Phonics and reading
At St Blasius, we use Read Write Inc Phonics (RWI) to help your child develop their Literacy skills. Mr Sillitoe is our Read Write Inc lead teacher, so if you have any questions about RWI, please contact the school and he will be happy to assist you.
Understanding Phonics
Parent video: Understanding Phonics
Reading at St Blasius
At St Blasius Primary Academy we aim for all our children to become fluent, confident readers who are passionate about reading.
Children who read regularly or are read to regularly have the opportunity to open the doors to so many different worlds!
More importantly, reading will give your child the tools to become independent life-long learners.
We can achieve this together through:
- Read Write Inc, a program to help to your child read at school
- Encouraging children to develop a love of books by reading to them daily, at home and at school
- Giving children access to a wide range of books at school and at home
What is Read Write Inc Phonics?
Read Write Inc (RWI) is a phonics complete literacy programme which helps all children learn to read fluently and at speed so they can focus on developing their skills in comprehension, vocabulary and spelling. The programme is designed for children aged 4-7. However, at St Blasius we have a strong working relationship with our local nurseries, where children are introduced to skills that will prepare them for the programme in Reception. We continue teaching RWI to children beyond the age of 7, as we use a stage not age approach.
RWI was developed by Ruth Miskin and more information on this can be found at
https://www.ruthmiskin.com/parents.
Parent video: What is Read Write Inc Phonics
How will my child be taught to read?
We start by teaching phonics to the children in the Reception class. This means that they learn how to ‘read’ the sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down.
This is essential for reading, but it also helps children learn to spell well. We teach the children simple ways of remembering these sounds and letters.
Reading
The children:
- learn 44 sounds and the corresponding letters/letter groups using simple picture prompts – see below
- learn to read words using Fred talk and sound blending
- read from a range of storybooks and non-fictions books matched to their phonic knowledge
- work well with partners
Writing
The children:
- learn to write and form the letters/letter groups which represent the 44 sounds with the help of fun phrases
- learn to write words by using Fred Talk
- learn to build sentences by practising sentences out loud before they write
Talking
The children work in pairs so that they can:
- answer every question
- practise every activity with their partner
- take turns in talking and reading to each other
- develop ambitious vocabulary
Read Write Inc Progression of Skills
Progressing through the stages
Children in Early Years are introduced to initial sounds. Children then begin to learn how to 'read' the sound in words and how those sounds be can be written down.
As children progress, they follow the same format as Early Years but will work on complex sounds and read books appropriate to their reading level.
Daily sessions of RWI phonics last 30 minutes. Once children become fluent speedy readers they will move on to the No Nonsense Spelling scheme.
Five key principles underpin the teaching in all Read Write Inc. sessions:
- Purpose – know the purpose of every activity and share it with the children, so they know the one thing they should be thinking about
- Participation – ensure every child participates throughout the lesson. Partnership work is fundamental to learning
- Praise – ensure children are praised for effort and learning, not ability
- Pace – teach at an effective pace and devote every moment to teaching and learning
- Passion – be passionate about teaching so children can be engaged emotionally.
Children will be taught how to read as follows:
Before you start to teach your child, practice saying the sounds below. These are the sounds we use to speak in English. Children initially begin using pictures for each sound, this will help children recognise the sound and then form the shape of the sound.
Fred Talk
We use pure sounds (‘m’ not’ muh’,’s’ not ‘suh’, etc.) so that your child will be able to blend the sounds into words more easily.
At school we use a puppet called Fred who is an expert on sounding out words! we call it, ‘Fred Talk’. E.g. m-o-p, c-a-t, m-a-n, sh-o-p, b-l-a-ck.
The following video is an example of blending sounds with Fred
Parent video: Blending sounds with Fred
Read Write Inc Set 1, 2 and 3
The children are taught the sounds in 3 sets.
Step 1:
Set 1 Speed Sounds
| Sound | Rhyme |
|---|---|
| m | Down Maisie then over the two mountains. Maisie, mountain, mountain. |
| a | Round the apple, down the leaf. |
| s | Slide around the snake. |
| d | Round the dinosaur's back, up his neck and down to his feet. |
| t | Down the tower, across the tower. |
| i | Down the insect's body, dot for the head. |
| n | Down Nobby and over the net. |
| p | Down the plait, up and over the pirate's face. |
| g | Round the girl's face, down her hair and give her a curl. |
| o | All around the orange. |
| c | Curl around the caterpillar. |
| k | Down the kangaroo's body, tail and leg. |
| u | Down and under the umbrella, up to the top and down to the puddle. |
| b | Down the laces, over the toe and touch the heel. |
| f | Down the stem and draw the leaves. |
| Sound | Rhyme |
|---|---|
| l | Down the long leg. |
| h | Down the horse's head to the hooves and over his back. |
| sh | Slither down the snake, then down the horse's head to the hooves and over his back. |
| r | Down the robot's back, then up and curl. |
| j | Down his body, curl and dot. |
| v | Down a wing, up a wing. |
| y | Down a horn, up a horn and under the yak's head. |
| w | Down, up, down, up the worm |
| th | Down the tower, across the tower, then down the horse's head to the hooves and over his back. |
| z | Zig-zag-zig, down the zip |
| ch | Curl around the caterpillar, then down the horse's head to the hooves and over his back. |
| qu | Down the queen's head, up to her crown, down her hair and curl. |
| x | Cross down the arm and leg and cross the other way. |
| ng | A thing on a string. |
| nk | I think I stink. |
At this stage we do not use the letter names.
