Read Write Inc

At Blenheim Primary School we use Read Write Inc Phonics (RWI) to give your child the best possible start with their Literacy development.  Miss Williams is our Read Write Inc lead teacher, so if you have questions about RWI, contact school office who can refer you to her.

Early Reading at Blenheim Primary School

At Blenheim Primary School we aim for all our children to become fluent, confident readers who are passionate about reading.

Children who read regularly or are read to regularly have the opportunity to open the doors to so many different worlds!

More importantly, reading will give your child the tools to become independent life-long learners.

We can achieve this together through:

• Read Write Inc, a program to help to your child read at school
• Encouraging children to develop a love of books by reading to them daily, at home and at school
• Giving children access to a wide range of books at school and at home

 

rwi progression mapnn.pdf

 

Five key principles underpin the teaching in all Read Write Inc. sessions:  

Purpose – know the purpose of every activity and share it with the children, so they know the one thing they should be thinking about Participation – ensure every child participates throughout the lesson. Partnership work is fundamental to learning Praise – ensure children are praised for effort and learning, not ability Pace – teach at an effective pace and devote every moment to teaching and learning Passion – be passionate about teaching so children can be engaged emotionally.

 
What is Read Write Inc?

Read Write Inc (RWI) is a phonics complete literacy programme which helps all children learn to read fluently and at speed so they can focus on developing their skills in comprehension, vocabulary and spelling.  The programme is designed for children aged 4-7. We continue teaching RWI to children beyond the age of 7, as we use a stage not age approach.

What this video for more information on RWI:
https://youtu.be/MbWIujM1WGM?si=qc6g2be00kLVvuVc

 

Early Reading at Blenheim Primary School

The children:

• Learn 44 sounds and the corresponding letters/letter groups using simple picture prompts – see below
• Learn to read words using Fred talk and sound blending
• Read from a range of storybooks and non-fictions books matched to their phonic knowledge
• Work well with partners
• Develop comprehension skills in stories by answering 'Find It' and 'Prove It' discussion questions

Early Writing at Blenheim Primary School

The children:

• Learn to write and form the letters/letter groups which represent the 44 sounds with the help of fun phrases
• Learn to write words by using Fred Talk

Talking at Blenheim Primary School

The children:

• Work in pairs so that they:
• Answer every question
• Practise every activity with their partner
• Take turns in talking and reading to each other
• Develop ambitious vocabulary

Progressing through the stages

Children in Early Years are introduced to initial sounds. Children then begin to learn how to 'read' the sound in words and how those sounds can be written down. As children progress, they follow the same format as Early Years but will work on complex sounds and read books appropriate to their reading level. Daily sessions of RWI phonics last 30 minutes. Once children become fluent speedy readers they will move on to the RWI Spelling programme.

 Fred Talk

We use pure sounds (‘m’ not’ muh’,’s’ not ‘suh’, etc.) so that your child will be able to blend the sounds into words more easily. E.g. m-o-p, c-a-t, m-a-n, sh-o-p, b-l-a-ck.

 

What are ‘speed sounds’ Set 1, Set 2 and Set 3?

The children are taught the sounds in 3 sets.

  

Step 1:

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. In Reception your child will learn the sounds below by sight. They will also learn how to blend them together to read words e.g. c-a-t -> cat.

Speed Sounds Set 1: To start the programme by learning one sound a day. We ensure to teach pure sounds to allow the process of blending to read full words simple and accurate. Letter-sound pictures are used to help your child learn these sounds quickly.

 

At this stage we do not use the letter names

Use the link below to support your pronunciation sounds correctly.

https://youtu.be/KUbrJPAt65g?si=EZ3kg5BJtmwY8DWU

 
 Step 2:

The children are then taught Set 2 Sounds - the long vowels. When they are very confident with all of set 1 and 2 they are taught Set 3 Sounds.

The children are then taught Set 2 Sounds - the long vowels. When they are very confident with all of set 1 and 2 they are taught Set 3 Sounds.

 

Set 2 Speed Sounds
Sound	Phrase	Words to practice reading and spelling
ay	ay: may I play	play, day, may, way, say, spray
ee	ee: what can you see	see, three, been, green, seen, sleep
igh	igh: fly high	high, night, light, fright, bright, might
ow	ow: blow the snow	blow, snow, low, show, know, slow
oo	oo: poo at the zoo	too, zoo, food, pool, moon, spoon
oo	oo: look at a book	took, look, book, shook, cook, foot
ar	ar: start the car	car, start, part, star, hard, sharp
or	or: shut the door	sort, short, horse, sport, fork, snort
air	air: that’s not fair	fair, stair, hair, air, chair, lair
ir	ir: whirl and twirl	girl, bird, third, whirl, twirl, dirt
ou	ou: shout it out	out, shout, loud, mouth, round, found
oy	oy: toy for a boy	toy, boy, enjoy

 

 

Step 3:

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, edit or build a sentence’.

 

Hold a sentence is an activity that encourages children to remember a whole sentence while focusing on spelling and punctuation.

 

Build a sentence is to give children the opportunity to create their own sentence to that shows the meaning of a word and edit a sentence allows the children to critique a sentence using their knowledge of spelling punctuation and grammar. 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.

 

To help at home:

Your child will start to bring books home when they are confident readers, relating to their reading stage. You will find they will bring home a phonics-based book, this will aid application, speed and fluency- developing speedy reading!  Following on from this, they will bring a comprehension-based book which will begin to enrich their reading, which will require decoding skills.  Only then, children will bring home enriched reading books which will enhance their understanding via inspirational language promoting depth to their understanding.

 

 

Other Useful websites for Parents

Please find a list of websites that you may find useful in helping you and your child learn about phonics. Games and fun activity websites are also included.

https://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out-more/parents/ - Information and resources to support phonics learning at home

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks1/literacy/phonics/play/ - fun games for the children to play

http://www.ictgames.com/literacy.html  - fun games for the children to play

BBC Bitesize - many games to play covering all areas of the curriculum