Phonics

Early Reading

At Keyham Barton we are passionate about ensuring all children become confident and enthusiastic readers and writers. We believe that phonics is the foundation for learning which makes the development into fluent reading and writing easier. Through phonics children learn to segment words, blend sounds to read words and support their spelling. The teaching of phonics has a high priority.

At Keyham we use the Department of Education approved scheme, Read, Write Inc (R.W.I.), for our teaching of phonics. This allows our phonics teaching and learning to be progressive from E.Y.F.S. to Year 2. We want every child to be a confident, fluent reader by the end of Key Stage One.

How do we teach RWI phonics?

Read Write Inc learning to read at home - https://www.ruthmiskin.com/parentsandcarers/

Reading

The children:

• learn 44 sounds and the corresponding letters/letter groups using simple picture prompts
• 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.

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.

 

Talking

The children 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

 

Before children can start to read, they need to learn to:

 

• say the sound that is represented by each letter of group of letters
• sound out the word, e.g. d--o-g, ch-a-t, s-p-r-ay, b-ea-t

Fred the frog

 

Fred is our frog who can only speak in sounds e.g. c-a-t; in lessons children help Fred to work out the word by saying the sounds to then blend to say the word; this then develops to reading the sounds to blend to read words. In each lesson children practise reading words like Fred, use Fred in their head and speedy reading. 

Set 1

 

These are the sounds the children will learn first. They will also learn to blend them together to say and then read words. e.g  c-a-t

m, a, s, d, t, i, n, p, g, o, c, k, u, b, f, e, l, h, sh, r, j, v, y, w, th, z, ch, qu, x, ng, nk

 

Set 2

 

The children move to set 2 sounds, once they are secure on the set 1 sounds.  In set 2 the 'speed sounds' are made up of 2 or 3 separate letters; these represent one sound e.g. ee in been and igh in night.

The children recognise these as speed sounds.

Each speed sound has a picture prompt and phrase to go with it.

 

This is a list of the Set 2 sounds and phrases.

ay: may I play

 

ee: what can you see

  

igh: fly high

 

ow: blow the snow

 

oo: poo at the zoo

 

oo: look at a book

 

ar: start the car

 

or: shut the door

 

air: that’s not fair

 

ir: whirl and twirl

 

ou: shout it out

 

oy: toy for a boy

 

Set 3

 

The children move to set 3 sounds, once they are secure on the set 2 sounds. Again in set 3 the 'speed sounds' are made up of 2 or 3 separate letters; these represent one sound e.g. oa in boat and a-e in bake, they may be split between a letter. 

The children recognise these as speed sounds.

Each speed sound has a picture prompt and phrase to go with it.

This is a list of the Set 3 sounds and phrases.

ea: cup of tea

 

oi: spoil the boy

 

a-e: make a cake

 

i-e: nice smile

 

o-e: phone home

 

u-e: huge brute

 

aw: yawn at dawn

 

are: share and care

 

ur: purse for a nurse

 

er: a better letter

 

ow: brown cow

 

ai: snail in the rain

 

oa: goat in a boat

 

ew: chew the stew

 

ire: fire fire!

 

ear: hear with your ear

 

ure: sure it’s pure?

 

tion: celebration tious/cious: scrumptious/delicious

 

Red and Green Words

 

Within all the books children will have red and green words to help them to become speedy readers. Red words are words that are not easily decodable and to extend children’s vocabulary. Green words are linked to the sounds they have been learning and are easily decodable.

Nonsense 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.

 

Ditties and Storybooks

 

During the RWI session children will read short books called ditties and then longer books called storybooks. They read the book three times in class and at each new reading they will have plenty of opportunities to develop their fluency and comprehension skills.

 

Book Bag Books

 

Once the children have read a ditty or storybook in class, they will take home a book bag book to read at home. They will be able to read this book themselves by sounding out and blending the words. Please support your child by hearing them read and giving them lots of praise and encouragement. They need to read this book 3 times to develop their fluency. 

 

After RWI

 

Once children have graduated from RWI, they move onto daily comprehension and spelling activities. By doing this children will  learn the necessary skills of retrieval , inference and sequencing.  This will help them to make connections between texts. As they move forward they will be able to discuss, evaluate ideas and express opinions.