Literacy evening for Reception and Key Stage 1

Tuesday 19th November 2013

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Aims of the evening

• How we teach reading• Book banding• School library developments• How we teach writing

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What does Reception and Key Stage 1 mean?

• Reception - Early years foundation stage

• Key Stage 1 - Years 1 and 23

Reading

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Why read?

• For pleasure

• To find things out

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10 benefits of reading

1. Children who read often and widely, get better at it

2. Reading exercises our brain3. Reading improves concentration – sit still,

quietly focus4. Reading teaches children about the world

around them – people, places, events outside their own experience

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10 benefits of reading

5. Reading improves children’s vocabulary, leads to more highly-developed language skills and develops children’s ability to write well6. Reading develops children’s imaginations –

descriptions into pictures; imagine how the characters feel

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10 benefits of reading

7. Reading helps children develop empathy8. Children who read do better at school9. Reading is a great form of entertainment10. Reading relaxes the body and calms the mind – how to relax and be silent

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The importance of reading

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The importance of reading

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The importance of reading

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How we teach reading•Phonics

•Guided reading

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Phonics

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What is phonics?

• Letters and sounds

• 26 letters in the alphabet• Combinations of letters make 44 sounds• Short vowel sounds: a, e, i, o, u• Long vowel sounds: combinations of more than one

vowel = digraphs: ai, ee, igh, oa, ue14

What is phonics?

• What sounds letters make• Eg, s says ssss; oa in coat says o

• How to represent sounds with letters/combinations of letters

• Eg, to write the long o sound in coat you need oa• To write the long e sound in feet you need ee

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What is phonics?

• Segmenting words into sounds

• Blending sounds to say/read words

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What is phonics?

• Phoneme = a unit of sound

• The word cat has 3 phonemes: c-a-t

• Train has 4 phonemes: t-r-ai-n17

How do we teach phonics?

• From Reception to Year 2• In small groups• Children grouped depending on where they

are upto in their phonic knowledge• There are 6 phases to teaching phonics

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PhonicsPhase 1:

• Nursery and Reception• Environmental sounds: in their play, sounds

animals make, sounds different objects make• Instrumental sounds: shakers – how sounds can

be changed, musical instruments, making up simple rhymes

• Body percussion: march, stamp, clap to the beat19

PhonicsPhase 1:

• Rhythm and rhyme: build up a stock of rhymes from hearing them repeated over and over again

• Where English is an additional language, songs and rhymes help children to tune into the rhythm and sound of English

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PhonicsPhase 1:

• Enjoying and sharing books

• Word play: inventing new rhymes

• Alliteration: please can I have some sizzling sausages/chunky chips

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PhonicsPhase 1:

• Book area: lots of books with alliterative rhymes and jingles

• Voice sounds: eg We’re going on a bear hunt: use sound effects: swish swish through the grass, squelch squelch in the mud

• Children vocalise sounds as they play: h, h, h, when hopping; b,b,b when bouncing a ball

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PhonicsPhase 1: Oral blending and segmenting

Oral blending:• It’s time to get your c-oa-t, coat.• Touch your t-oe-s, toes.Toy talk:• A toy that can speak in sound-talk:• What would Gabby like for tea today?• Ch-ee-se, cheese• eg. Fish, cake, pie, soup

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PhonicsPhase 1: Oral blending and

segmenting: Nursery and Reception

Clapping sounds:• Words using s,a,t,p,i,n letters:• Eg. Sat, pin, nip, pat, tap, pit, pip,• Which one?• Lay out objects with names that contain three

phonemes, eg. l-ea-f, sh-ee-p, s-oa-p• Use the sound-talk toy

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PhonicsPhase 2: move to blending and segmenting

with letters

• In Reception and for those who still need it, into years 1 and 2.

