1. Reading A workshop for parents
Welcome
Introductions
Catherine Bonham (Deputy Head) – to talk about the school reading scheme and approach
Wendy Beaver (Community Librarian) – to talk about how we learn to read and how parents can help at home
Aims
How to help and encourage your child with reading
The school reading scheme and approach
How the libraries can support
A reading approach for you to try at home

2. How to help with learning at home

3. What can we do at home..?
I could give you endless little reading and writing activities to help at home and am happy to do this BUT – these will be dependent on your child’s needs - some important general points to make
Be positive with your child – show them how proud you are of the things they can do. I can can.
Your child will have areas of strength – be it at football, dancing, art, taking cars apart! – focus on these as much as you can
Any additional reading and writing activities you do do – make fun!
Do any of these little and often BUT stop when things get difficult. Keep these activities positive experiences
Any little bit of progress needs to be recognised by you
Work with the school – best scenario for success for your child is when you and the school work as partnership

4. c-a-t Learning to read Letters and sounds
What do children need to be able to do to read?
Alphabetic system
Letters are linked to sounds
Need to be able to hear sounds c-a-t and blend them to make them into a word
So lots of activities that encourage children to her sounds is good (e.g. eye spy, silly names etc)
But be careful – we can’t ‘sound out every word in the English language so we need to build up other skills too

5. Cough feet stick elephant Learning to read… Seeing patterns
What do children need to be able to do to read?
They also need to be able to see patterns and recognise whole words
E.g. recognise that ee, ck, ough
E.g. elephant
It can take between 4 and 14 times seeing a word to recognise it by sight
So lots of reading together and pointing to words is good

6. The old lady lived in a cottage in the wood
Learning to read…
Know about language…
The old lady lived in a cottage in the wood
Children also need to know about how language works – know what word sounds right and have knowledge about grammar
The good news is that children learn about language from the day they are born
The more we can help children learn about words, the more it will help them with their reading (e.g. ‘the old lady lived in a cottage in the wood’)
Reading activity

7. Reading at School
Catherine Bonham (Deputy Head) to talk about the school reading scheme

8. Why is reading at home so valuable?
‘Children learn to read by reading’
What reading together at home does:
Teaches children how reading works
We show or model how to read
To strengthen children’s language
We promote children’s interest and enjoyment of reading
Let your child see you reading sometimes
Bedtime stories
Keep going – don’t stop bedtime stories
Story CDs, stories tapes in the car to develop language
Shared reading – e.g. a page each
Paired Reading

9. What to do when you read with your child
How to do it:
Choose a time when children are in the mood for reading
Try to share a book that your child want to read – it doesn’t have to be a reading scheme book
Talk about what the book might be about
Encourage your child to look at the pictures – never cover the pictures
Encourage your child to look at letters (particularly the first letter and patterns in words) But take care – don’t encourage your child to overrely on phonics
If your child comes to a word they are stuck on, encourage them to look at the letter, look for clues in the pictures and make a guess about what would make sense
Always build in time to talk about the story and what might come next

10. What to read Anything! School reading book
Listen to stories that they my not be able to read
Story CDs
Fiction/non fiction
Comics
Books without words
Ebooks/ Kindle etc
…Remember that children learn to read by reading so anything they enjoy reading will encourage them to read even more
Look at book display

11. Wiltshire Libraries
Wendy to talk about the local libraries, services and types of books available

12. And don’t forget And don’t forget… Words are all around us
Don’t forget that children are learning to read all the time – in games, on the computer, in the environment
E.g. Marie Clay ‘Concepts about Print’

13. Paired Reading What is it How to do it Paired reading Explain
what it is
How it helps
How to do it
Have a go!

14. Thank you!
Thank you for listening
Please don’t hesitate to contact me