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Reading

As a school we teach phonic and initial reading  skills through a scheme called “Read Write Inc”

What is Read Write Inc?

Read Write Inc (RWI) is a phonics complete literacy programme which helps children learn to read fluently and at speed so they can focus on developing their skills in comprehension, vocabulary and spelling.

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
  • develop comprehension skills in stories by answering ‘Find It’ and ‘Prove It’ discussion questions

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. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEzfpod5w_QThe children are taught the sounds in 3 sets.Step 1:Set 1 Sounds are taught in the following order together with rhymes to help children form the letters correctly and instantly recognise sounds ready for blending.

Set 1
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 insects body, dot for the head.
n Down Nobby and over the net.
p Down the plait, up and over the pirates face.
g Round the girls face, down her hair and give her a curl
o All around the orange
c Curl around the caterpillar
k Down the kangaroos 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
e Slice into the egg, go over the top, then under the egg
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 Round 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

Please do not use letter names at this early stage.Click here to hear how to pronounce sounds correctly.

Children will also use pictures for each sound to help recognise the sound and then form the shape of the sound.

Set 2 and 3 Sounds 

Set 2 Sounds – the long vowels. When they are very confident with all of set 1 and 2 they are taught Set 3 Sounds.

Long  vowel sound Set 2 Speed Sound cards Set 3 Speed Sound cards
ay ay: may I play a-e: make a cake ai: snail in the rain
ee ee: what can you see ea: cup of tea e: he me we she be
igh igh: fly high i-e: nice smile
ow ow: blow the snow o-e: phone home ao: goat in a boat
oo oo: poo at the zoo u-e: huge brute ew: chew the stew
oo oo: look at a book    
ar ar: start the car    
or or: shut the door aw: yawn at dawn  
air air: that’s not fair are: share and care  
ir ir: whirl and twirl ur: nurse for a purse er: a better letter
ou ou: shout it out ow: brown cow  
oy oy: toy for a boy oi: spoil the boy  
ire   ire: fire fire!  
ear   ear: hear with your ear  
ure   ure: sure it’s pure?  

Nonsense words (Alien words)

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. Click here for further information on the Screening check.

Please click on our link below to show how phonics expectations progress from EYFS to end of KS1

EYFS and KS1 Phonics Expectations

RWI was developed by Ruth Miskin and more information on this can be found here      Image result for read write inc for parents

We also use action words with the children when they enter reception to help build up more quickly a bank of sight vocabulary of frequently used words 

Please click on the links below to show the action words we use and their associated action 

Action word complete word mat

Action word flashcard example

Development of More Complex Reading Skills 

In addition to the teaching of phonics we further develop children’s reading skills with taught reading lessons which focus on five key areas of “D E R I C” .

DERIC stands for:

D: Decoding words

E: Explaining new vocabulary

R: Retrieving infomation

I: Interpreting infomation

C: Choice (thinking about the choices made by the author/director/artist)

Through our teaching of Phonics and Reading, we aim to develop 

  • Excellent phonic knowledge and skills.
  • Fluency and accuracy in reading across a wide range of contexts throughout the curriculum.
  • Knowledge of an extensive and rich vocabulary.
  • An excellent comprehension of texts.
  • The motivation to read for both study and for pleasure.
  • Extensive knowledge through having read a rich and varied range of texts.

We will do this by giving children the opportunity to read across the curriculum in the following ways.

Key Stage 1
  • Listen to traditional tales.
  • Listen to a range of texts.
  • Learn some poems by heart.
  • Become familiar with a wide range of texts of different lengths.
  • Discuss books.
  • Build up a repertoire of poems to recite.
  • Use the class and school libraries.
  • Listen to short novels over time.
Key Stage 2
  • Read and listen to a wide range of styles of text, including fairy stories, myths and legends.
  • Listen to and discuss a wide range of texts.
  • Learn poetry by heart.
  • Increase familiarity with a wide range of books, including myths and legends, traditional stories, modern fiction, classic British fiction and books from other cultures.
  • Take part in conversations about books.
  • Learn a wide range of poetry by heart.
  • Use the school and community libraries.
  • Look at classification systems.
  • Look at books with a different alphabet to English.
  • Read and listen to whole books.

As children progress through school there are key milestones they are judged against and they are linked to age related expectations at these points in time. We have three key milestone points across the school. we aim for children to achieve. Milestone 1 is expected standard by the end of Year 2, Milestone 2 is the expected standard by the end of Year 4 and Milestone 3 is the expected standard by the end of Year 6.

Please click on the links below for details of the learning milestones for reading and our progression of skills across each year group 

Reading Milestones PDF

Progression in Reading KS1- KS2

Y1-English            Y2-English                     Y3-English                                     

Y4-English            Y5-English                     Y6-English

Please click on the link below to view the Reading Spine and Class Authors of each year group.

Reading Spine and Class Authors

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