1. Phonics Workshop Thursday 4th October 2018
Welcome Year 1 Parents/Carers

2. Phoneme The smallest unit of sound in a word.
There are 44 phonemes that we teach.
A phoneme is a unit of sound in speech. A phoneme doesn't have any inherent meaning by itself, but when you put phonemes together, they can make words. Think of when adults try to get a baby to say his or her first word
Watch the video.

4. Grapheme Letters representing a phoneme e.g. c ai igh
Children need to practise recognising the grapheme and saying the phoneme that it represents.
A way of writing down a phoneme. Graphemes can be made up from 1 letter e.g. p, 2 letters e.g. sh, 3 letters e.g. tch or 4 letters e.g ough.

5. Once children are good with single phonemes...
DIGRAPHS – 2 letters that make 1 sound
ll ss zz oa ai
TRIGRAPHS – 3 letters that make 1 sound
igh air
A digraph is a single sound, or phoneme, which is represented by two letters. A trigraph is a phoneme which consists of three letters. 

6. Blending for reading
Recognising the letter sounds in a written word, for example c-u-p and merging or ‘blending’ them in the order in which they are written to pronounce the word ‘cup’
When beginning readers sound out words, they slowly say each sound in a word (c-a-t), and then say the sounds quickly together to "read" the word (cat). In reading, teachers call this blending because sounds are being blended together. Blending (combining sounds) and segmenting (separating sounds) are skills that are necessary for learning to read.

7. Sound out & blend these words:
Nonsense games like this help to build up skills – and are fun!

8. Segmenting for spelling
‘Chopping Up’ the word to spell it out
The opposite of blending
Use your ‘ROBOT ARMS’ or ‘CHOPPING BOARD’

9. Segmenting (for spelling) activity
Use your ‘robot arms’ or ‘chopping board’ to say how many phonemes are in each word.
shelf
dress
sprint
string

10. Did you get it right? shelf = sh – e – l – f = 4 phonemes
dress = d - r - e – ss = 4 phonemes
sprint = s – p – r – i – n – t = 6 phonemes
string = s – t – r – i – ng = 5 phonemes

11. Tricky Words Words that are not phonically decodable
e.g. was, the, put
Some are ‘tricky’ to start with but will become
decodable once we know the harder phonemes
e.g. out

12. What is the phonics screening?
The phonics screening is an assessment of children’s ability to decode and read words
Your child will read up to four words per page for their teacher and they will probably do the check in one sitting of about 5-10 minutes
There are 40 words to read

13. How does it work?
The assessment comes in the form of a book and we are not allowed to access this until the day of the assessment.
Some of the pages contain words that are real, the pages which have words that are not real have pictures of aliens next to them. (This is why we refer to this assessment as the alien game, it’s the aliens name!)
This is a 1:1 assessment in a quiet room with the class teacher.

14. What does it check? It checks that your child can:
Sound out and blend graphemes in order to read simple words.
Read phonically decodable one-syllable and two-syllable words, e.g. cat, sand, windmill.
Read a selection of nonsense words which are referred to as pseudo words.

15. What will children need to know?
Children will need to have a secure knowledge of their phonic sounds and be able to apply this to read the words
We encourage children to use their sound buttons even if they think they know the word (just in case it is a word that is not real)

17. What is a pseudo (nonsense) word and why is it included?
These are words that are phonically decodable but are not actual words with an associated meaning e.g. brip, snorb.
Pseudo words are included in the check specifically to assess whether your child can decode a word using phonics skills and not their memory.
Children generally find nonsense amusing so they will probably enjoy reading these words.
The pseudo words will be shown to your child with a picture of a monster and they will be asked to tell their teacher what sort of monster it is by reading the word. This not only makes the check a bit more fun, but provides the children with a context for the nonsense word which is independent from any existing vocabulary they may have. Crucially, it does not provide any clues, so your child just has to be able to decode it.

18. Results
You will receive a letter stating whether your child has met the required standard or not
A pass mark is not given, however the assessment requires a pass mark of 32+ out of 40 (subject to change)
If your child is unsuccessful in the assessment they will have an opportunity to do it again in Year 2
The school will report your child’s results to you by the end of the summer term as well as to the local authority.

19. How to help at home I spy Robot talking Spot the phoneme / grapheme
Spot the tricky words
Rhyming words

20. What should I do if my child is struggling to decode a word?
Say each sound in the word from left to right.
Blend the sounds by pointing to each letter, i.e. /b/ in bat, or letter group, i.e. /igh/ in sigh, as you say the sound, then run your finger under the whole word as you say it.
Talk about the meaning if your child does not understand the word they have read.
Work at your child’s pace.
Always be positive and give lots of praise and encouragement.

21. Useful resources
We have put together a pack containing the phase 2,3,4 and 5 sounds and also useful websites which we use at school and you can use at home with the children. You will receive your pack next week.
Show parents some of the links

22. Any questions?
When exploring the activities please feel free to ask us any questions you may have. Thank you for coming and for your continued support!