Read Write Inc. Phonics teaches children to read accurately and fluently with good comprehension. They learn to form each letter, spell correctly, and compose their ideas step-by-step.
Intent
At Victoria Road Primary school, we strive to teach children to read effectively and quickly using the Read Write Inc. Phonics programme (RWI) which includes teaching synthetic phonics, sight vocabulary, decoding and encoding words as well as spelling and accurate letter formation. The children start learning RWI in the nursery in the Spring or Summer term (depending on ability) and once in the Reception class it commences straight away. We believe that teaching children to read and write independently, as quickly as possible, is essential. This opens up the rest of the curriculum and also has a huge impact on children’s self-esteem and future life chances. Using the RWI phonics program we teach children to: • read easily, fluently and with good understanding • develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information • write clearly and accurately adapting their language and style in a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
Implementation
We start by teaching children to read and blend the first thirty Set 1 sounds. Once they have learnt this skill, they start reading stories and texts that have words made up of the sounds they know. This means that they can embed and apply their phonic knowledge and start to build their reading fluency. Once secure, children learn Set 2 and Set 3 sounds and then read texts with increasingly more complex sounds and graphemes. Throughout this process there is a focus on comprehension, reading with expression and reading for enjoyment. Children are taught in small groups which reflect their phonic knowledge and reading fluency. Every 6 weeks we assess children so that they are taught in a RWI group which matches their phonic knowledge. We make sure that pupils read books that are closely matched to their increasing knowledge of phonics and ability to read ‘tricky words’; so they experience early reading success and gain confidence that they are readers. To support the development of Reading and Writing at Victoria Road we have: • daily 45 minute phonics sessions, where the children learn new phonemes, improve their ability to segment and blend sounds, and their ability to apply this knowledge into their reading and writing. • A whole class Reading session whereby the children are exposed to high-quality texts that they can demonstrate their understanding and thinking to inspire their own writing • All children are issued a RWI reading book that is appropriate for their reading ability and is changed regularly. All children are also able to take home a library book of their choice, to have read to them by a parent. We expect family at home to share these books with their child daily and to make comments in their child’s reading record. • At the end of every day all children are read to by their teacher every day. In addition, classes visit the local St Budeaux library to select additional books for their classrooms and to share and listen to stories read by other people.
Impact
We are able to measure attainment in phonics using the Year One Phonics Screening tests Reading results from National Assessments at the end of Key Stage One can also be used. By listening to the voice of the children it should be clear of their love of reading, developing fluency and their knowledge of authors and key texts/stories they have enjoyed. Subject and school leaders monitor the impact of our curriculum provision in phonics through completing rigorous monitoring, that includes listening to the voice of our children.
Parental support
Ten top tips from Read Write Inc
1. Saying sounds correctly This is really important when you are helping your child to learn the sounds. Just remember not to add an uh to the end of the consonant sounds – so say mmm not muh, lll not luh, etc. because then later it’s easier to blend the sounds together to make words.
2. Linking sounds to letters Encourage your child to make a link between the sound and the written letter shape. Start with the sounds in your child’s name and then look out for them in signs. The sound m in McDonalds is always a good starting point too!
3. Sounds represented by more than one letter Some sounds are represented by more than one letter such as sh inship, ch in chat, th in thin, qu in quick and ng in sing. When you’re out and about point out examples of these to your child too. You might see them in posters, signs, or leaflets.
4. Practise, practise, practise Build up a knowledge of the letters and sounds quite quickly with your child and keep practising so that it becomes automatic. Keep reminding ‘Do you remember when we were talking about the sound ch...?’, or ‘Oh look! There’s a big t (sound) on that poster!’
5. Putting sounds together to read simple words Say the sounds c-a-t to read cat, sh-o-p to read shop and s-t-r-ee-t to read street. If your child gets stuck and is struggling to blend the sounds, say the sounds yourself, quickly, until your child can hear the word! Only beginner readers need to sound out every word as they read all the time. But, they will still need to work out new and long words.
6. Tricky words Some everyday words in English have tricky spellings and can’t be read by blending. Imagine trying to read the word said or does by blending each letter! These are sometimes called high frequency tricky words, or Red words. These words just have to be learned by sight and flashcard-type games are a good way to practise these.
7. Reading books Schools using a synthetic phonics scheme are likely to be sending home decodable books. This means the books contain mostly words that children can read by sounding out to get them off to a good start with independent reading. After your child has read a page, you can read it aloud again, to make sure that the story is enjoyed and understood.
