Supporting your child s reading How we teach reading

Supporting your child’s reading How we teach reading at school ¡ How you can support your child at home ¡

¡ ¡ Experts in child literacy are unanimous in their belief that parents should read with their children. The power of the parent-child bond has a positive effect on a child's attitude toward reading and his ability to read. Research shows that it's the single most important thing you can do to help your child's education. Through reading aloud, providing print materials, and promoting positive attitudes about reading and writing, you can have a powerful impact on your child's literacy and learning.

¡ ¡ As your child’s primary carer you know your child best. You have seen their development and shared their first books and stories with them. You know their interests, strengths, knowledge and experience. In Meadow Class we seek to build on this and want to instill a fundamental interest and enjoyment in sharing and reading a wide range of books. Reading particularly in English is a gradual and complex process that children accomplish at different rates. It is just like learning to walk and talk – all children learn at different times but they all get there in the end. It is so important to praise your child at all stages of reading. Reading and writing support each other and the more your child does of each the better they will be at both.

¡ What do we do when we are learning to read?

To become confident readers we want to develop the children’s ¡ ¡ ¡ Phonemic awareness - ability to hear sounds in words and recognise that words are made up of the smallest parts of sound (phonemes) and using these individual sounds to create words. Phonics – Understanding the relationships between written and printed letters and spoken sounds. Knowing the relationships between letters and sounds helps children to recognise familiar words accurately and automatically, and "decode" new words Reading fluency – being able to read rapidly and accurately to understand what is being read rather than just slowly decoding Vocabulary development – building and expanding knowledge and understanding of written and spoken words Reading comprehension – understanding and communicating what has been read to become purposeful active readers

At school due to the nature of the Foundation stage curriculum, we do not always have timetabled reading sessions in the same way as Years 1 -6 (Key Stage 1 and 2). However reading and reading skills are regularly taught and encouraged. These are done in a variety of ways such as; ¡ ¡ Daily story time – where a love and enjoyment of reading stories is shared and modelled with the children, it is also an opportunity to discuss the meaning of new words, join in with repeated phrases etc. Daily phonics sessions – children learn and practise recognising letter sounds and the skills of oral segmenting (sounding out) and blending Shared reading sessions – where an adult shares a big book with the class focussing on and modelling particular skills e. g. pointing to each word, using picture/phonic clues, using contextual clues, looking at the length of words, comprehension etc. Individual reading – children share a book with a teacher, teaching assistant or parent helper and are encouraged to develop their individual reading skills and ability.

¡ ¡ Guided reading (group reading) – children develop the skill of sharing and discussing texts in a small group (sometimes each child has a copy of the same book) and they are encouraged to develop reading strategies independently with guidance from the teacher Reading/Phonic Activities - children work with an adult to play a game e. g. building up a sentence from a familiar story, rhyming lotto, build a word game, sort objects into groups e. g. starting with same sound/rhyme Book based reading games – a game based on the repeated language of a familiar story Independent Activities – activities are available inside and outside such as the book corner, alphabet jigsaws, word building toys, jolly phonics sheets, books/labels in the role-play area etc. for the children to choose on their own or with friends

There are many aspects and skills necessary to enable children to develop as and enjoy being readers. At Valley Road we use different programmes to support these. We use the ‘Letters and Sounds’ programme for teaching phonics. This is started in the nursery and goes throughout Years 1 & 2. It begins by developing their skills and understanding of ¡ Listening to sounds - environmental, instrumental and voice ¡ Rhythm and rhyme ¡ Alliteration ¡ Oral blending and segmenting (sounding out) These skills are built on throughout the programme as well as learning to recognise and sound letters.

Meadow Class Phonics session

Unlocking the code – the practical element of reading In order to be able to read children first need to understand what sounds each letter and combination of letters in our alphabet make. Synthetic phonics is the explicit teaching of this knowledge. We teach children to break words down into smaller units of sound. (Important to remember this is one of the keys that helps ‘unlock’ reading!)

The Alphabet – youtube – Sounds of the English phonic code – synthetic phonics or Jolly phonics letter sounds

Phonics at a glance Knowledge of the alphabet & skills of segmenting and blending c-a-t ch-i-p sh-ee-p c-u-p

¡ Too help yoo understand wot fonnic decoding iz like I hav ritten a few lines using oanly regguler Inglish spelling patterns. Unforchunatly, Inglish spelling is not aulways compleetly fonnic and children eventually hav too lern mor than wun sound for menny letters and grafeems (or letter strings). But in the erly munths of lerning tu reed we try too teech them the skill of decoding by asking them too practice aulmoast compleetly just with werds that hav fonnic spellings, like ‘cat sat, mat, tap, pin, nip and, bend, lend, make, cake’ and teech them just the mane sound for all the mane English grafeems.

What is my child learning now? ¡ ¡ In the Letters and Sounds programme we focus on letter sounds rather than names. The letters are not introduced in alphabetical order but in sets of letters e. g. s, a, t, p, i, n as they make more simple 3 -letter words e. g. sat, pin, tap etc. which can be sounded out and ‘blended’ together. Later on sounds shown by 2 letters (diagraphs) are introduced e. g. ‘ai’, ‘ng’ ‘ch’. Some of these can make two sounds e. g. ‘oo’ in look and in moon. Sounds with more than one way of being written are initially taught in one form only e. g. ‘ai’ (rain) ‘a-e’ (cake) and ‘ay’ (day) are taught as the children are ready. We aim to introduce 3/4 sounds a week. Do not worry if your child does not remember all of them, as we will regularly re-visit these (also in Year 1&2). At home you can practise these at your child’s own pace e. g. you could find/sort objects that begin or end with that sound.

