How We Teach Phonics
Phonics is a way of teaching children to read and write by blending and segmenting individual sounds. Every letter and different combinations of letters make particular sounds for example the letter ‘s’ makes a hissing like a snake. At Sound we follow the Letters and Sounds Programme of teaching which is split into 6 phases that systematically build on skills and knowledge of previous learning.
Children throughout Reception and Key stage 1 take part in daily phonics sessions. These sessions focus on key reading skills such as decoding to read words and segmenting the sounds in a given word to spell. During Phonics lessons we also teach children to read and write ‘tricky words’ also known as ‘sight words.’ These are words that you cannot sound out and children are just expected to remember how to read and write. See the list below for these.
Key terms we use in our teaching:
Digraph – two letters make one sound (e.g. sh, ch, ai, ea, ou, ow).
Trigraph – three letters make one sound (e.g. igh, ear, air, ure).
Split digraph – two letters make one sound but the letters have been split apart by another letter.
Phoneme – a single unit of sound
Grapheme – a written letter, or group of letter that represent a sound.
Consonants – b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z
Blend – to put or merge the sounds together to make a word (e.g. the sounds d-o-g are blended to the word ‘dog’.)
Segment – to break down the word into its individual sounds to spell (e.g cat can be split into the sounds c-a-t.).
Sound buttons – ways of visually isolating different sounds in a word. We use a dot under letters where one letter makes one sound and a line understand digraphs or trigraphs.
How you can help at home
- Reading every night at home with your child
- Practise reading and writing tricky words
- Practising your children’s handwriting
How We Teach Reading
We are on a mission to encourage ALL of our children to read for pleasure. Reading is such an important part of our Curriculum and here at Sound and District Primary School we are always encouraging our children to look at books and we ensure that our children are exposed to lots of stories read to them by our staff.
Sharing a story with children helps to promote talk, build vocabulary, build relationships and improve children’s book handling skills. There is nothing children love more than getting cosy with a book!
The start of the reading journey:
In the Reception classes, we encourage ‘book talk’. The children learn to handle books, they talk constantly about what’s happening and they begin to recognise a few key words. All this is happening alongside a phonics programme so that, when the children are learning letters and sounds, they can always apply these skills to the books they are reading.
Moving on through Key Stage 1 (Year 1 and 2):
In year 1 and 2, as well as the teaching of phonics, there is also a focus on comprehension and reading for enjoyment. We use a ‘banded’ scheme which is carefully graded to move the readers quickly; using one small step at a time. In addition to that ‘Guided Reading’ takes place in classes, through a carousel of Reading activities to further develop word recognition and comprehension skills.
Moving on through Key Stage 2 (years 3-6):
Since September 2019, KS2 children have used Accelerated Reader (AR). Teachers use the computer based programme to monitor, structure and reward children’s reading across the school. Since we introduced AR, children have responded positively to the programme with a corresponding impact on rates of progress and attainment.
Reading for pleasure!
Stay and Read
Each half term we have a ‘Stay and Read’ session in school for parents and carers with children in Reception to Year 6. This is an opportunity for parents/carers to come into school and share a book with their child in a calm and peaceful environment. Listen to their child read, chat to them about the book and share opinions about the book.
Mystery Readers in Reception
This year we implemented a very successful mystery reader scheme in Reception. The aim of “Mystery Reader” is to show children that adults love reading too each week we invite a parent, grandparent or other family members to come into their child’s class to read a children’s story. This could be a book the adult particularly enjoyed reading when you were growing up or a current children’s book brought from home, or selected from the school library.