Bradshaw Community

Primary SchoolHow we teach your child to read

and write.

Aims for the meeting

• to provide information on how we teach your child to read and write.

• to enhance links between home and school and enable you to support your child’s learning.

Phonics

• Phonics underpins early reading and writing.

• Children need to develop letter sound knowledge and be able to blend sounds together to read words.

• They also need to be able to segment spoken words into separate sounds to spell.

Letters and Sounds

• At Bradshaw we teach phonics using the government produced, ‘Letters and Sounds’ programme.

• We teach the children to listen carefully to the sounds in words, blend sounds together to read words (b-a-t), recognise the symbols used to represent sounds (single letters and groups of letters) and separate the sounds that they can hear in words to write them down.

Blending and Segmenting

• The 2 key skills children need are the ability to blend sounds together to read words and segment sounds that they hear in words to write them down.

How do we teach Letters and Sounds?

• The children have daily phonics lessons.

• Children work as a whole class, in small groups, pairs and sometimes as individuals.

• Lessons are targeted to children’s needs.

• Children learn through fun activities and games. The children don’t know they’re learning!

Phase 1• Explore and experiment with sounds and words• Aim is to make children really listen to different

sounds• Distinguish between different sounds in the

environment and phonemes• Learn to orally blend and segment sounds in

words

These skills will be worked on throughout primary school.

Phase 2

• Learn 19 sounds and learn the graphemes that represent them.

• Move on from orally blending and segmenting to blending and segmenting letters to read and spell (maybe with magnetic letters) VC and CVC words

• Learn letter names• Introduce two syllable words, simple

captions and some tricky HFW.

Phase 2 letter progression

Set 1: s a t p

Set 2: i n m d

Set 3: g o c k

Set 4: ck e u r

Set 5: h b f,ff l,ll ss

Let’s play a game!

Phase 3

• Teach another 25 sounds and graphemes to go with them.

• Continue to practise blending and segmenting using new sounds and two syllable words.

• Children continue to learn the reversibility of blending and segmenting.

Phase 3 letter progression

Letters

Set 6: j v w x

Set 7: y z,zz qu

Consonant digraphs: ch sh th ng

Vowel digraphs:

ai ee igh oa oo ar or ur ow oi

ear air ure er

Let’s play another game!

Phase 4

* Blend adjacent consonants in words and apply this skill when reading unfamiliar texts, (CCVC, CVCC, CCVCC)

step list clap grasp strap* Segment adjacent consonants in words and

apply this in spelling

Beware – Adjacent consonants are not digraphs. They make two distinct sounds.

Teaching Resources

Include…

• white boards and pens

• magnetic letters

• puppets

• flashcards

• letter fans

• bingo cards

Reading

Our aim is for your child to develop a love for reading and a skill for life.

What children need to know…

• How to handle a book and turn the pages• How to track the text on each page• How to decode or recognise the words on the

page• Most importantly children need to understand

what they read.

Children develop their reading skills at different rates.

Key Reading Skills

• Children need to be able to decode words (phonics blending sounds together)

• They need to recognise common words on sight (high frequency words). Some of these are decodable but many are not.

the where one

How we teach reading

• Read lots of stories and information books

• Discuss stories read – interact with texts

• Model reading behaviour and enjoyment

• Provide a word rich environment

• Lots of positive experiences with books – shared with the whole class, small groups, pairs and individual.

Strategies for teaching reading

• Modelled and Shared reading

• Individual reading

• Guided reading

Decoding skills to comprehension

As children become more competent decoders and these skills become more

automatic, they can concentrate on comprehension and interpretation of the

text.

Change of focus in GR sessions.

Home reading books

• Home reading books are organised into bands of difficulty.

• There are different schemes in each band.• Children are informally assessed to move to the

next band.• Children will move through the reading book

bands at different rates.

How can you help?

• Read with your child – share stories every day, follow your child’s interests and enjoy reading together.

• Encourage your child to practise his/her home reading book daily. Little and often is best.

• Be positive – encourage every attempt and praise their efforts. Make reading a really enjoyable time.

• Note your child’s interests and any other comments in your child’s reading record/planner.

• Please sign your child’s planner to let us know that they are ready to change their books.

• Don’t forget BugClub.

Writing

Our aim is for your child to become a confident, independent and creative writer.

What do children need to do?

• Think of what to write.• Rehearse what they want to write.

• Write down their ideas, segmenting words

to spell and recalling HFWs.• Hold a pencil correctly and be able to

form letters.• Reread what they have written.

• Understand what they have written.

What will children do?

• Make marks – scribbles and squiggles

• ‘Read’ marks• Use random letters (ones from their names etc…)• Single letters to represent words• Initial sounds to represent words• Initial and final sounds (sometimes dominant sounds)• Use phonetic spellings• Include HFWs• Include learned letter patterns and spelling conventions

How we teach writing

• Lots of different opportunities to write

• Lots of talk as the basis for writing

• Celebrate and encourage all attempts to write

• Model writing in a wide range of situations (making lists, writing stories, writing instructions)

• Phonics sessions – segmenting to spell words

• Learning to spell HFWs

• Shared writing• Guided writing• Independent writing• First hand experiences as a

basis for writing• Letter formation activities

How you can help• Be a role model – let your child see you writing and

let them help you.• Value and praise any writing your child does• Encourage them to write – cards, letters, playing

school• Let them play at writing – give them a paintbrush

and some water outside, chalks, different coloured pens, sketch books, folded card to make cards etc…

• Encourage application of phonics and known HFWs.

That’s it folks!

Many thanks for coming, feel free to browse and ask any questions you

might have.