Supporting your child with reading. 7th October

The Power of Reading! Creating a love of reading in children is potentially one of the most powerful ways of improving academic standards in school. There can be few better ways to improve pupils chances in school, or beyond in the wider world than to enable them to become truly independent readers.

Reading requires two skills Phonics and Word Recognition The ability to recognise words presented in and out of context. The ability to blend letter sounds (phonemes) together to read words. Understanding The ability to understand the meaning of the words and sentences in a text. The ability to understand the ideas, information and themes in a text. If a child understands what they hear, they will understand the same information when they read.

Task 1 Be a first time reader!!! With a partner try and work out what the text says. Try and reflect on the strategies that you are using. Think about the conventions of print that you know about that may be helping you.

Concepts and skills that need to be in place in order for a child to begin learn to read …… Words and pictures are different but the words and the pictures are linked. The words on a page tell us what to say and are always the same. We read from left to right Letters represent sounds Sounds can be combined to make words There is a space between each word Visual memory to recall some words by sight and to remember all the letters and their sounds.

Reading in School The Teaching of Reading Phonics Shared reading Guided reading Independent reading Personal reading Focused reading activities Reading across the curriculum Class stories School readers Home readers The hearing of reading is NOT the teaching of reading

Phonic skills – Blending p – i – g pig Blending for reading and Segmenting for spelling

1:1 correspondence Matching what you say / ‘read’ to the words on the page. Often at the early stage of reading children will memorise the words. Memory is an important aspect of reading – just ensure that the children are pointing to the words that they are saying. You can ask them to find specific words on the page –’which word do you think says…..’ Drawing their attention to the shape and appearance to the word.

A suggested structure to reading with your child First of all look at the front cover of the book, talk about what you think the story will be about, and locate the title. Point to the words in the title and say each word out loud as you do so, modelling reading from left to right. How many words can we see here? Be curious and interested!

A walk through of the book Let your child turn the pages as you look through the book. Spend time looking at the pictures, taking in all the detail and talking about what is happening. Ask your child why they think something happened, or why a character did something and discuss character’s feelings. Also, encourage your child to ask questions about the story. Can you relate what the story is about to your own experiences?

Tackling the words Again, be curious ‘I wonder what the words say’ In the earliest stages you can model reading it and pointing to the words. Let your child copy you with them pointing to and looking at the words. Are there any familiar words? Look out for beginning sounds ‘this word begins with s is there anything in the picture that begins with that sound.

Be Prepared!! Try and read through the book yourself first – you will quickly see if it is a book which is all about sounding out (phonics) or a book in which further skills will be required.

Sound or word search Sometimes you may want to play a game…. such as: search for a specific word/sound through the book e.g how many times does it say can in the book?

Encourage a problem solving approach…….. encourage your child to use what they know – sounds knowledge, picture clues, using repetition and pattern to help Draw their attention to repeated words – ‘have you noticed they all look the same’

What to do if your child is stuck Use phonics first. What sound does the word begin with? Can you say the sounds in the word? Blend them together. Read to the end of the sentence. What would make sense? What is the text about – what might fit here? Does it sound right? Look at the picture. Does it help?

Developing more strategies John let his pet frog go. It ******across the grass. What is the first sound? It h***** across the grass. What would make sense? It hopping across the grass Does that sound right? It hopped across the grass

Avoid Closed Questions ….. Do you like this book? Do you like this character? It’s a good story isn’t it? Do you like reading? Are you good at reading? Do you like this kind of story? Change these questions so that the answers cannot be yes or no. What do you like about this book? What do you think of this character? Why do you think this is a good story? What’s great about reading? Why are you a good reader? What is it about these stories that you like so much?

Reading at Home – Enjoy! Make reading visible; have books available in your home Share books every day; Boys need to see that reading is something men do. Talk about books. Sit and listen - don’t do chores around the reader! Respect choices.