Phonics at Blackawton

Developing Early Reading through Read, Write Inc at Blackawton

At Blackawton we want all children to become fluent, confident readers who are passionate about reading.

Children who read regularly or are read to regularly have the opportunity to open the doors to so many different worlds! More importantly, reading will give your child the tools to become independent life-long learners.

We can achieve this together through:

Read Write Inc, a program to help to your child read at school
Encouraging children to develop a love of books by reading to them daily, at home and at school
Giving children access to a wide range of books at school and at home

At Blackawton we use Read Write Inc Phonics (RWInc) to give your child the best possible start with their literacy. We have put together a guide to how the RWInc programme works together with some useful links.

Mrs Llewellyn is our Read Write Inc lead teacher, so if you have questions about RWInc, contact school who can refer you to her. Please take the time to read the information as it will provide invaluable information as to how you can help and support your child in reading. For further information and our phonics Policy please click here

What is Read Write Inc?

Read Write Inc (RWInc) is a phonics complete literacy programme which helps all children learn to read fluently and at speed so they can focus on developing their skills in comprehension, vocabulary and spelling. The programme is designed for children aged 4-7. However, at Blackawton we will continue teaching RWInc to children beyond the age of 7 if they still need support in their reading.

RWInc was developed by Ruth Miskin and more information on this can be found at https://ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out-more/parents/.

How will RWInc be taught?

All children are assessed regularly by our RWInc lead teacher so they work with children at the same level. This allows complete participation in lessons.

Reception

In Reception all children will learn how to ‘read’ the sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down.

Reading

The children:

learn 44 sounds and the corresponding letters/letter groups using simple picture prompts – see below
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
learn to build sentences by practising sentences out loud before they write

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

Year One & Year Two

Children follow the same format as Reception but will work on complex sounds and read books appropriate to their reading level. Daily sessions of RWInc phonics last for one hour. Once children become fluent speedy readers they will move on to the English Skills lesson.

Five key principles underpin the teaching in all Read Write Inc. sessions:

Purpose – know the purpose of every activity and share it with the children, so they know the one thing they should be thinking about
Participation – ensure every child participates throughout the lesson. Partnership work is fundamental to learning
Praise – ensure children are praised for effort and learning, not ability
Pace – teach at an effective pace and devote every moment to teaching and learning
Passion – be passionate about teaching so children can be engaged emotionally.

Children will be taught how to read as follows:
Before you start to teach your child, practise saying the sounds below. These are the sounds we use to speak in English.

Fred Talk

We use pure sounds (‘m’ not’ muh’,’s’ not ‘suh’, etc.) so that your child will be able to blend the sounds into words more easily.
At school we use a puppet called Fred who is an expert on sounding out words! we call it, ‘Fred Talk’. E.g. m-o-p, c-a-t, m-a-n, sh-o-p, b-l-a-ck.

The following video is an example of blending sounds with Fred.

The children are taught the sounds in 3 sets.

Step 1:

Set 1 Sounds are taught in the following order together with rhymes to help children form the letters correctly and instantly recognise sounds ready for blending.

Children will also use pictures for each sound to help recognise the sound and then form the shape of the sound.

Step 2:

The children are then taught Set 2 Sounds – the long vowels. When they are very confident with all of set 1 and 2 they are taught Set 3 Sounds.

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.

Step 3:

Children will be introduced to ‘Ditty books’ when they successfully begin to read single words. The short vowels should be kept short and sharp:

Children use sound-blending (Fred Talk) to read short ditties.

They will bring home a Book Bag Book, which we hope you will share with your child across the week.
Children will then be challenged to use their developing phonic knowledge to write short sentences.
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.

Dots and dashes represent the sound each letter makes.

Once your child has been introduced and taught these words in school we will send them home for you to continue practising with your child.

During the RWInc session children will read the book three times and at each new reading they will have plenty of opportunities to practise using their developing comprehension skills. You may have heard your child talking about ‘hold, edit or build a sentence’.

Hold a sentence is an activity that encourages children to remember a whole sentence while focusing on spelling and punctuation.

Build a sentence is to give children the opportunity to create their own sentence to that shows the meaning of a word and edit a sentence allows the children to critique a sentence using their knowledge of spelling punctuation and grammar. Children complete a longer piece of independent writing, which gives them the opportunity to show off their creativity and to practice their spelling, grammar and punctuation.

Spelling

Spelling is part of the RWInc programme. Children will use ‘Fred fingers’ to first sound out a word before they write it down. Children learn how to spell rather than just get tested. Furthermore, this way of teaching spellings allows children to use Fred fingers whenever they get stuck with spelling a word. Children pinch each sound on fingers before writing the word.

Order of Story books: Children will follow the order listed below. The expectation is that all children will leave Year One as confident speedy readers, ready to take on the challenges of Year Two. However, some children may need extra support and your teacher will talk to you about this.

To help at home:

Your child will start to bring books home when they are confident readers. Each week they will bring home a Book Bag Book linked directly to the RWInc book they have shared in school. Please share the book, talk about the pictures and encourage your child to read. Please revisit this book so your child becomes really familiar with the words and in doing so their fluency will develop. If they need to sound out a word, that is fine. Please give lots of praise!

Useful websites for Parents

Please find a list of websites that you may find useful in helping you and your child learn about phonics. Games and fun activity websites are also included.

Parents guide to Read Write Inc

Free eBooks

PHONICS AT BLACKAWTON