How will my child be taught to read?
Children are first of all encouraged to read using systematic synthetic phonics. Children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 have the opportunity for phonics teaching every day. These sessions develop the child's ability to tackle unknown words within a text by blending the phonemes (sounds) within the word. These phonic skills also enable a child to work out the phonemes they will need to use when they are writing words. We use a scheme called Read, Write Inc to teach phonics at Pattishall. There is more to reading than just phonics, so once children know all their phonic sounds, they will have daily opportunities to hone their wider reading skills through Book Talk. Keep reading for more information.
How does Read, Write Inc work?
The Read Write Inc. Phonics approach teaches children to read sets of sounds and then blend them to read words. The sounds are taught in three sets, in order of difficulty.
Teachers will introduce your child to a toy frog called Fred once he or she is ready to start reading words. Fred can only say the sounds in a word and needs your child to help him read the word. Fred will say the sounds and children will work out the word. For example, Fred will say the sounds c–a–t, and children will say the word cat. This is Fred Talk: sounding out the word.
Some words cannot be read using phonics. We refer to these as “red words”. Your child will be taught red words alongside decodable words. In the National Curriculum, these are called Common Exception Words – you may also hear/see this terminology.
Once children can blend, they will read short texts or books within their RWI session. These will be perfectly matched to the sounds they have learned so far.
RWI Information
Ruth Miskin Parents’ Page:
https://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out-more/parents/
Ruth Miskin Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/miskin.education
Free e-books for home reading:
http://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/Reading/
Ruth Miskin Training YouTube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo7fbLgY2oA_cFCIg9GdxtQ?safe=true
What's next after phonics?
All classes have daily English lessons based around a high-quality texts and these sessions have planned opportunities to develop reading skills.
We use the 'VIPERS' with the children to focus reading teaching on Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation, Retrieval, Sequence and Summarise.
We use Lexplore to assess all of the children's reading speed and tracking as well as PIRA assessments at the end of each term to inform any gaps in knowledge.
What books should my child read at home?
For those in RWI, alongside each book they read in school, a RWI book will be sent home to read. This book will also contain the same sounds being taught at school, so they can build their confidence and fluency. These books also have green words, red words, and comprehension tasks, to ensure your child understands the book. We encourage you to read this at least twice before it is changed. Children will also be sent home with other home reading books that will be closely matched to their level of phonics.
Beyond RWI, children will be monitored closely and guided to select books based on their current level. We have an inviting library space at the heart of the school whereby children can select their books – and of course, you are welcome to use books, newspapers, comics and poems from home too!
We also launched the 100 books to read before you leave Pattishall as a list of books we feel EVERY child should access before they leave each year group – they will of course visit these in school, but it’s a good place to start if you need a little guidance.