8. Using pictures Pictures are great for sharing and talking about a story (which is really important too!) but don’t encourage your child to use pictures to guess the words that they don’t already know.
9. Writing letters Teach your child how to write the letters as the letter sounds are learned. And don’t forget to show your child how to hold the pencil correctly too!
10. Common sense ... Lots and lots of books! Carry on sharing and reading lots and lots of stories and information books to and with your child. Praise and hugs! Most importantly, remember that your child will learn much faster with encouragement, praise and hugs
Resources
All groups have a range of resources to use which are appropriate for the level at which the children are working. All classes have a simple or complex speed sound chart to support the use of phonics throughout the school.
Speed Sounds
When teaching your child phonics, we will use the term 'speed sounds', these are individual or groups of sounds which your child will learn how to read quickly and effortlessly as they progress through Reception, Year 1, Year 2 and beyond. Your child will be regularly assessed to ensure they are reaching their full potential and will receive additional support if required.
Phoneme
Your child will learn a new sound every day accompanied by a handwriting rhyme which helps them to remember how to form the letter shape when writing it. A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in speech, this may be one letter, or a group of two or three letters which make one sound. For example, if your child was learning the phoneme (sound) ‘a’, they would also learn the rhyme ’round the apple and down the leaf’ when they start to write their letter. In set 1, your child will learn 44 phonemes.
https://youtu.be/TkXcabDUg7Q
Blending
As your child learns each sound (phoneme), they are taught how to blend the sounds together to make two and three letters words (CVC words - consonant, vowel, consonant - such as the word 'dog'). Your child will learn how to read real and nonsense words.
Green Words
Alongside this, your child will start to read 'green' words. 'Green' words are words which can be sounded out and blended like ‘dog’, ‘cat’.
Red Words
Having gained confidence sounding out green words, your child will be taught about ‘red' words.
Red Ditties
As your child gains confidence reading individual words, they will move onto reading sentences, then onto 'ditties'. The Red Ditty books provide a bridge between your child reading simple words/sentences and reading short stories. Watch the video below on how to support your child with their reading book.
Digraphs and Trigraphs
When the children have learnt the single sounds they begin to move on to two and three letter sounds these are called digraphs (2 letters making 1 sound like ‘ea’ in the word tea) and trigraphs (3 letters making 1 sound like ‘igh’ in the word light). Set 1 sounds include the digraphs 'ch', 'sh', 'th', 'ng, 'nk, and 'qu'. They know these as 'special friends'.
Fred Talk
At school we use a puppet called Fred who can only speak in sounds, not whole words. We call this Fred Talk. For example, Fred would say d-o-g, we would say dog. Your child is taught to hear sounds and blend them together in sequence to make a word.
Fred Fingers
Fred Fingers are used for spelling. Your child is taught to sound out the word they are spelling and put up the correct number of fingers for the sounds they can hear in that word. For example: m-ee-t = 3 sounds = 3 fingers. When your child starts to write words, they will be taught to use their 'Fred Fingers':
Sound Buttons and Dashes
Sound buttons are circles or spots that can be written underneath a sound to support reading. Your child will be taught to say the sound aloud as they touch the sound button. If reading a diagraph (two letters making one sound) or trigraph (three letters making one sound), your child will know that this sound is represented by a dash underneath the letters which make the sound. See above in the word play, 'ay' is a diagraph, so has the dash underneath.
Fred in your head
Your child's teacher will hold up a green word (close to their chest), giving your child time to mime the sounds, and will then push the word forward as a signal for your child to say the whole word (as opposed to blending individual sounds). This will be repeated over a period of time, until your child can say the word straight away. Your child will start off initially mouthing the sounds silently and then saying the whole word to saying the whole word straight away.
Phonics Screening Check
In Year 1, your child will have a Government Led, phonics screening check and this is normally held in June. The purpose of the check is to confirm whether individual children have learnt decoding and blending skills to meet an age-appropriate standard. The phonics screening contains 40 words and your child will work one-to-one with the teacher, reading words out aloud. There will be a combination of real words and nonsense words. By the end of Year 1, it is expected that children are able to recognise the grapheme-phoneme correspondences, segment and blend them confidently in words.
Children who do not pass the Phonics Screening Check will complete the assessment again in Year 2.
