More Information About Phonics - Read Write Inc.
What is Phonics?
Words are made up from small units of sound called ‘phonemes’. Phonics teaches children to be able to listen carefully and identify the phonemes that make up each word. This helps children to learn to read words and to spell words.
In phonics lessons children are taught three main things:
- GPC
- Blending
- Segmenting
Grapheme Phoneme Correspondences. This simply means that they are taught all the phonemes in the English language and ways of writing them down. These sounds are taught in a particular order.
Children are taught to blend initial sounds. This is when children say the sounds that make up a word and are then able to merge the sounds together until they can hear what the word is e.g. m-a-t = mat.
Children are also taught to segment. This is the opposite of blending e.g. when they see the word sat – they segment it and say s-a-t – then blend it together = sat. Children are able to say a word and then break it down into the phonemes that it is made up of. This skill is vital in being able to spell words.
Read Write Inc.
As a school we use the Read Write Inc. phonics program. Read Write Inc. provides a structured and systematic approach to teaching phonics. It is used by more than a quarter of the UK’s primary schools and is designed to create fluent readers, confident speakers and willing writers.
How it works
The children are assessed and grouped according to their ability.
They work in small groups with a teacher or teaching assistant.
At the end of each half-term the children will be assessed again to check they have made progress. In addition to the Read Write Inc programme the children will also be working on writing skills and storytelling in their classes with their own class teacher.
Reading
Using Read Write Inc the children learn to read effortlessly so that they can put all their energy into understanding what they read.
When using 'Read Write Inc' to read the children will:
- Learn 44 sounds and the corresponding letter/letter groups using simple picture prompts
- Learn to read words by blending the sounds together
- Read lively stories featuring words they have learnt to sound out
- Show that they understand the stories by answering 'Find It' and 'Prove it' discussion questions.
Writing
Read Write Inc allows the children to spell effortlessly so that they can put their energy into working out what they want to write.
When using 'Read Write Inc' to write the children will:
- Learn to write the letters/letter groups which represent the 44 sounds (graphemes)
- Learn to write words by sounding them out and then writing the corresponding graphemes
- Learn to write simple and then increasingly complex sentences
- Compose a range of texts using discussion prompts
- Compose stories based on picture strips.
Talking
When using 'Read Write Inc' the children work in pairs to:
- Answer questions to practise every activity
- Take turns talking to each other
- Give positive praise to each other.
Blending
Children learn to read words by blending the letter-sounds that are in the Speed Sound sets
(shown further down the page).
Help your child learn to read words by sound-blending e.g. c-a-t = cat
Help children to say the pure sounds, as quickly as they can, and then to blend the sounds together to say the whole word.
We do not use the letter names with your children at this stage – ONLY the pure sounds. Click on the link below to explain what we mean by ‘pure sounds’.