Reading in the EYFS
Wednesday 11th February 2015
Early Reading Skills
Children’s early experiences of reading begin with:
- listening to stories (home/nursery/school)
- talking about stories
- developing their listening skills
Stages of early reading:
- discussion books
- sharing a book with an adult who ‘models’ reading
- sound recognition/blending words/tricky words
Discussion books (no words)
Focus on talking about the book and what happens in
the story, use the pictures as clues for discussion.
Model how to use a book correctly (turning the pages
from right to left).
Talk about what the story could be about using the
front cover.
How do we teach reading at school?
We teach children to read by recognising and
making the sound of each letter of the alphabet.
Children learn to blend:
sounds are put together to ‘sound out’ a word. For
example c – a – t = cat, sh – o –p = shop
All children develop blending skills at their own
pace.
Tricky words/High Frequency Words
High Frequency Words – The most
common words that children will use
when they begin to read.
For example come, the, to, in, at,
look, said. Children need to learn to
recognise these words by sight and
not rely on blending.
Daily phonics teaching (Letters and Sounds)
20 minute session each day to teach children to link sounds and letters
by learning how to say the sound for each letter of the alphabet and
groups of letters like sh, ch, th, igh.
Letters and Sounds also teaches the skill of blending and segmenting.
Jolly Phonics sounds set 1 - s, a, t, i, p, n
set 2 - c, k, e, h, r, m, d
set 3 – g, o, u, l, f, b
set 4 –ai, j, oa, ie, ee, or
set 5 – z, w, ng, v, oo
set 6 – y, x, ch, sh, th,
set 7 – qu, ou, oi, ue, er, ar
*articulation of phonemes (youtube)
Blending – hearing sounds and merging them together
to make a word.
s – n – a – p = snap
p – o – t = pot
Segmenting – splitting up a word into its individual
sounds to spell a word
dog = d – o – g
mat = m – a – t
Putting it all together!
Early reading skills of blending, high frequency
word recognition, using picture cues and discussion
skills will all fit together to enable children to
read.
For example “ Dad was mad at Floppy”
red – blended word
blue – high frequency words/words learnt by sight
How we assess the children’s reading?
Collect evidence in Learning Journeys from
observations in the classroom
‘Wow I am so impressed’ comments from home
Weekly 1:1 reading sessions
Guided Reading
Benchmarking – reading an unfamiliar text
Benchmarking
We formally assess reading using the Benchmark Assessment Kit.
Children individually read an unknown text and a running record is used to
record words read accurately.
A note is also made of any decoding strategies they are using.
They are then asked to ‘re-tell’ the story and a range of comprehension
questions are asked.
From their reading a percentage score is reached depending on the amount
of errors they have made.
95 – 100% correct - Easy
90 – 94% correct - Instructional (Guided Reading)
Below 90% correct - Hard
Children do not move up to the next level of reading until their word
recognition and language comprehension capabilities are equal.
What reading skills can you help your child to develop?
Listen to and join in with poems and stories
Suggest how the story might end
Talk about the pictures in books
Handle books carefully, hold them the correct way up and
turn the pages
Understand the concept of a word
Enjoy a range of books
Retell a story in the correct sequence
What reading skills can you help your child to develop?
Use story language, for example, “once upon a time, run run
as fast as you can, you can’t catch me I’m the gingerbread
man”
Read high frequency words and simple sentences
Blend sounds to read words
Talk about the characters in a story
Read stories to your child to model how pages are turned,
how expression is used, how to use different voices for
characters and enjoy sharing books and stories together.
What reading skills can you help your child to develop?
Reading in real-life – let your child see you read, for
example, a recipe, newspaper, magazine, bus sign, shop
signs and labels on items in shops.
Play games:
I-Spy
Make up silly rhymes and phrases
Choose a category and think of items for each letter of
the alphabet apple, banana, cherry and so on
Play bingo games or matching pairs with sounds and tricky
words.
EYFS – Early Learning Goal
What are we working towards?
- read and understand simple sentences
- use phonic knowledge to decode regular words and read them aloud
accurately
- read some common regular words
- demonstrate understanding about what they have read
Resources for home (after half term)
High frequency word keyrings
Blending cards
Card
3
huff
hiss
puff
fill
hill
miss
kiss
cuff
Thank you for coming.
Any questions?