1. Welcome to our Phonics and Reading workshop
Mrs Chadwick
November 2018

2. Objectives of this workshop:
Parents/carers will:
have an overview of phonics and how it is taught in school
have a better understanding of how to support their child with phonics
be familiar, in principle, with the school’s approach to teaching reading
know simple things they can do to support their child with reading development
Understand the phonics screening check
Objectives of this workshop:

3. What is phonics?
Children are taught to read by breaking down words into separate sounds or ‘phonemes’. They are then taught how to blend these sounds together to read the whole word.
Children have a 20 minute phonics lesson each day and they are encouraged to use these strategies to read and write in other lessons.
There are 44 different sounds.

5. High frequency words and tricky words

6. Phonics
At Bollinbrook Primary School, when children enter the EYFS and through Key Stage 1, they take part in high quality phonics sessions every day.
These are fun sessions involving lots of speaking, listening and games, where the emphasis is on children’s active participation.

7. Not all children will learn at the same rate
Your child should be supported whatever their rate of learning. We split our children into smaller groups for phonics as this supports individualised learning
At Bollinbrook Primary School we use a systematic phonics programme called Letters and Sounds.
Letters and Sounds is divided into six phases, with each phase building on the skills and knowledge of previous learning.

8. Phases 1-2
Phase 1 – concentrates on speaking and listening skills and getting them attuned to the sounds around them and preparing them for segmenting and blending.
Phase 2 – letters and their sounds are introduced one at a time in a sequence. The children are then encouraged to use this knowledge to blend and segment words, i.e. Blend the sounds m-a-t to make the word ‘mat’.
*Introduce letter with name and sound * demonstration of kinaesthetic blending

9. Sound buttons – phase 2

10. Phoneme frames

12. High Frequency Words Tricky words the no said Key words is that see
The main aim of phonics is to be automatic fluent readers and writers
The high frequency words are words that appear the most in text and children are encouraged to recognise these quickly. There are two types:
1. Tricky words try and ‘trick’ us! If you try to sound out the word ‘said’ you get /s/ /ai/ /d/ Children need to recognise the word as a whole and know it says ‘said’
2. Key words can be sounded out e.g. /i/ /s/ but should just be recognised as ‘is’ straight away

13. Sound buttons – phase 3
Phase 3 – more phonemes are taught including vowel digraphs, i.e. oo, ee, ai, and consonant cluster, i.e. ch, sh, th, ng, and tricky words are introduced.

14. Phase 4
Phase 4 –no new graphemes are introduced. The aim of this phase is to consolidate the children’s knowledge and to help them learn to read and spell words with adjacent consonants, i.e. milk, string, trap.

15. Phases 5-6
Phase 5 – the children will learn more graphemes and phonemes, i.e. They will recognise ‘ai’ in rain but they will learn alternative spellings such as ‘a-e’ in cake and ‘ay’ as in day.
Phase 6 - the aim of phase six is to encourage the children to become more fluent readers and more accurate spellers.

16. ‘Reading’: one word, 2 meanings…
Decoding:
Is simply reading the
words and sentences by
using a bank of known
words (sight
vocabulary) or by
applying sounding-out
skills
Comprehending:
understanding what the author has said and is saying;
- getting meaning from the text
- understanding enough to get meaning from what is not explicitly said (inference).
Which process makes the better reader? Both processes are dependent on each other. If we can’t decode the words we can’t start to understand what is being said. Decoding is the earlier stage of reading development- being fluent decoders leaves our minds free to interpret meaning. Traditionally your child would initially focus more on learning key words. At Warren we believe it is important to not only practise sight words at home, but to also begin the quest for meaning by talking books with your child.
….one act, two processes.

17. red

18. “Understanding all the words” is not the same as “reading the text”.
Mr Smith saw red. “Sit down and be quiet!” he hissed, through clenched teeth.
What else tells us how Mr Smith is feeling in this extract?
“Understanding all the words” is not the same as “reading the text”.

19. Reading at Bollinbrook Primary School
How is reading taught at Bollinbrook Primary School?
Parents have a key role in supporting their child. Reading is a three-way learning process involving the child, teachers and parents.

20. Teaching reading in school is done in 2 main ways:
Shared reading on a whole class level
This involves the teacher directly teaching reading skills within the Literacy lesson using a shared text.
Teaching at this level can also take place during class story times, where the teacher models story telling as well as giving an example of the language used in a text.

