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Phonics

Reading is vital and one of the most important aspects of learning to read is the use of phonics. Here is a video that explains the phoneme sounds.


Synthetic phonics are an essential tool in the development of reading skills and in the spelling of words. Children are taught ‘blending for reading’ and ‘segmenting for spelling’.  Blending is recognising the phonemes in a written word and merging or synthesising them in the order in which they are written to pronounce the word.  Segmenting is identifying the individual phonemes in a spoken word and writing down letters for each sound to form the word.

Children in EYFS and KS1 have a 15-20 minute daily discrete phonics session.  We use the guidance in Letters and Sounds.  In Reception, children are introduced to grapheme/phoneme correspondences, blending and segmenting, alphabet knowledge and high-frequency word recognition. In Year 1 and Year 2 pupils progress through to Phase 6 of Letters and Sounds.

YouTube Video



In Year 3, pupils are introduced to Support for Spelling (Edition 2).  Any pupils who are not secure with their knowledge of phonics (Phase 1-5) will receive additional support through intervention. Support for Spelling will be used as the basis for spelling patterns until the end of Year 6. Extracts taken from the Support for Spelling programme are included as an appendix.

The Support for Spelling enables pupils to focus on particular spelling patterns. It is essential that any spellings which are sent home for the child to learn (this is not a requirement) follow a particular 

pattern which has been taught. The exception to the previous sentence is where the spelling of subject/topic specific vocabulary needs to be learnt.



Hearing Readers

The hearing of reading is NOT the teaching of reading.  Children who are good at decoding can often appear to be fluent readers because they sound good.  It is only discussion and exploration of the text that will reveal how much, and to what depth, the child has understood what they have read.

 

When hearing a child read:

  •  Quickly talk about the book and its subject/characters/plot
  • Ask the reader to predict what it might be about or what might happen next
  • When starting a new book, quickly flick through the book to look at the pictures and any difficult words
  • With very young children, show them how to hold the book, turn the pages and read from left to right and top to bottom (with exceptions)
  • Ask the child to read and check that they are reading each word and not missing any out or adding any in
  • Check they are not misreading any words or not self-correcting for sense
  • If they are stuck use phonics first to decode the word – helping the reader to blend each phoneme (sound) to read the word
  • Teach strategies such as picture clues, context, or what would sound right to support the phonics skills
  • Make sure the reader pauses at commas and stops and full stops
  • Encourage an expressive voice where the text lends itself to this
  • Leave time to talk about what has been read and to check for comprehension
  • Encourage discussion:

-        about facts and information that were on the page

-        about the main character

-        abut the main events

-        what might happen next

-        why something might have happened

-        how the text is laid out or arranged on the page

-        the language used and how it affected the reader

-        what the writer is trying to say to the reader

-        what the reader thought about the text and why

  • support children in retelling what they have read in the right order
  • help children to locate information in non-fiction texts, using contents, index and headings
  • encourage the reader to give their opinions about what they have read


Links

Here you can find some links to other websites.



Do you want to practise alphabetical order? Click here
Do you want to practise your reading comprehension skills (fluent readers)? Click here

Fairytales

   

Describing Settings   

thunder ; lightning ; deafening ; flashing ; violent ; furious


BBC Revisewise


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