Phonics & Early Reading

 

At Northview, we recognise the importance of embedding early reading to ensure our children have every opportunity to access the whole curriculum. Our phonics provision aims to ensure that all pupils can read easily, fluently and with good understanding. It allows pupils to apply their phonics decoding skills to read and comprehend text as well as write and compose sentences. 

 

At Northview we use Read Write Inc Phonics (RWI) to give your child the best possible start with their literacy. We have put together a guide to how the RWI programme works together with some useful links.

 

What is Read Write Inc?

 

Read Write Inc (RWI) is a phonics validated 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 Northview we begin the programme in Nursery and will continue teaching RWI to children beyond the age of 7 if they still need support in their reading.

RWI was developed by Ruth Miskin and more information on this can be found here.

 

Five key principles underpin the teaching in all Read Write Inc. sessions  

Purpose â€“ know the purpose of every activity and share it with the children, so they know the one thing they should be thinking about

Participation â€“ ensure every child participates throughout the lesson. Partnership work is fundamental to learning

Praise â€“ ensure children are praised for effort and learning, not ability

Pace â€“ teach at an effective pace and devote every moment to teaching and learning

Passion â€“ be passionate about teaching so children can be engaged emotionally.

 

How is RWI taught?

 

Nursery

When appropriate, children are introduced to the initial sounds in short, normally 10-15 minutes sessions.

 

Reception

In Reception all children learn how to ‘read’ the sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down.

 

In Reading children will:

  • 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

 

In Writing children will: 

  • 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 

 

In Talking children will: 

 

They work in pairs so that they:

  • answer every question
  • practise every activity with their partner
  • take turns in talking and reading to each other
  • develop ambitious vocabulary

 

Year One 

 

Children follow the same format as Reception but will work on complex sounds and read books appropriate to their reading level. Daily sessions of RWI phonics last for 45 minutes. 

 

Children are taught the sounds in 3 sets

 

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 thehooves 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

 

***We do not use letter names at this early stage.

 

Fred Talk

We use pure sounds (‘m’ not’ muh’,’s’ not ‘suh’, etc.) so that the child is be able to blend the sounds into words more easily.

 At Northview 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-

 

Click here to view the Phonemes pronunciation clip. 

Click here to see how we teach blending phonemes. 

 

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

 

 

 

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.

 

 

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

oa: goat in a boat

oo

oo: poo at the zoo

u-e: huge brute

 

oo

oo: look at a book

 

 

ar

ar: start the car

 ew: chew the stew

 

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?

 

 

 

 

Click here for a complete list of the set 1, set 2 and set 3 phonic sounds.

 

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.

 Ditty books

 

Children will be introduced to ‘Ditty books’ when they successfully begin to read single words. Children use sound-blending (Fred Talk) to read short ditties. They will bring these home once they have read and discussed the book in class. Children will then be challenged to use their developing phonic knowledge to write short sentences.

 

Within all the books children will have Red and Green words to learn in order 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. Once your child has been introduced and taught these words in school we will send them home for you to continue practising with your child.

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 that makes sense.

Edit a sentence allows the children to check their sentence and make the necessary changes using their knowledge of spelling punctuation and grammar.

 

Finally, children complete a longer piece of independent writing, which gives them the opportunity to implement their phonics knowledge to practice their spelling, grammar and punctuation.

Spelling Quiz

 

 

A spelling quiz is  held each week (this will only start in Reception when children are ready to write and form their letters). Children are encouraged to use ‘Fred fingers’ to first sound out a word before they write it down. Children learn how to spell rather than just get tested. Furthermore, this way of teaching spellings allows children to use Fred fingers whenever they get stuck with spelling a word. Children pinch each sound on fingers before writing the word.

Order of Story books

Children follow the order listed below. The expectation is that all children will leave Year One as confident speedy reader, ready to take on the challenges of Year Two. However, some children may need extra support and class teachers will talk to you about this. 

 

Books

Year Group Expectations

Green Words in Books

Red Ditty 1-10

Reception

Click here to help your child

Green 1-10

Reception

Click here to help your child

Purple 1-10

Reception

Click here to help your child

Pink 1-10

Reception/Year One

Click here to help your child

Orange 1-12

Year One

Click here to help your child

Yellow 1-10

Year One/Two

Click here to help your child

Blue 1-10

Year Two

Click here to help your child

Grey 1-13

Year Two

Click here to help your child

 

****To access the list of Red Words for all reading bands, click here.

How to help at home?

Your child will be bringing home 2 decodable books matching his/her current phonics learning stage. Please help them read and give lots of praise!

Your child will also have access to RWI Phonics e-library where he/she can access more decodable books as well as many reading and writing quizzes based on books that have been read at school and home.

The links below will give you some idea about how you can read with your child.

 

Click here to view access Read Write Inc Parents clips library. 

 

If you have any other questions about phonics or reading, please see your child's class teacher or  Mrs Barouma.