Oral Segmenting and Blending ¡ ¡ This is a process of saying (de-coding) the sounds in a word and then running them together to make a word e. g. c-a-t- is cat, rai-n is rain, f-i-sh is fish etc. It is a technique your child will need to learn and it improves with practice. Some children take longer to do this than others. To start with, sound out the word to see if your child can hear it. The sounds must be said quickly to hear the word. It can also help to listen for rhyming patterns e. g. cat, rat, bat, hat etc. Once familiar with the sounds some children may like to sound out words and try writing them. The opposite helps them in writing!

Can you work this word out? ¡ ¡ ¡ the letters do not read as the sounds you would expect but each sound is found in another English word spelt in this way. gh/o/ti Clue - it is a living thing The answer is 'fish'! gh makes an f sound from 'cough' or 'tough' o makes an i sound from 'women' and ti is a sh sound from 'station'

Tricky words ¡ In the early stages of reading there are some common words and sounds which are too complex to read or spell correctly by listening for the sounds in them e. g. ‘was’ ‘he’ etc. Therefore we encourage these words to be recognised and memorised by looking at them rather than decoding them. We say these words are cheeky because they try to ‘trick’ you hence the name ‘tricky words’! Playing matching or memory games can help these become more familiar.

¡ I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh?

¡ The greep dawked forily prip the blortican. . .

Reading Schemes ¡ ¡ ¡ ‘Real Books’ - The interest and enjoyment in sharing ‘real’ books and this is regularly promoted. The children have the opportunity to take home classroom books to share as they are then more familiar with them during class book/reading times. Oxford Reading Tree – This scheme develops reading through the stories/context and meaning. The first books in the scheme encourage children to use story language and pictures to ‘tell’ the story. Books gradually introduce some common words e. g. Mum, Dad but don’t necessarily have words that can be decoded e. g. there may be unusual words such as ‘aeroplane’ which children would be encouraged to work out using picture and contextual clues or to look at the length of the word and to predict what would ‘make sense’. Literacy links /Sunshine Spirals/ Rigby/Other – These often use repeated pattern, rhyme or vocabulary to develop reading skills.

Let’s have a look at Meadow Class …

How you can support your child at home

¡ ¡ Put yourself in your child’s shoes. It can be quite tiring decoding lots of new words!

How can I help? ¡ ¡ ¡ 1. Be a good role model 2. Read familiar stories 3. Visit the Library and Bookshops 4. Make reading enjoyable 5. Talk about the books 6. Create the right atmosphere 7. Success is the key 8. Be positive 9. Regular practice 10. Communicate 11. Variety is important too 12. Keep reading aloud to your child

Sharing books at home • • • Read many stories with rhyming words and repeated lines. Invite your child to join in on these parts. Point, word by word, as your child reads along with you. Discuss new words. For example, "This big house is called a palace. Who do you think lives in a palace? " Stop and ask about the pictures and about what is happening in the story. Read from a variety of children's books, including fairy tales, song books, poems, and information books. Read your child's favorite books over and over. After the story talk about what happened and why. Relate it to the child’s own experiences ‘Do you remember when you lost your toy? What was your favourite part? Which character did you like? Why? ’

Sharing reading books at home o o o o Invite your child to read with you every day. Look at and talk about the book first – What sort of book is it? Fiction, Non-fiction? Give your child a chance to look at the pictures to help them get a sense of the story and what words they might come across You can read it to them first! Model following the direction of the print and pointing to each word (1: 1 correspondence) Please don’t cover up the pictures! If your child makes a mistake when reading, don’t stop the flow unless what they’ve read doesn’t make sense. Meaning more important at this stage – accuracy will come. Short but sweet sessions best! At the end thank them for reading with you!

When they get stuck … o o o o Remember if you’re getting frustrated – they probably are too! If you encounter a word that cannot be phonetically decoded you can still explain why e. g. in this word those 2/3 letters make an ‘ay’ or ‘igh’ sound. 3 P’s – pause, prompt, praise Encourage use of pictures alongside phonics Say I’ll sound it out you blend or vice versa Give a word rather than let your child struggle or become frustrated Praise, praise! Specific praise – ‘You sounded out really well, remembered that tricky word, added good expression. . ’

Strategies to help

After reading you could…. ¡ ¡ ¡ Make puppets or props to retell or act out the story Make masks of the characters Draw or write about the story Make up your own book based on the story Copy the sentence, cut it up and re-order Draw the teddy (like ‘Hangman’) with a sentence/word from the book

What else could we do? ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ Listen to story cds in the car Computer games/i. Pad apps Making words with magnetic letters or foam letters/crayons in the bath Tell/write or make own books about your family Word bingo (with sweets, raisins or pennies I spy Reading Recipes when cooking Games – word snap/word hunts Writing letters in flour/on your back/make out of play dough Word detective – highlight Adults to scribe or record children’s own stories Have a family message board to read and write messages on, leave post its to read Snowball fight – write words on paper scrunch them up then throw them around the room. Can you open and read one nearest to you?

Hmmmm…. What can I write… ¡ ¡ ¡ If your child enjoyed the book? What did he/she comment on? Did he/she enjoy the pictures? If your child read with little support or needed a lot of support If your child is segmenting and blending words with independently or with support. If your child is beginning to recognise any words by sight, which ones? Are there certain graphemes/letter sounds that your child needs further support with?

¡ ¡ ¡ Did your child use any of the ‘handy reading strategies’? Did your child comment on letters in words? Did your child make links to other stories, poems, TV programmes, Has your child been interested in other books at home? If you write nothing else please write whether they have looked at the book or which page you have got to!

i. Pad apps ¡ ¡ ¡ Mr Thorne does phonics Hairy Letters Pirate phonics Ladybird Ready for Phonics play (app and website)

Happy Reading!!