1 "We read to know we are not alone." ~ C S Lewis"Reading aloud with children is known to be the single most important activity for building the knowledge and skills they will eventually require for learning to read." ~ Marilyn Jager Adams, child development expert

2 Aims of the day To show parents how phonics is taught in schoolTo support parents in helping their children become ‘Readers for Life’

3 The Simple View of Reading

4 Phonics and Early ReadingSt Mary Magdalene’s Primary School

5 Letters and Sounds In reception, we also use ‘Jolly Phonics’-a programme which represents each sound with an action helping children to remember both more easily. Shaun to demonstrate at some point

6 There are six phases of letters and sounds taught from Nursery to Year 2. Phase 1 :Nursery Phases 2, 3 and 4: Reception and consolidated in Year 1. Phase 5: started in Year 1 Phase 5 and 6: Year 2. The children are assessed regularly to ensure that their needs are being met as it is important that each child is secure within a phase. Extra support is given to those children who need it.

7 Phonics at a glance Phonics is… Skills of segmentation and blendingKnowledge of the alphabetic code.

8 The alphabet contains only 26 letters.Spoken English uses about 44 sounds (phonemes). These phonemes are represented by letters (graphemes). In other words, a sound can be represented by a letter (e.g. ‘s’ or ‘h’) or a group of letters (e.g. ‘th’ or ‘igh’). Once children begin learning sounds, they are used quickly to read and spell words.

9 How many phonemes can you hear in ?A Phoneme This is the smallest unit of sound in a word. How many phonemes can you hear in ? cat sigh We use the terms ‘beans and sausages’ to distinguish between the phonemes, digraphs and trigraphs. (bean sausage)

10 Enunciation Teaching phonics requires a technical skill in enunciation. Phonemes (sounds) should be articulated clearly and precisely. Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Xv86tGhyPI

11 The grapheme could be 1 letter, 2 letters or more!A grapheme These are the letters that represent the phoneme. The grapheme could be 1 letter, 2 letters or more! t ai igh

12 A word always has the same number of phonemes and graphemes!A phoneme you hear A grapheme you see A word always has the same number of phonemes and graphemes!

13 How do we support the learningof phonics in school? Daily phonics session – 20 minutes minimum Daily phonic activities A phonic-rich learning environment Using phonic knowledge in English lessons Additional daily support for groups of children

14 How can you help? Encourage your child to ‘sound out’ when reading or writing. Focusing particularly on spotting more unusual sound patterns. Digraph- 2 letters making one sound cow Trigraphs- 3 letters making one sound night Split digraphs- 2 vowels with a consonant inbetween. Use to be known as the magic e! spine - i_e

15 sat shirt moss catch boat night What is a phoneme?Smallest unit of sound Approximately 44 phonemes in English Some are represented by more than one letter

16 Building words from phonemes to read.Segmenting: means breaking words down into their phonemes to spell e.g. c/a/t Building words from phonemes to read. c a t Blending: the process that is involved in bringing the sounds together to make a word or a syllable and is how /c/ /a/ /t/ becomes cat. cat

17 Segmenting and Blendingqu ee n queen

18 A segmenting activity Segment these words into their constituent phonemes: shelf dress think string sprint flick

19 Segmenting shelf dress think string sprint flick WORD PHONEMESHand out blanks for TAs to complete. Next slide shows answers. Why is there a single ‘f’, ‘k’ ? Letters only double after a short vowel. In this case the ‘f’ and ‘k’ are preceded by a consonant. Misunderstandings around segmenting can lead to incorrect teaching.

20 Segmenting shelf sh e l f dress d r ss think th i n k string s t ngWORD PHONEMES shelf sh e l f dress d r ss think th i n k string s t ng sprint p flick ck The grid shows the constituent phonemes. Why is there a single ‘f’, ‘k’ ? Letters only double after a short vowel. In this case the ‘f’ and ‘k’ are preceded by a consonant. Misunderstandings around segmenting can lead to incorrect teaching.

21 This is where it gets tricky!A phoneme can be represented/spelled in more than one way ( cat, kennel, choir) The same grapheme may represent more than one phoneme ( me, met)

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23 What is the phonic check?• 40 words • Progression from easier words to expected level • Real words and nonsense words ( we refer to these as ‘alien words’) • Common real words and less common real words • One syllable and two syllable words

24 Year 1 Phonics Test- example

25 What can I do at home? A great way to engage children at home with phonics is to play games. Matching pairs, snap, sorting words or letters are all ways you can help support your children. If you have a computer at home then below is a list of websites that have fun interactive games for children to play.

26 Useful web sites Other resources which are not free but may be helpful: Twinkle resources: EPIC-Online books for kids: https://www.getepic.com/

27 "Reading aloud with children is known to be the single most important activity for building the knowledge and skills they will eventually require for learning to read." ~ Marilyn Jager Adams, child development expert Please refer to our guides: ‘Supporting your Child’s Reading’ ‘Teaching of Phonics-A Guide for Parents (These are on our website)