1. Phonics and Reading Information Evening
Welcome
Phonics and Reading
Information Evening

2. Learning to read…
Most of us don’t remember learning to read… it was just something that you could suddenly do – this shows that for most of us it was an entirely natural and coherent process.
Your child is now in the same situation – by the end of this year they should be confident to blend together sounds and read longer words as well as knowing some non-decodable or ‘tricky’ words by sight.
You probably learned to read by word-regonition – you may remember flashcards with and and the on them. You became more and more familiar with common words and then less common words.
Since the introduction of phonics – it happens slightly differently. We aim to teach children about the component letters and sounds that make up words. This gives them the skills required to decode new and longer words even if they have not come across them before. It also helps them with writing.

3. Phonics Teaching in school…
15 – 20 minutes every day 1 new sound each day Learning the letters… Jolly Phonics Tricky words Blending to read Segmenting to write Sound buttons

4. The Sounds…
Phase 2: s,a,t,p,i,n,m,d,g,o,c,k,ck,e,u,r,h,b,f,ff,l,ll,ss Phase 3: j,v,w,x,y,z,zz,qu,ch,sh,th,ng,ai,ee,igh,oa,oo,ar,or,ur,ow,oi,ear,air, ure, er Phase 4: Blending longer words, using more letter sounds e.g. b-u-ck-e-t Phase 5: Alternative grapheme representations e.g. ‘ow’, ‘ou’ and ‘ough’ and pronunciations. Why are they in this order?
These sounds follow the order prescribed by the government’s ‘Letters and Sounds’ programme for Phonics in schools. The programme begins with the sounds most easy to identify of the 44 phonemes, starting with ‘s’.
We are now going to read out the sounds in the way that we pronounce them as we teach them…...
An important trap not to fall into is to put an ‘u’ sound after consonants like ‘m’ to make ‘mu’ or ‘f’ to make ‘fu’ or t to make ‘tu’. This makes it more difficult for children to hear individual sounds in a word when they come to segment and blend it.

5. Phonics Terminology
Grapheme Phoneme Digraph -consonant digraph -vowel digraph Trigraph Blending Segmenting Sound-talk
Have a look at the phonics glossary that you should find on your chair. These words are used in school to help children to best understand what they are learning.

6. Sound talk games
Metal Mike May I cross the golden river? Georgie’s gym What’s in the box? Robot talk
Metal Mike is a favourite – played by feeding pictures into ‘metal mike’ he will then sound talk what he ahs eaten and the rest of the class need to correctly guess which picture he has eaten.
May I cross the golden river? is a game designed to practise reading and blending. “You may cross the river if you have the card that says… cat”
Georgie’s gym, we can play now... Put your fingers on your ‘h-ea-d, put your hands on your ‘sh-ou-l-d-er-s’... Orally segmenting words to help childrent to udnertsand how words are built up from sounds.
What’s in the box...
Robot talking – we do this with names, jobs, routines... Orally segmenting words to help childrent to udnertsand how words are built up from sounds.

7. Guided Reading
In small groups – usually about 4 or 5 children. Designed to teach them the skills of reading and to encourage discussion about different texts. Usually a level above the books they bring home
We do guided reading in small groups once a week, This gives the children an opportunity to talk about the books together and to learn the skills of expressing their opinions and listening to others. E.g. Do you like this book, why? Or why not?
We also teach specific skills, usually at a higher level than the books they bring home, such as blending longer words, looking ahead as you read, using different expressions, recognizing speech, questions and also deliberate teaching about text types e.g. what is a glossary, poetry, etc.

8. Individual Reading
Find a relaxed time and place to do
reading with your child.
Little and often is best
Practice their tricky words as often as you can. Use the flashcards to help you.
Practise blending and segmenting longer words orally.
Enjoy reading longer books of their choice together.
Ask lots of questions
We aim to change reading books at least once a week on a Monday or Friday… be sure to make a note in your child’s reading record about whether you have finished the book.
Your child will enjoy reading and learn best if they are relaxed and comfortable.
Little and often is best – if they are tired, you could read alternative pages or sound out the letters for them to blend.
Practice their tricky words as often as you can. Use the flashcards to help you. Stcik them somewhere easy to see at home like on the fridge. Use magnetic letters on the fridge to get them to spell out words, like tricky words.
Practise blending and segmenting longer words orally… perhaps using robot talk games.
Enjoy reading longer books of their choice together.
Ask lots of questions about what they are reading and enjoying!

9. From within the text: About the text:
Reading at home: Questions you could use to support the reading of books at home:
From within the text:
Can you spot a ‘ch’ sound?
Can you find three full stops?
About the text:
Which character would you like to be? Why?
What do you think happens next?
What kind of writing is this? A fact book?A story? A shopping list?
Reading is so much more than just sounding out the letters and blending them together to make words. Make sure you have lots of talk about the book, whether or not it is a story or a different kind of book and how can you tell. Reading at home, as well as just practicing the letter sounds, is introducing children to a world of reading and the understanding that comes from studying and enjoying books.
Questions could fall into roughly two categories… things specifically on the page, skills of reading, e.g. Noticing capital letters. And secondly, understanding of the text as a whole. Thirdly, we could introduce questions about the author’s intentions but this wider perspecitve tends to come with age.

10. Everybody learns to read in different ways, some learn very quickly, others need a little more time. The important thing is that you enjoy the journey together …. Before you know it they will be reading to themselves!

11. Useful websites: http://www.letters-and-sounds.com
(free trial)