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Reading & Phonics

"I read for pleasure and that is the moment I learn the most."

Margaret Atwood

 

Reading and Phonics at Truro Learning Academy

 

Phonics

At Truro Learning Academy we want our children to learn not just the reading skills but also the enjoyment of literature, enabling children to become lifelong, confident readers. 

Our children begin their reading journey through explicit teaching of Phonics through daily Read, Write Inc sessions in Early Years and KS1. These comprise of learning different graphemes, focussing on oral phonological skills and sight vocabulary. During these sessions children are also explicitly shown how to apply their developing skills to their writing. All children are assessed half termly and grouped in accordance with their individual needs.  

In EYFS and KS1, children are given Read Write Inc books which are matched to the story that they are learning in their phonics sessions. When children are ready or when they have finished the phonics programme, children then move onto Accelerated Reader. Within AR the children quiz regularly on the books that they are reading and move through sub-levels that are closely matched to their reading level.  

Home Reading

Books care changed on a Monday. 

Home reading is expected at least 5 times a week and is an integral part of the child’s development. In order to have strong communication between teachers and parents/carers, each child has a reading record where both the staff and parents can write comments about how the child is progressing with their reading.  

Your role in your child’s success continues to be key. Please see below for a suggested structure for the 5 expected reads. 

 

Day 1: Read the ‘story green words’ and ‘red words’ found in the first few pages of the book. The green words can be sounded out but the red words need to be learnt. Increase the speed of reading, read out of order and ensure they are confident reading these. Discuss the key words found in the ‘Vocabulary check’ and tell your child the meaning of each word.

Day 2: Take it in turns to read a page each of the book.

Day 3: Take it in turns to read a page each but swap the order from day 2 so you both read a different page.

Day 4: Child to read the whole book. Encourage them to read with expression.

Day 5: Focus on comprehension. Ask your child to retell the story. Found at the back of the book are ‘Questions to read and answer’ and ‘Questions to chat about’.

 

When your child brings home a school reader, please continue to help them by listening to them read, you can support them with words and phrases that they may find challenging to read or understand. Follow up by asking your child questions about what it is they have read to ensure they have understood: Who were the main characters? What was the main event? How did the chapter end?

Your child will also bring home a ‘reading for pleasure book’. This will be a book with a white TLA sticker on it. These books are for sharing together, there is no expectation for the children to read these but are intended to be shared with you at home for sheer enjoyment. The children will change these in class on a Monday.

Developing a love of reading 

At Truro Learning Academy we recognise the importance of children learning to love to read and enjoying the books that they choose to read: 

  • in Key Stage Two We complete daily Whole Class Reading, where children explore a text linked to their current topic. This consists of vocabulary lessons to ensure children are exposed to high quality and challenging vocabulary. This enables them to access the texts more confidently and be ready to understand the text more fully. The class also complete comprehension activities using VIPERS where they learn all the different styles of comprehension questions and how to answer them.
  • At TLA we use Talk for Writing which is a scheme to help children with Storytelling and forms a key part of our teaching based on high quality texts – much thought goes into the selection of texts to ensure exposure to high level vocabulary. 

  • We have a dedicated book corner in every year group 

  • All class teachers read to the children daily 

Please click on the documents below for information on how to help your child with reading at home.

Phonics - Tangmere Primary Academy
We use the highly successful Read Write Inc. Phonics programme to teach our children to read, write and spell.

Phonics is the systematic teaching of all the common sounds in the English language (RWI calls these the Speed Sounds). Children are taught to recognise the sounds and to put them together (‘sound blend’ them) into words for reading.

Children are taught one way of representing the 44 main sounds of English first, and then go on to learn the alternative spellings later on. 

When teaching the letter sounds, it is important to remember to keep them very ‘pure’ and distinct, to help with sound-blending later on. To enable your child to gain confidence in reading, they should only be asked to read words containing letter sounds they know securely.

Read Write Inc. introduces the simple Speed Sounds (one sound, one grapheme) with Speed Sounds Set 1 and Set 2. They then learn more ways of writing the same sounds with the complex Speed Sounds Set 3. Children are taught letter names before moving on to Speed Sounds Set 3.

Once children know the first set of Speed Sounds, they are ready to read the first Storybooks.

 

To visit the parent pages on the Ruth Miskin Training website go to:

To visit Oxford Owl (more help for Read Write Inc)

To watch phonics videos using Set 1, 2 & 3 sounds:

 

 How to say the sounds

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