Reading Information
What is Read Write Inc.?
The Ruth Miskin website states that“Read Write Inc. Phonics teaches children to read accurately and fluently with good comprehension. They learn to form each letter, spell correctly, and compose their ideas step-by-step.”
RWI was developed by Ruth Miskin and more information on this can be found at https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/reading-schemes-oxford-levels/read-write-inc-phonics-guide/
How is RWI taught at Woodlands?
At Woodlands, we begin RWI in Nursery and continue teaching RWI to children beyond KS1, if they still need support in their reading.
Nursery
Children are introduced to the initial sounds in short sessions.
Reception
In Reception all children will learn how to ‘read’ the sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down. They will read books appropriate to their reading level. From Autumn 2, daily sessions of RWI phonics last for 45 minutes.
Years 1 and 2
Children follow the same format as Reception but will work on complex sounds and read books appropriate to their reading level. Daily sessions of RWI phonics last for 50 minutes. Once children become fluent speedy readers, they will move on to the Literacy and Language Programme.
Fred Talk
We use pure sounds (‘m’ not’ muh’,’s’ not ‘suh’, etc.) so that children can blend the sounds into words more easily.
At school, we use a puppet called Fred who is an expert on sounding out words! We call it, ‘Fred Talk’. E.g. m-o-p, c-a-t, m-a-n, sh-o-p, b-l-a-ck.
The children are taught the sounds in 3 sets.
Set 1 Sounds are taught in the following order together with rhymes. This helps the children to form the letters correctly and instantly recognise sounds ready for blending.
|
Set 1 |
|
|
Sound |
Rhyme |
|
m |
Down Maisie then over the two mountains. Maisie, mountain, mountain. |
|
a |
Round the apple, down the leaf. |
|
s |
Slide around the snake |
|
d |
Round the dinosaur's back, up his neck and down to his feet. |
|
t |
Down the tower, across the tower, |
|
i |
Down the insects body, dot for the head. |
|
n |
Down Nobby and over the net. |
|
p |
Down the plait, up and over the pirate’s face. |
|
g |
Round the girl’s face, down her hair and give her a curl. |
|
o |
All around the orange. |
|
c |
Curl around the caterpillar. |
|
k |
Down the kangaroo’s body, tail and leg. |
|
u |
Down and under the umbrella, up to the top and down to the puddle. |
|
b |
Down the laces, over the toe and touch the heel. |
|
f |
Down the stem and draw the leaves. |
|
e |
Slice into the egg, go over the top, then under the egg. |
|
l |
Down the long leg. |
|
h |
Down the horse's head to the hooves and over his back. |
|
sh |
Slither down the snake, then down the horse's head to the hooves and over his back. |
|
r |
Down the robot's back, then up and curl. |
|
j |
Down his body, curl and dot. |
|
v |
Down a wing, up a wing. |
|
y |
Down a horn, up a horn and under the yak's head. |
|
w |
Down, up, down, up the worm. |
|
th |
Down the tower, across the tower, then down the horse’s head to the hooves and over his back. |
|
z |
Zig-zag-zig, down the zip. |
|
ch |
Curl around the caterpillar, then down the horse's head to the hooves and over his back. |
|
qu |
Round the queen’s head, up to her crown, down her hair and curl. |
|
x |
Cross down the arm and leg and cross the other way. |
|
ng |
A thing on a string. |
|
nk |
I think I stink. |
Children will also use pictures for each sound to help recognise the sound and then form the shape of the sound.
The children are then taught Set 2 Sounds - the long vowels.
|
Long vowel sound |
Set 2 Speed Sound cards |
|
ay |
ay: May I play? |
|
ee |
ee: What can you see? |
|
igh |
igh: fly high |
|
ow |
ow: blow the snow |
|
oo |
oo: poo at the zoo |
|
oo |
oo: look at a book |
|
ar |
ar: start the car |
|
or |
or: shut the door |
|
air |
air: that’s not fair |
|
ir |
ir: whirl and twirl |
|
ou |
ou: shout it out |
|
oy |
oy: toy for a boy |
When they are very confident with all of set 1 and 2 they are taught Set 3 Sounds.
|
Sound |
Set 3 Speed Sound cards |
|
a-e |
a-e: make a cake |
|
ea |
ea: cup of tea |
|
i-e |
i-e: nice smile |
|
o-e |
o-e: phone home |
|
u-e |
u-e: huge brute |
|
oi |
oi: spoil the boy |
|
ai |
ai: snail in the rain |
|
oa |
oa: goat in a boat |
|
aw |
aw: yawn at dawn |
|
ur |
ur: nurse for a purse |
|
er |
er: a better letter |
|
ire |
ire: fire fire! |
|
ear |
ear: hear with your ear |
|
ure |
ure: sure it’s pure |
|
ew |
ew: chew the stew |
|
are |
are: care and share |
|
ow |
ow: blow the snow |
Nonsense words (Alien words)
As well as learning to read and blend real words children will have plenty of opportunities to apply their sound recognition skills by reading ‘Nonsense words’.
Alongside RWI, we use the Oxford Reading Tree Scheme to help our children read at home.
What is the Oxford Reading Tree Scheme?
The Oxford Reading Tree Scheme (ORT) has a range of levelled books designed to support children with their reading progress.
More information can be found on the following website:
https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/reading-schemes-oxford-levels/oxford-reading-tree-levels/
How is the OTR Scheme used at Woodlands?
At Woodlands, children are given books to take home based on their reading level. Children begin using this scheme in Nursery and finish when they become free readers, usually in KS2. Children read their book at home but also with an adult in School. We recommend that children read their book up to three times.
Read 1: decoding
Read 2: fluency
Read 3: comprehension
Once children are able to read their book fluently and have a good understanding of the text, they are able to change it. To ensure books are matched to the children’s phonics ability we use the following document:
|
RWI Group |
National curriculum level |
Reading spot colour to take home |
|
A-No sound blending 0-19 sounds
|
W |
Pink spot book |
|
B- Aim for independent blending!!
|
W |
Red spot book |
|
B- These children can mostly blend
|
W |
Red Spot Book |
|
C- Sounds out most real and nonsense words
|
1c level |
Yellow spot book |
|
D-Instant blending
|
1C level |
Blue spot book |
|
E- Instant blending
|
1B level |
Green spot book |
|
F-Instant blending
|
1a level |
Turquoise spot book |
|
G- Instant blending
|
2c level |
Purple spot book |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
H |
2b level |
Gold spot book |
|
I |
2a level |
White spot book |
|
J |
Literacy and language comprehension |
Free reader |
Parents are able to access the ORT scheme online by creating an account on the following website:
https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/free-ebooks/
At Woodlands, we also use the digital reading platform ‘Bug Club’.
What is Bug Club?
Bug Club is a whole-school reading programme that combines online texts with printed books, and assessment tools.
How is Bug Club used at Woodlands?
Children from Years 1-6 take part in a weekly carousel for Reciprocal Reading. Across all year groups, teachers have dedicated one of the sessions on the carousel to ‘Bug Club’. When children log in, they are able to access a digital library. Teachers allocate a range of texts based on the children’s reading levels.
Oxford Reading Tree is the main scheme we use for home reading but we also have a selection of printed ‘bug club’ books for the children to choose.
Each half term, teachers set their class a ‘Bug Club’ assessment. In this assessment, children have to read an unseen text (based on their reading level) and answer a range of questions. From this, teachers create a gap analysis to see which reading skills need further development. This gap analysis is then used to inform future planning.
