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
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
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
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.
