1. Improving Standards in Literacy Parent Information session
Jenna Jones
Literacy/Numeracy Project Coordinator

2. Was it a positive experience?
Who taught you to read?
Was it a positive experience?
Research undertaken by Literacy Matters states that over 80% of those surveyed believed that their parents taught them to read

3. Reading Skills
… a refresher

4. LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION
Reading Skills
WORD RECOGNITION
LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION
Phonic
knowledge
Graphic
Word
recognition
Contextual
understanding
Grammatical

5. How is Reading Taught in Schools?

6. Reading Skills
… decoding

7. Decoding Print
Memory
Picture clues
Sight recognition
Phonic knowledge

8. How we teach decoding at YGG Abercynon
POPAT
Tric a Chlic

9. Story Sack Library

10. Helping your child to decode
Pre-Read
It gives the child an overview of the story so that they can concentrate on reading for meaning
It prepares them for unfamiliar vocabulary enabling them to read with 95% success
It gives the child more confidence to tackle the text

11. Helping your child to decode
Sight recognition
Rhyming words
Sound buttons
Blending/segmenting
Picture clues
Read sentence leaving out a word. Discuss what the word could be.
Word games
Positive reinforcement

12. When a child gets stuck Stay calm!
Allow the child time to decode the word before telling them.
Encourage sounding out
Prompt the child to look at the pictures, there may be a clue.
Encourage the child to re-read the sentence, or complete the sentence.

13. … understanding – (higher order reading skills)

14. What is Reading?
Reading is a complex process. It involves more than just reading the words; it involves getting at the message behind the words. We can be fooled into thinking that learners can read effectively when, in fact, they are merely efficient decoders who gain little understanding of the writers’ message.

15. What is Reading?
Many children are decoders, not readers. Children must know that text is supposed to make sense and they need explicit instruction in how to comprehend.

16. Making meaning from text

17. How is Reading Taught in Schools?

18. How we teach higher-order reading skills at YGG Abercynon
Guided reading sessions
Whole class reading
Use of technology

19. Guided reading with teacher – approx. 6 in a group
Spelling activities / games
Follow-up activity from the guided reading session
Handwriting activity
Independent reading

21. What Can You Do To Help Your Child?
Be a great role model
Let them catch you reading
Let your children see that you get pleasure from reading
Share your favourite books/reading material with them
Show them the value of being able to read

22. What Can You Do To Help Your Child?
Make the experience pleasurable
Find a comfortable place
Give them plenty of time
Avoid interruptions
Keep the time positive
Stay clear of competition and comparisons with others – reading scheme-itis.

23. What Can You Do To Help Your Child?
Provide a wide range of reading material
A school reading book is only one part of a child’s reading repertoire
Magazines
Comics
Information books
Brochures
Catalogues
Flyers
Newspapers
Websites
Take-away menus
Instructions
Guide books

24. What Can You Do To Help Your Child?
8 magical strategies for improving comprehension
Make connections
Infer
Predict
Visualise
Question
Determine importance
Synthesise
Fix-up strategies

25. What Can You Do To Help Your Child?

26. Please help yourself to the leaflets you think will be useful
Parent leaflets
Please help yourself to the leaflets you think will be useful

27. — Victor Hugo, Les Miserables
Thank You!
"To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark."
— Victor Hugo, Les Miserables