Grazeley Parochial Primary School

Letters, Sounds and Reading

Phonics , Reading and Comprehension

This Open Morning aims to…

To provide information about how your child is learning phonics and reading.

To learn how you can help your child to further develop their reading skills.

To ask any questions about phonics, reading, comprehension and assessment.

What is phonics ?

Phonics teaching involves teaching children the sounds of letters ( not just the names) and how to segment and blend them together to make words , e.g. c - a - t can be blended to make cat.

Phonics consists of :

Identifying sounds in spoken words, e.g. sat, pin.

Recognising the common spelling of each phoneme, e.g. sh, ay.

Blending words into phonemes for reading, e.g. ship.

Segmenting words into phonemes for spelling, e.g. sh-i-p.

How it works ..

At Grazeley, the Letters and Sounds Scheme is implemented in Foundation and Key Stage One.

TRACKS and Support for Spelling are used in Key Stage Two.

Children are grouped according to individual needs and work in different areas of the school with Teachers and Teacher Assistants.

Letters and Sounds Phases

Phonics and reading skills are taught in six distinct phases.

These phases are set out in the Letters and Sounds Scheme.

Phases are taught sequentially.

Useful definitions PHONEME - smallest unit of sound.

GRAPHEME - written representation of the sound.

DIGRAPH - two letters making one sound, e.g. ee.

TRIGRAPH - three letters making one sound, e.g. igh.

QUADGRAPH - four letters making one sound, e.g. eigh.

SPLIT DIGRAPH - where two letters are not adjacent, e.g. a-e as in have.

Overview of Phases Phase 1 : Rhyming , keeping rhythms and start to relate letter sounds to words, e.g. b is for bag.

Phase 2 : Learn initial letters sounds and build 3 letters words.

Phase 3 : Learn all 44 phonemes and blend sounds together to read words.

Phase 4 : Blend consonants together to read difficult words, e.g. blue, grab.

Phase 5 : Learn how to spell letter sounds in more than one way, e.g. rain, day, make.

Phase 6 : Learn how to spell word specific spelling, e.g. turned , beautiful.

Sequence of each session

1. RECALL - Revisit and review previous sound and word building.

2. TEACH - A new phonic skill.

3. PRACTISE - the new skill.

4. APPLY - in a new situation, e.g. reading or writing in a sentence.

How you can help at home

Encourage and model correct pronunciation of sounds.

Reading daily to your child OR with your child OR listen to them read.

Encourage sounding out as one strategy when they are having trouble reading a word.

PRAISE all attempts!

Things that you could notice as you read together

Synonyms-words with the same or similar meanings, e.g. synonyms for said are yelled, screeched, whispered, replied.

Antonyms-a word which has the opposite meaning to a given word, e.g. antonyms for cold are hot, warm, humid, fiery and balmy.

When we assess reading we look at seven diff erent areas;

AF1: I can blend sounds to read and understand words. I know my high frequency words.

I know how to help myself when I get stuck.

AF2: I can find information and ideas in the text and quote them in my answer.

AF3: I can find author’s clues about what is happening or how characters are feeling.

AF4: I can explain why the writer has organised the text in the way he or she has.

AF5: I can explain the meaning of words and phrases and the intended eff ect of the

language chosen by the author.

AF6: I can explain how the author feels about the text and how he wants the reader to

feel or think.

AF7: I can explain how this text relates to others I have read or to the place or time in

which it was written.

Reading Progress

Questions you can askTypes of questions you could ask for each AF:

AF1 How can you work out a word if you get stuck?

AF2: What does _______ mean?

What happened after _____?

AF3: How is _____ feeling, what word gives you clues? What does _____ think about ____?

AF4: Why are subheadings / bullet points / labels used on this page? Why is this word in bold / italics? Why is this word in capitals?

AF5: Why did the author compare these two things? What eff ect does saying that _______ was like a ______ have?

AF6: Does the author like ______? How can you tell? How is the author trying to make you feel about _____? What words or phrases make you think this?

AF7: I s the main character like you? I f so how?

What kind of story is this? How can you tell?

What your children think about their reading…

I feel alone and isolated when I read. Molly

It feels like you are submerged in a book. Ben

It is a quiet time to listen and build pictures in my head. Charlie

What your children think about their reading…

Some books you can’t wait to get to the end but some books you don’t want to get to the end. Emily

It is discouraging at the bottom and I need to be brave – it seems too big. Milly

There are sometimes scary parts, but it works out in the end. Charlotte T.

What your children think about their reading…

When I finish I feel like I am out of breath and amazing. Daniel B.

Every chapter is like a mile. Isaac

When I read a tricky book, I am getting better and better at reading. Jude

What your children think about their reading…

You don’t know what’s going to happen next. Aiden, Maddie and Archie W.

It can be mysterious and exhilarating. Archie A.

Sometimes you find tricky words. Olivia D.

Notice a favourite author’s style.

What does the author do to grab your attention.

Begin to ‘borrow’ great ideas from books read, it is what all good authors do.

Notice VCOP: Vocabulary, connectives, openings and punctuation.

How reading can be used to help writing

The cat went along the wall.

Let’s get the VCOP superheroes to work on saving us from the

boredom of boring sentences!

The cat went along the wall.Violet vocab adds adjectives

to describe and changes dull

words for interesting

alternatives!

The fluffy ginger cat prowled along the red brick wall.

The fluffy ginger cat prowled along the red brick wall.

Captain Connective

adds more detail or action to the

sentence.The fluffy ginger cat prowled

along the red brick wall because he was spying on a

juicy bird.

The fluffy ginger cat prowled along the red brick wall because he was spying

on a juicy bird.

Whilst licking his lips, the fluffy ginger cat prowled along the red brick wall because he was spying on a juicy

bird.

The Incredible Opener changes the beginning of the sentence to grab your

reader’s attention!

Whilst licking his lips, the fluffy ginger cat prowled along the red brick wall because he was spying on a juicy

bird.

Dr Punctuation makes an impact using different punctuation.

Whilst licking his lips, the fluffy ginger cat (who had sharp teeth)

prowled along the red brick wall because he was spying on a juicy

bird!

The cat went along the wall.

Whilst licking his lips, the fluffy ginger cat (who had sharp teeth) prowled along the red brick wall

because he was spying on a juicy bird!

We went from:

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