Phonics Meeting March 2023
RWI Policy
At Shelley First School we aim for all our 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
- RWI parents workshop information - please see the links to You tube recordings of our parents meetings from this year (insert youtube links)
At Shelley First School we use Read Write Inc Phonics (RWI) to give your child the best possible start with their literacy. We have put together a guide to how the RWI programme works together with some useful links. Mrs Smith is our Read Write Inc leader, so if you have questions about RWI, 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.
What is Read Write Inc?
Read Write Inc (RWI) 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.
RWI was developed by Ruth Miskin and more information on this can be found at https://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/parents-copy-2/. This Web page contains useful videos that will help you to support your child at home.
How will RWI be taught?
All children are assessed regularly by our RWI Leader 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
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
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. Once children become fluent, speedy readers they will move on to our English curriculum.
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. Please refer to the parents section of the Ruth Miskin website for more information on how to pronounce the sounds.
There is also a video linked for this here Parent video: How to say the sounds - YouTube
Fred Talk
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 Read Write Inc. Phonics: Ruth Miskin on how to teach blending to children - YouTube
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. Please do not use letter names at this early stage. See pronunciation video above to see how to say the sounds correctly.
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 (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.
The Year 1 phonics screening check is a short, light-touch assessment to confirm whether individual pupils have learnt phonic decoding to an appropriate standard.
The Phonics Screening Check will take place in June. Please ensure your child is at school during this period. Please follow the youtube link for a recording of our parental workshop on phonics screening.
Please follow these links for phonics past papers.
2017 phonics screening check: pupils' materials (publishing.service.gov.uk)
2018 phonics screening check: pupils' materials (publishing.service.gov.uk)
Step 3:
Children will be introduced to books when they successfully begin to read single words.
Children use sound-blending (Fred Talk) to read short ditties. They will bring these home once they have read and discussed the book in class. 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.
During the RWI 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. We say that the children read three with me, four at home. This means that we read the book in school with your child before they bring it home to read four times with you.
We love to read
Children take part in a daily story time where teachers read an engaging, age appropriate book to the children. Children also bring home a ‘love of reading book’. This book is not one for the children to read independently but to share with any grown ups or older siblings at home.
To help at home:
Your child will start to bring books home when they are confident readers. Please help them to read and give lots of praise! If you have any other questions about RWI, please see your child's class teacher or Mrs Smith.