Use the link below to support your pronunciation sounds correctly.
https://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out-more/parents/#lg=1&slide=3
Step 2:
The children are then taught Set 2 Sounds - the long vowels. When they are very confident with all of set 1 and 2 they are taught Set 3 Sounds.
Set 2 Speed Sounds
| Sound | Phrase | Words to practice reading and spelling |
|---|---|---|
| ay | ay: may I play | play, day, may, way, say, spray |
| ee | ee: what can you see | see, three, been, green, seen, sleep |
| igh | igh: fly high | high, night, light, fright, bright, might |
| ow | ow: blow the snow | blow, snow, low, show, know, slow |
| oo | oo: poo at the zoo | too, zoo, food, pool, moon, spoon |
| oo | oo: look at a book | took, look, book, shook, cook, foot |
| ar | ar: start the car | car, start, part, star, hard, sharp |
| or | or: shut the door | sort, short, horse, sport, fork, snort |
| air | air: that's not fair | fair, stair, hair, air, chair, lair |
| ir | ir: whirl and twirl | girl, bird, third, whirl, twirl, dirt |
| ou | ou: shout it out | out, shout, loud, mouth, round, found |
| oy | oy: toy for a boy | toy, boy, enjoy |
At this stage we do not use the letter names.
Use the link below to support your pronunciation sounds correctly.
https://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out-more/parents/#lg=1&slide=3
Set 3 Speed Sounds
| Sound | Phrase | Words to practice reading and spelling |
|---|---|---|
| ea | Cup of tea | clean, dream, seat, scream, real |
| oi | Spoil the boy | join, voice, coin |
| a-e | Make a cake | make, cake, name, same, late, date |
| i-e | Nice smile | smile, white, nice, like, time, hide |
| o-e | Phone home | home, hope, spoke, note, broke, phone |
| u-e | Huge brute | tune, rude, huge, brute, use, June |
| aw | Yawn at dawn | saw, las, dawn, crawl, paw, yawn |
| are | Care and share | share, dare, scare, square, bare |
| ur | Nurse with a purse | burn, turn, spurt, nurse, purse, hurt |
| er | A better letter | never, better, weather, after, proper, corner |
| ow | Brown cow | how, down, brown, cow, town, now |
| ai | Snail in the rain | snail, paid, tail, train, paint, rain |
| oa | Goat in a boat | goat, boat, road, throat, toast, coat |
| ew | Chew the stew | chew, new, blew, flew, drew, grew |
| ire | Fire! Fire! | Fire, hire, wire, bon/fire, in/spire, con/spire |
| ear | Hear with your ear | hear, dear, fear, near, year, ear |
| ure | Sure it?s pure | pure, sure, cure, pic/ture, mix/ture, ad/ven/ture |
Nonsense words (Alien words)- What 'a load' or nonsense!
As well as learning to read and blend real words, children will have plenty of opportunities to apply their sound recognition skills on reading ‘Nonsense words’. These words will also feature heavily in the Year One Phonics Screening check in the summer term. These words provide endless opportunities for children to apply and practice their thinking in a range of different contexts.
Parent video: How to say the sounds
Step 3:
Within all the RWI sessions/books children will be exposed to red and green words to learn to help them to become speedy readers. Red words are words that are not easily decodable and challenge words to extend children’s vocabulary. Green words are linked to the sounds they have been learning and are easily decodable.
Dots and dashes represent the sound each letter makes.
During the RWI session children will read the book three times and at each new reading they will have plenty of opportunities to practise using their developing comprehension skills. You may have heard your child talking about ‘hold, edit or build a sentence’.
- Hold a sentence is an activity that encourages children to remember a whole sentence while focusing on spelling and punctuation.
- Build a sentence is to give children the opportunity to create their own sentence to that shows the meaning of a word and edit a sentence allows the children to critique a sentence using their knowledge of spelling punctuation and grammar. Children complete a longer piece of independent writing, which gives them the opportunity to show off their creativity and to practice their spelling, grammar and punctuation.
To help at home:
Your child will start to bring books home when they are confident readers, relating to their reading stage. You will find they will bring home a phonics based book, this will aid application, speed and fluency- developing speedy reading!
Following on from this, they will bring a comprehension based book which will begin to enrich their reading, which will require decoding skills.
Only then, children will bring home enriched reading books which will enhance their understanding via inspirational language promoting depth to their understanding.
Parent video: Sound blending
Parent video: Reading the digraphs with your child
Parent video: Reading the bouncy sounds with your child
Useful websites for Parents
Please find a list of websites that you may find useful in helping you and your child learn about phonics. Games and fun activity websites are also included.
https://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out-more/parents/ - Information and resources to support phonics learning at home
https://www.ictgames.com/literacy.html - fun games for the children to play
BBC Bitesize - many games to play covering all areas of the curriculum
Read Write Inc guide for parents
The following link provides lots of free Read Write Inc. Phonics resources to help your child, including eBooks, practice sheets and parent films.
https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/reading-schemes-oxford-levels/read-write-inc-phonics-guide/
by