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PhonicsPhase 2: move to blending and

segmenting with letters

• Out loud• Action for each sound: • S – weave hand in an s shape, like a snake and

say ssss• A – wiggle fingers above elbow as if ants

crawling on you, saying a, a, a26

PhonicsPhase 2: move to blending and

segmenting with letters

• Learning the sounds does not follow alphabetical order

• Introduced to at least 19 letters of the alphabet

• s, a, t, p, i, n• Move on from oral blending and segmenting

to blending and segmenting with letters27

PhonicsPhase 2: move to blending and

segmenting with letters

• Oral segmenting : s-a-t• Oral blending: sat• Clapping the sounds/sound fingers

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PhonicsPhase 2: move to blending and segmenting

with letters

• Use magnetic boards and letters• Phoneme frames where they write the letters• Sound buttons /sound fingers

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PhonicsPhase 2

• a phoneme frame showing a word with three phonemes/sounds

s a t30

PhonicsPhase 2

• a phoneme frame showing a word with three phonemes/sounds

c oa t31

PhonicsPhase 2:

• Need to apply their phonic knowledge in writing words and sentences

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PhonicsPhase 2:

• Daily teaching sequence:• Revisit and review• Teach• Practise• Apply

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PhonicsPhase 2:

• Initially in Reception the children will bring home books for you to share with them

• Once they know some sound/letter correspondences and sight words they will start to bring books home which follow simple phonic patterns

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PhonicsPhase 2:

• Importance of applying their phonic skills of segmenting and blending when beginning to read

• Need lots of books with phonic patterns in• Need to read the books over and over again

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PhonicsPhase 2:

• Importance of sight words too:• 32 of the first 100 high frequency words: eg.

an, as, can, dad• Include tricky words which have to be learnt

on sight: eg. no, go, into

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PhonicsPhase 3:

• Learn the rest of the sounds so they know the 44 sounds

• Introduced to long vowel sounds: combinations of letters to make a sound:

• Eg. ai (rain), ee (feet), ie (tie), oa (boat), • ue (blue) • Next 24 of the first 100 high frequency words

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PhonicsMoving on in the phases

• Children will be moved on in the phonic phases when they are ready to, regardless of whether they are in Reception, Year 1 or Year 2

• Children who are not secure on the sounds in phase 2 will not move onto those in phase 3 until they are ready to.

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PhonicsMoving on in the phases

• So your child may move into Year 1 or even Year 2 and still be on phase 2 or 3

• If that is the case that is where they are upto in their phonics learning and they won’t master the next phase until they are secure on the previous one.

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PhonicsMoving on in the phases

• Some children take a lot longer than others to master phonics

• Those children who need to will go to Mrs Priest, our SENCO for additional literacy support, and they will have an IEP: an individual education plan

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PhonicsPhase 4:

• No new sounds introduced• Adjacent consonants: went, frost• Words may have 4 or 5 phonemes:• F-l-a-g, ch-i-m-p• S-p-e-n-d, g-r-a-s-p• Polysyllabic words: chil-dren, sham-poo• 20 more high frequency words to learn

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PhonicsPhase 5

Different ways to spell long vowel sounds:• Eg. Long a sound instead of ai: spelt –ay as in

day; a-e as in cakeAlternative pronunciations: • Eg i instead of as in t-i-n mind, find• 24 more high frequency words to learn

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PhonicsPhase 5

• There are lots to learn• The most difficult phase to master• If children are not secure on phase 3, where

they were introduced to the first way to read and spell the long vowel digraphs: ai, ee, igh, oa, ue, then they can not pick up phase 5

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PhonicsPhase 5

• They may have to revisit phase 3 to make sure they are secure first

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PhonicsPhase 6

• By this stage children should be able to read hundreds of words by:

• Sight• Decoding (segmenting) silently and quickly• Decoding aloud

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PhonicsPhase 6

• Children’s spelling should be phonetically accurate, although it may still be a little unconventional

• Spelling usually lags behind reading, as it is harder

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PhonicsPhonics screening test

• Year 1• Re-sit in Year 2• Need to be secure on phase 5 to do well on it

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Phonicsinto Year 3

• We would hope that the majority of children are secure at phase 5 by the time they move into Year 3 where they will continue to do phonics

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PhonicsWhat you can do to help at home

• Reinforce what your child is doing at school• Practise the sounds/words that come home• 5/10 minutes a night• Little and often is more effective than one

long session

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PhonicsWhat you can do to help at home

• 30 children in a class• Secure on different sounds and words• Those children who get to practise their

sounds and words at home do better than those who don’t

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Book banding

• Books are organised into colours according to National Curriculum levels

• These levels go from working towards Level 1 upto 4a, so continue into Key Stage 2

• In Stanwix, we have a range of books from different publishers within each band, eg. Oxford reading tree, Ginn

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Book banding

• Within each class, the books are arranged in baskets according to their book banding colour

• It’s not a case of rushing through the baskets and only reading a book once

• It’s about enjoying a book and understanding it, not just decoding the words on the page

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Book banding

• Within each book band there are stories, poetry and information books

• Children need to be able to read all of these, not just the stories

• Some publishers’ books seem easier, eg. Oxford reading tree

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Guided reading

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What is guided reading?

