Literacy, Phonics, Reading
Learning to read is the one skill a child needs to access all of the other subjects in school.
Reading is a key life skill which they will need at every turn. Think about what you have been doing in the last 10 minutes- how many times did you read or use words and symbols? There are words and symbols everywhere!
In Derryclough, as in most schools, we use more than one approach- all children are different and have different learning styles.
Phonics:
Reading is a key life skill which they will need at every turn. Think about what you have been doing in the last 10 minutes- how many times did you read or use words and symbols? There are words and symbols everywhere!
In Derryclough, as in most schools, we use more than one approach- all children are different and have different learning styles.
- We expose children to lots of different types of books, poetry, rhymes, to help foster a love of reading. We use a buddy reading system whereby older children read with younger children.
- We use a "Language Experience" approach, where the teacher and children create their own text and read it, e.g. our daily news and co-operative stories. Children see the spoken word as it is written down and then read it back. After a while they will see patterns, repeating words, words they are familiar with.
- We teach, in a very structured way, decoding of words- the letters and their sounds (phonics), and how to put those sounds together to make words. They will also learn that there are patterns, e.g.rhyming words, all with the same ending. This will help with spelling and writing as well.
- Finally, not every word follows the rules! Therefore some words just have to be learned "by heart". We call these "Sight Words", and it is important that the children get lots of practice with these so they will know them without even thinking when they meet them in their reading.
Phonics:
- The VERY first step comes even before we meet the symbols and letters: phonemic awareness: can the child hear the difference between different sounds? No point telling them that "a" sounds like this: "ah, ah", and "c" says "cuh", if they cannot hear any difference! To help develop this skill, children will say and sing poems and nursery rhymes, and play listening games such as "what animal makes this sound", and "I spy". Here is a game on the computer they could try:
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Sight Words. Click below for the list for your book:
Some Books we have written:
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Letterland |
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