Early Reading

Teaching Early Reading at London Fields

Reading is the gateway to all learning. Teaching children to read and write independently, as quickly as possible, is one of the core purposes of a primary school. These key skills not only hold the keys to the rest of the curriculum but also have a huge impact on children’s self-esteem and future life outcomes.

Reading and writing are both two part processes; readers decode and comprehend, writers create and encode. In one respect, decoding and encoding are the ‘mechanical’ skills that children need to master in order to be able to comprehend what they read and write. Research has shown that by teaching phonics, through a synthetic, systematic approach,  children become fluent readers who can read words 'at a glance'.

Approach to Teaching

The English spelling code is one of the most complex in the world. It has evolved over hundreds of years and has had many different influences. As a result, words are made up of combinations of 44 different sounds but many of these sounds are spelt in different ways in different words. Furthermore, we only have 26 letters to write these sounds. This can lead to misconceptions for children, as letters combine together in different words to make different sounds. For example, the letter ‘a’ sometimes makes the sound /a/ (c-a-t), or, with other letters, the sound /ay/ (d-ay) or the sound ‘air’ (f-air). This can be overwhelming for early readers.

In order to help the children conquer this complex code, we teach it systematically, using an evidenced based phonics programme called Read Write Inc (RWI).

We begin by teaching children to read the first thirty sounds (Set 1 Sounds) and to be able to blend these sounds to read words (i.e. to know that the sounds c/a/t can blend together to read the word cat). Once children have conquered this skill, they start reading phrases and then storybooks that include words made up of the sounds they know. This means that they can embed and apply their phonics knowledge and start to build their reading fluency. At the same time, we teach them how to write the sounds and use this knowledge to spell words, leading to writing short sentences.

Once children are secure, further sounds (Set 2 and then Set 3) are introduced and the children read texts with increasingly complex sounds and graphemes (different ways of spelling the sounds, e.g. /igh/, /ie/ or /ay/, /ai/). They learn that a sound can be both said and spelt using a combination of 2 or 3, or even 4 letters. This is called a grapheme (e.g. igh represents the /i/ sound in the word night). 

 Comprehension

Being able to decode a text alone is not enough. Children need to make sense of what they are reading and need to be actively taught key comprehension skills. We do this through comprehension activities linked to the stories the children come to read within the Read Write Inc scheme, and also through a range of literacy activities based on core texts shared with the children.
We know that good readers question, check and engage with their own understanding; these are some of the skills we seek to develop in our pupils. 

 Vocabulary Development

Our school wide curriculum has a strong emphasis on vocabulary acquisition and communication and language is of utmost priority in the Early Years at London Fields. Vocabulary is key to understanding and accessing the wider curriculum.

Supporting Home Reading

There is much you can do to support your child at home.

• Talk to them! The most important thing you can do is to talk to your child and listen to them when they are talking to you. Try to extend their vocabulary range and their skill at talking in increasingly more complex sentences. For example, try to teach them alternative words for ideas, or nouns they already know.
• Read to them daily and always discuss the story you are reading to try to build your child’s comprehension skills and understanding.
• Practise the sounds they know at home. There are flashcards available to buy from the school office.
• Listen to your child read every day and embed this routine, encouraging reading for pleasure. 
• Attend in-school parent workshops on offer throughout the year.

Please click here for a comprehensive parent guide to RWI phonics. The downloadable parent booklet (below) is also beneficial reading for home reading guidance.

If you need further advice or assistance with how best to help your child with their reading, please ask your child’s class teacher.

Read Write Inc in Practice

Children are regularly assessed so that they are taught in a RWI group which matches their phonic knowledge. Some children will make accelerated progress and some may need further support or intervention. Pupils are grouped accordingly, so they can have the appropriate level of challenge. We also have daily, additional one to one phonics tutoring for pupils. Read Write Inc ensures that pupils read books that are closely matched to their increasing knowledge of phonics and ability to read ‘tricky words’; so they experience early reading success and gain confidence as readers.

Where to next?

Once children have learnt to read independently, they move onto our Literacy programme. All of our teaching and learning is now directed at developing comprehension skills and writing. Lessons are focused around a series of carefully chosen, quality texts which act as the stimulus to teach higher level comprehension, build knowledge and develop a love of reading.

Please see the English subject page for further information about our English curriculum.