• Where children share the same book in a small group of 6 children with a teacher/teaching assistant

• In this way, every child is heard reading at least once a week

• Children are in groups according to what they need to learn to do with their reading: decoding, comprehension

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What is guided reading?

• Children get to practise their decoding (phonics) skills and recognising the sight words they have learned, as well as learning additional reading strategies like, going back and re-reading, missing out the word and reading on to the end of the sentence

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What is guided reading?

They are taught how to:• Predict what might be going to happen• Find answers to questions• Read between the lines• Discuss the setting, the plot, the characters• Understand the author’s use of language

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What is guided reading?

They are taught how to:• Learn to read unknown words • Widen their vocabulary• Read a poem/an information book• Find their way around an information book• Make connections between other books• Say what they like/dislike

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What do the rest of the class do during guided reading?

• They work in groups on independent reading activities

• Which follow on from what they read in their group in a previous session

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When do we listen to your child read outside of guided reading?

• Impossible to do this while teaching• Do it when on PPA Time• That’s why guided reading is so important• That’s why it is important to listen to your

children read every night

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How do we decide what level of book your child needs to be on?

For every child there is an:• Easy• Instructional • Hardlevel of reading book for them

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How do we decide what level of book your child needs to be on?

Also, being able to read every word on the page does not make them a good reader

They have to read with fluency, at a good pace, with expression, pausing at the right places

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How do we decide what level of book your child needs to be on?

They have to:Have understood what they have read

Be able to talk about their reading

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Book banded reading books which come home

• These should be easy• But we tend to send instructional books home

because we expect you to listen to your child read

• Ideally, they should read an easy book and part of their instructional book each night

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Our school library

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Our school library

• Computerised borrowing system• All classes can borrow from it, although not

much suitable for Reception and Key Stage 1 to read on their own yet

• Can borrow books to share with someone at home

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Re-fit of our school library

• Re-decoration• New purpose-built shelving• New carpet• New furniture• Inspirational words on the wall

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Re-fit of our school library

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Re-fit of our school library

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Re-fit of our school library

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Writing

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Why is writing important?

• Your child will need to write for themselves and others throughout their lives

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New Curriculum for 2014

The New Curriculum for 2014 talks about writing in terms of:• Composition

• Transcription

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Composition

Involves:• Planning, forming, articulating your ideas• Organising your ideas coherently for the

reader• Being aware of your audience and the

purpose for your writing

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Composition

Involves:• How to structure your ideas• Using standard English grammar properly• Having a wide knowledge of vocabulary and

making effective use of it• Using punctuation correctly

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Transcription

Involves:• Handwriting

• Spelling

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How do we teach Composition?

• Linked to our topic work• Build up to a piece of writing• Scaffold the children all the way• Show good examples of the type of writing• Model how to write• Shared writing• Independent writing

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How do we teach Composition?

• Build in improvement time• Children are aware of learning objectives and

success criteria• It may take 2/3 weeks to teach a particular

piece of writing

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How do we teach composition?

Teach:• The structure of the piece of writing, eg a

recount, a report, an explanation, a story

• VCOP

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What is VCOP?

V = vocabulary adjectives/adverbsC = connectives and, but, so, becauseO = openers Then, Next, HoweverP = punctuation capital letter , full stop

? ! , “ ”

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What is VCOP?

• Like phonics teaching, there is an order in how the different VCOP skills are taught

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Importance of the perfect sentence

• Capital letter• Full stop• Finger spaces• Makes sense

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How do we teach transcription?

Handwriting:

• Regular discrete lessons• Modelling of handwriting• Correct letter formation/orientation/size• Difference between tall and small letters• In-strokes• joining

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How do we teach transcription?

Handwriting: Aiming for:

• Correct letter formation/orientation/size• Difference between tall and small letters• In-strokes• joining

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How do we teach transcription?

Spelling:• Linked to phonics lessons• Linked to topic lessons• High frequency words• Tricky words

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How do we teach transcription?

Spelling: Methods:

Look, say, cover, write, checkMagic spelling

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Thank you for coming

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