PHONICS
At Cranborne our intent is to ensure that children are taught the foundational skills that they can apply to reading and spelling through high quality lessons therefore creating an environment where children have the skills to read new and unfamiliar words and create a love for reading.
phonics is taught using the systematic approach of Read Write Inc. This approach was developed by Ruth Miskin and has been implemented at Cranborne for over four years. The approach begins in Nursery and runs throughout the school; it is formally taught in Nursery, Reception, Year One and for the first term in Year Two. It is expected that most children will move on from phonics after the first term in Year Two. However, we understand that every child is different and some children require further support in phonics, therefore it is taught throughout the school as an intervention. We have experienced excellent results in the Year One Government phonics assessment over the years. Read Write Inc develops children's phonic ability in terms of reading and writing and our children become very confident in their phonic application.
The sessions involve teaching the children a new sound, them being able to read this in words and then write the words with this sound in. We then ask the children to write some words with previously learnt sounds in too.
Red tricky words
The children will then also be taught some 'red tricky words' these are words that you cannot sound out, when teaching these we look at what the tricky part is, in the word "was" the 'a' is tricky the tricky part as it makes a 'o' sound.
For the reading part of the session, we have a book which the adult will discuss first. Each book has a passage for the adult to read explaining what the book is about. This will help the children to understand the text. Each book has words which they can read using their phonics and 'red tricky words' the adult will go through these before reading the story. The children then decode and read the book with a partner. This book will be kept for the whole three days and the children will re-read. This is so that they can develop their fluency and understanding by the third day.
Each session will also include a writing part where the children may be writing a sentence or part of the book, they may be correcting a sentence or they may be looking at grammar in a text.
Phonics screening
At the end of Year 1 the children will take part on a phonics screening check. For this check the children are required to read real and nonsense words.
See a pack of nonsense words here.
Videos:
Read Write Inc have provided us with some videos that we can share with you to support phonics.
How Read Write Inc. Phonics works - a parent/carer’s guide
How to help your child to learn the Read Write Inc. Phonics sounds
Parents: how to listen to your child read a Read Write Inc. Storybook
Reading the stretchy sounds with your child
Reading the bouncy sounds with your child
Read Write Inc. sound blending tutorial using phonics flashcards
Technical Vocabulary
Children are taught to understand and use the technical vocabulary of....
Digraph - two letters, one sound. Eg: ay as in play, oo as in zoom, ee as in sleep.
Trigraph - three letters, one sound. Eg: igh as in flight, air as in chair, are as in care.
Split vowel digraph - two letters that are both vowel but are split up by another sound. Eg: i_e as in like, a_e as in make, o_e as in home, u_e as in huge.
Vowel - a, e, i, o, u
Plural - adding an s onto the end of a word to imply more than one.
Root word - the main part of a word that can be altered by adding an ending or a beginning. Eg: playing, swimming, played.
Suffix - an ending to a root word. Eg: played, playing.
Prefix - a beginning to a root word. Eg: impossible, overcooked, unable.
Home Reading