Listening to your child read is important. However, your child hearing you read or tell a story is just as important. This will support them to develop new vocabulary, learn how to use expression in their voice. Encourage your child to decode the sounds e.g. segmenting or drawing on sound buttons. When you are out and about read signs around you. Practise speed reading the sounds your child has been learning in school.
My child won’t read, no matter what I do. How can I help?
Impact of Phonics
Children across the school have positive attitudes towards their learning in phonics and make excellent progress; they enjoy phonics lessons and become confident, successful learners who achieve regardless of their starting points. The teachers and teaching assistants will assess the pupils’ achievements against the the expectations shared from the RWI programme. Throughout the sessions, teachers and teaching assistants will review learning to ensure subsequent lessons are responsive.
The children will practice complete 6 half termly RWI assessments and at the end of Y1, and Y2 if they did not meet the threshold, will complete the statutory Phonics Screening Check.
Useful websites:
Oxford Owl Press http://www.oxfordowl.co.uk
Read Write Inc http://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading-owl/at-school
Read Write Inc Videos: Parents - Ruth Miskin Literacy
blend – to draw individual sounds together to pronounce a word, e.g. s-n-a-p, blended together, reads snap.
digraph – A digraph is a single sound, or phoneme, which is represented by two letters like ‘ow’ as in ‘s-n-ow’ reading ‘snow’.
grapheme – A grapheme is a letter or a number of letters which represent a sound (phoneme) in a word.
grapheme-phoneme correspondence (GPC) – the relationship between sounds and the letters which represent those sounds; also known as ‘letter-sound correspondences’. This means that your child will be able to recognise and/or identify the written form of a letter when listening to the sound.
phoneme – A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in speech, this may be one letter, or a group of two or three letters which make one sound.
segment – to split up a word into its individual phonemes (sounds) in order to spell it, e.g. the word ‘cat’ has three phonemes: c – a – t,
sound buttons – the number of phonemes (sounds) in a word, your child will be encouraged to draw a dot under a single letter to denote the number of sounds, if it is a digraph they will underline both sounds instead of drawing a dot. For example ai in snail.
split digraph – two letters (consonants), split by another letter (vowel), but which make one sound, e.g. a-e as in make or i-e in site.
trigraph – A trigraph is a phoneme which consists of three letters like ‘air’ a
Digraphs and Trigraphs
When the children have learnt the single sounds they begin to move on to two and three letter sounds these are called digraphs (2 letters making 1 sound like ‘ea’ in the word tea) and trigraphs (3 letters making 1 sound like ‘igh’ in the word light). Set 1 sounds include the digraphs 'ch', 'sh', 'th', 'ng, 'nk, and 'qu'. They know these as 'special friends'.
Fred Talk
At school we use a puppet called Fred who can only speak in sounds, not whole words. We call this Fred Talk. For example, Fred would say d-o-g, we would say dog. Your child is taught to hear sounds and blend them together in sequence to make a word.
Fred Fingers
Fred Fingers are used for spelling. Your child is taught to sound out the word they are spelling and put up the correct number of fingers for the sounds they can hear in that word. For example: m-ee-t = 3 sounds = 3 fingers. When your child starts to write words, they will be taught to use their 'Fred Fingers':
Sound Buttons and Dashes
Sound buttons are circles or spots that can be written underneath a sound to support reading. Your child will be taught to say the sound aloud as they touch the sound button. If reading a diagraph (two letters making one sound) or trigraph (three letters making one sound), your child will know that this sound is represented by a dash underneath the letters which make the sound. See above in the word play, 'ay' is a diagraph, so has the dash underneath.
Fred in your head
Your child's teacher will hold up a green word (close to their chest), giving your child time to mime the sounds, and will then push the word forward as a signal for your child to say the whole word (as opposed to blending individual sounds). This will be repeated over a period of time, until your child can say the word straight away. Your child will start off initially mouthing the sounds silently and then saying the whole word to saying the whole word straight away.
Phonics Screening Check
In Year 1, your child will have a Government Led, phonics screening check and this is normally held in June. The purpose of the check is to confirm whether individual children have learnt decoding and blending skills to meet an age-appropriate standard. The phonics screening contains 40 words and your child will work one-to-one with the teacher, reading words out aloud. There will be a combination of real words and nonsense words. By the end of Year 1, it is expected that children are able to recognise the grapheme-phoneme correspondences, segment and blend them confidently in words.
Children who do not pass the Phonics Screening Check will complete the assessment again in Year 2.