1. Our Learning Journey

2. Observation of Guided Reading  Activity relating to book to begin with eg creating a den linked to the book ‘The Den’.  Magnetic boards to allow children to practice spelling unfamiliar words contained in the book.  Highlighting tricky words before reading the book to familiarise children.  Closely observe the independent reading to assess children’s abilities.

3. What we learned:  The activity beforehand engages children.  Going through unfamiliar words beforehand is helpful to children.  The length of the session is important. Consider children’s attention span.  We noticed that children were segmenting words but then moving on to the next word rather than blending the phonemes to form the word. This was quite common according to Mr Montgomery.

4. Observation of Phonics Sessions  Interactive  20 Minutes everyday  Children enjoy it  Follow the ‘Jolly Phonics’ sounds and actions  Follow the structure of:  Revisit and Review – Hedgehog PowerPoint  Teach  Apply  Practice

5. Teaching Phonics What we learned:  The importance of the daily, structured phonics session.  The importance of ‘revisit & review’ within the structured session to embed children’s learning.  The difficulties faced by children with pronunciation.  The importance of fun and interactive sessions to engage children.  Use resources such as puppets and surprise boxes to intrigue and engage children.

6. Things to consider:  The text you use on the IWB or resource cards must be clear and in the format children recognise eg Comic Sans or Ariel Rounded.  Use different coloured text to represent different phonemes when you present words to children.  Consider your accent and how this will affect the sound of the phonemes. This can confuse children.