Phonics at The Meadows
Phonics at The Meadows
All pupils within the Semi-formal and Formal pathway at the Meadows school will be given the opportunity to develop their phonics skills, if appropriate. As a school we follow Read Write Inc., a phonics programme that is used to support children with their reading and spelling. We also draw upon other approaches that may support individual children. The DfE would state the selected synthetic systematic programme must be taught with “fidelity”. Staff at school have the flexibility to adapt their pedagogy to meet the needs, strengths and motivations of their students, within the structure of Read Write Inc’s cumulative progression of sounds and books.
Students currently access phonics sessions within there own class groups, these are delivered at the appropriate level after students have been assessed.
The students are taught the sounds in 3 sets.
Set 1 Sounds: are taught in the following order together with rhymes to help children form the letters correctly and instantly recognise sounds ready for blending.
The children are then taught Set 2 Sounds - the long vowels. When they are very confident will all set 1 and 2, they are taught Set 3 Sounds.
Students are introduced to the different sounds in a speed sound lesson. Within all the RWI sessions/books children will be exposed to red and green words to learn to help them to become speedy readers. Red words are words that are not easily decodable and challenge words to extend children’s vocabulary.
Green words are linked to the sounds they have been learning and are easily decodable. Dots and dashes represent the sound each letter makes.
During the RWI session children will read the book three times and at each new reading they will have plenty of opportunities to practise using their developing comprehension skills. You may have heard your child talking about ‘hold or build a sentence’.
- Hold a sentence listening to, orally repeating and then writing a sentence linked to the book they were reading.
Hold a Sentence is a process used in RWI to support writing. It teaches children to remember a whole sentence in their head before they write it down with the correct punctuation and spelling. The sentences we ask the children to write include words that they have already been taught how to spell.
- Edit a sentence - correcting errors in a sentence, for example missing capital letters, punctuation and spelling mistakes.
Edit a sentence allows the children to critique a sentence using their knowledge of spelling punctuation and grammar.
- Build a sentence - writing about a stimulus, often a picture from the storybook they were reading, for example filling in a speech bubble, completing a 'Wanted' poster or writing a simple recipe.
Independent Writing Children complete a longer piece of independent writing, which gives them the opportunity to show off their creativity and to practice their spelling, grammar and punctuation.
The following link provides lots of free Read Write Inc. Phonics resources to help your child, including eBooks, practice sheets and short clips for parents or carers.
https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/reading-schemes-oxford-levels/read-write-inc-phonics-guide/
To help at home with reading:
Students will start to bring books home when they are confident readers. Students take phonics-based books home and they have a PM Benchmark reading scheme which consist of High Frequency Words to support reading further. This is because the PM philosophy highlights that student learn well if they are encouraged to use a variety of skills, processes and behaviours, rather than a particular method or approach. Students also select a ‘Reading for Pleasure’ text, from either the reading corner within classes or personally ordered through the class teacher. Reading for pleasure opens up new worlds for children. It gives them the opportunity to use their imagination to explore new ideas, visit new places and meet new characters. Interestingly, reading for pleasure also improves children’s well-being and empathy. It helps them to understand their own identity, and gives them an insight into the world and the views of others.
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