21. 2. Guided Reading
This is where the teacher teaches a small group of no more than 6 children of a similar ability. Each child has the same text, and the teacher models and develops reading skills which relate to the children’s personal reading targets.

22. Home reading books
Home reading books are colour banded starting with Lilac
Home readers should be reading with ease and for pleasure
Guided reading books in school will be a level higher than home reader
Mixture of fiction and non-fiction
Children choose same books again
Repetitive strings in book
Use the picture clues

23. How can I help at home?
Swap on a Monday and Thursday, we will remind them to get their books out.
Comment in reading record book
Find the right time of the day or your routine to read.
Don’t push your child if they are having an ‘off’ day
Read book mark words as they will support fluency
5 finger retelling
Comprehension questions in reading record book

24. Trainer Note: Distribute the “5-Finger Retelling” handout and use the overhead transparency to explain each of the five points.
Group role play: Have participants role play a parent and a child with the parent asking each of the 5 “fingers” questions to the child, who answers them based on the story just read or from other books provided for parents.
-OR-
Read a short book and ask each question to the large group to demonstrate each strategy to understand what is being read.   
“What happened at the beginning of the story?”
“Who are the main characters?”
“What was the problem they needed to solve?”
“What happened in the story?” Ask about beginning, middle, and end.
“How did they solve the problem?”

25. Encourage your child to use their sound mat when reading and writing to find the sound they need.
Children can practise their phonics by playing games online. The children particularly like ‘Buried Treasure’
If you are unsure of any of the sounds you can take a look on YouTube and search for Mr Thorne does Phonics

26. And most importantly ENJOY READING!
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!

27. Activity ideas
Please join us after this presentation in the Year 1 classroom to see ideas of activities you can do at home with your child, such as:
Treasure / bin
Lotto
Word splat
Read it / build it / write it
Treasure ‘word’ hunts
Snap

28. What is the Phonics Screening?
The Year 1 phonics screening check is not a formal test, but a way for teachers to ensure that children are making sufficient progress with their phonics skills to read words and that they are on track to become fluent readers who can enjoy reading for pleasure and for learning.
It is a school-based check to make sure that your child receives any additional support promptly, should they need it. It is not a stressful situation as the teacher will be well-equipped to listen and understand your child’s level of skills.
There will be a few practice words first to make sure your child understands the activity.

29. Why are the children screened in Year 1?
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.

30. What is in the phonics check?
There are two sections in this 40-word check and it assesses phonics skills and knowledge learned through Reception and Year 1. Your child will read up to four words per page for their teacher and they will probably do the check in one sitting of about 5-10 minutes.
It checks that your child can:
Sound out and blend graphemes in order to read simple words.
Read phonically decodable one-syllable and two-syllable words, e.g. cat, sand, windmill.
Read a selection of nonsense words which are referred to as pseudo words.

31. What are nonsense or pseudo words and why are they included?
These are words that are phonically decodable but are not actual words with an associated meaning e.g. brip, snorb. Pseudo words are included in the check specifically to assess whether your child can decode a word using phonics skills and not their memory.
The pseudo words will be shown to your child with a picture of a monster and they will be asked to tell their teacher what sort of monster it is by reading the word. This not only makes the check a bit more fun, but provides the children with a context for the nonsense word which is independent from any existing vocabulary they may have. Crucially, it does not provide any clues, so your child just has to be able to decode it. Children generally find nonsense amusing so they will probably enjoy reading these words.

33. Is there a pass mark?
The check is not about passing or failing but checking appropriate progress is being made. If children do not reach the required standard, then the teacher will be in touch to discuss plans and offer additional, tailored support to ensure that your child can catch up. Children progress at different speeds so not reaching the threshold score does not necessarily mean there is a serious problem. Your child will re-sit the check the following summer term.

34. When will the screening take place?
The screening will take place throughout a whole week in June.
The check has been designed so that children of all abilities will be able to take part.

35. 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.
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

36. Encourage your child to use their sound mat when reading and writing to find the sound they need.
Children can practise their phonics by playing games online. The children particularly like ‘Buried Treasure’
If you are unsure of any of the sounds you can take a look on YouTube and search for ‘Mr Thorne does Phonics’.