolly Phonics scheme which introduces actions and activities for the 44 Phonemes.
We use a scheme called letters and sounds
The children work in phonics groups for 20 minutes every day
Phonics is fun, visual and active

28. Happy Reading!