Early Reading at Gilded Hollins
At Gilded Hollins, we strongly believe that reading is one of the most important skills that children learn at primary school.
To ensure that all children master reading, we use the Read Write Inc (RWI) phonics programme throughout Reception and Key Stage One. This programme teaches children to read accurately, fluently and with understanding, building a solid base of phonic knowledge to support children with their spelling.
Direct teaching underpins Read Write Inc. Every day, children learn new sounds, and review previous sounds and words. They apply what they’ve been taught by reading words containing the sounds they know in matched decodable books and other texts, and write these sounds in individual words and, later, sentences.
Using RWI, the children learn to read effortlessly so that they can then focus on comprehension. It also allows them to spell competently so that they can put all their energy into composing what they write.
We also use this programme as 1:1 or as a small group intervention for those children in KS2 who need a more targeted approach.
When using RWI to read the children will:
When using RWI to write the children will:
Order of teaching sounds
In Read Write Inc phonics, the individual sounds are called ‘speed sounds’ – because we want your child to read them effortlessly. Set 1 sounds are the initial letter sounds. They are taught in the following order. 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
There are 12 Set 2 ‘speed sounds’ that are made up of two or three letters which represent just one sound, e.g. ay as in play, ee as in tree and igh as in high.
When children learn their Set 2 sounds, they will learn:
Every speed sound has a list of green words linked to it, so your child can ‘sound out’ and ‘sound blend’ words containing the new speed sound they have just learnt, for example s-p-r-ay = spray.
When learning their Set 3 speed sounds, children will be taught that there are more ways in which the same sounds are written, e.g. ee as in tree and ea as in tea.
The table below shows the sound, the associated phrase and example green words.
Vowel sound | Set 2 Speed Sound Rhyme | Green words |
ay | ay: may I play | day play say may tray today |
ee | ee: what can you see? | seen need sleep feel three green |
igh | igh: fly high | might light sight night fright |
ow | ow: blow the snow | snow flow know show blow |
oo | oo: poo at the zoo | mood fool pool stool moon spoon |
oo | oo: look at a book | took shook cook foot |
ar | ar: start the car | bar park smart sharp car spark |
or | or: shut the door | sort short worn horse sport fork |
air | air: that’s not fair | fair stair hair lair chair |
ir | ir: whirl and twirl | girl third whirl twirl dirt |
ou | ou: shout it out | mouth round found loud shout |
oy | oy: toy for a boy | toy boy enjoy |
| Set 3 Speed Sound Rhyme |
|
a-e | a-e: make a cake | shake name same save brave late |
ea | ea: cup of tea | neat real clean please dream |
i-e | i-e: nice smile | hide shine white nice wide like |
o-e | o-e: phone home | hope home rose spoke note those |
u-e | u-e: huge brute | tune rude use June excuse |
aw | aw: yawn at dawn | saw raw law straw dawn crawl |
are | are: care and share | bare bare spare scare flare square |
ur | ur: nurse with a purse | burn turn hurl burp slurp lurk |
ow | ow: brown cow | howl down brown drown gown |
oi | oi: spoil the boy | join coin voice choice noise |
ai | ai: snail in the rain | paint train rain plain strain |
e | e: he me she we | he me she we he |
oa | oa: goat in a boat | toad road oak loaf throat toast |
ew | ew: chew the stew | new knew flew blew crew newt |
er | er: better letter | over never weather hamster after |
ire | ire: fire fire | spire bonfire inspire conspire hire |
ear | oar: hear with your ear | fear dear gear spear year |
ure | ure: sure it’s pure | picture mixture adventure pure |
Within all the books children will have red and green words to learn 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.
What can you do at home?
We believe that teaching your child to read relies on a good partnership between home and school. When you are reading with your child at home, it is important that the sounds you say are the 'pure sounds.' You may find they tell you off if you don’t!
Click the link below to hear how to pronounce sounds correctly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkXcabDUg7Q
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.
If you would like any further information, the Ruth Miskin Website has a wealth of useful videos and information.
http://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/parents/
Reading in Key Stage Two
The approach to reading throughout Key Stage 2 may be seen as taking a ‘three-pronged approach’.
1. All children in KS2 are taught specific reading skills each week during their Reading Response lesson. In this English lesson, the children are given questions from all of the content domains.
2. Each Key Stage 2 each class also does an additional reading lesson 4 times a week. This lesson is a Whole Class Reading session. The children are taught lessons exploring different texts about a linked theme. For example, in Year Six the children will explore texts based on the theme of Pompeii (a non-fiction text, fiction text and a song). Each text is a focus for two days. The Whole Class Reading sessions are structured to have a vocabulary focus at the start, a quick retrieval section and then a series of partnered talk or individual thinking questions which lead to solo work at the end.
3. Each KS2 class has a weekly Book Circle session, lead by an adult, which is dedicated to foster a passion for stories and the written word. Books are carefully chosen to pique interest, stretch knowledge, or open up a new series of books. Guided by the adult, children join in with each book by reading the text chorally, individually or simply by listening. Talk and a book focused conversation is key to fostering a love of reading in all of our children.
All classes have a ‘class reader’ – a book that is shared together and read by the whole class.
Regardless of year group, it is the expectation that every child in school will read at home at least five times weekly. This is monitored in school through the use of a digital reading record which is posted on Seesaw for staff to keep track of.