Early Reading
Development
Sheila Hentall
Kym Scott
Wednesday 18th October 2006
Friday 20th October 2006
Early Reading
Development
Wednesday 18th October
Aims
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Update on recent developments.
Clarify expectations on pace and progression
Secure high quality learning and teaching of
phonics.
Support strategic leaders in planning for the
effective implementation of the
recommendations of the Rose Review
The Rose Review
“ It is no surprise to find that the main
ingredients for success in the teaching of
beginner readers are:
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a well trained teaching force;
well designed, systematic programmes of work that are
implemented thoroughly;
incisive assessment of teaching and learning,
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and strong, supportive leadership”
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Rose on Leadership
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Time and again, successful improvement within schools and high
standards of work are shown to depend on the strength and
quality of leadership ……
Therefore, it is very important for all settings and schools to
make sure that at least one senior member of staff is fully able
to take the lead on literacy, especially phonic work.
Among other things, this must include an overview, well
informed by monitoring, of the total provision for literacy that
can be drawn upon to tackle inconsistent practice and deploy
resources to best effect.
Beginning systematic phonics teaching
Engaging young children in interesting and
worthwhile pre-reading activities paves the
way for the great majority to make a good
start on systematic phonic work by the age
of five.
All that said, the introduction of phonic work should always be a
matter for principled, professional judgement based on
structured observations and assessments of children’s
capabilities.
Formal Phonics
The term ‘formal’ in the pejorative sense in
which phonic work is sometimes perceived is by
no means a fair reflection of the active,multisensory practice seen and advocated by the
review for starting young children on the road to
reading.
Letter names
The teaching of letter names is often left until after
the sounds of letters have been learned in the belief
that it can be confusing for children to have to learn
both together. However, research indicates that children
often learn letter names earlier than they learn letter
sounds and that five year olds who know more letter
names also know more letter sounds.
Decodable Books
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Such books can help children develop confidence and
an appetite for reading.
The simple text in some recognised favourite children's
books can fulfil much the same function as that of
decodable books. Thus it may be possible to use these
texts in parallel, or in place of them.
The use of decodable books should certainly not deny
children access to favourite books and stories at any
stage.
Much turns on the quality of the decodable books
available.
Pace
The sequence should be such that children have every
opportunity to acquire rapidly the necessary phonic
knowledge and skills to read independently.
‘Most of the letter-sound correspondences, including the
consonant and vowel digraphs, can be taught in the space of a
few months at the start of their first year at school.’
On Best Practice
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……teaching relatively short, discrete daily sessions,
designed to progress from simple elements to the more
complex aspects of phonic knowledge, skills and
understanding. The best teaching seen during the review
was at a brisk pace, fired children's interest, often by
engaging them in multi-sensory activities, drew upon a
mix of stimulating resources, and made sure that they
received praise for effort and achievement.
Multi-sensory work
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Multi-sensory activities featured strongly in high
quality phonic work
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Multi-sensory approach almost always captured the
interest of boys as well as girls. A common feature of
the best work was that boys’ progress and
achievement did not lag behind that of girls:
Conclusions
‘…the review has concluded that the
case for systematic phonic work is
overwhelming and much strengthened
by a synthetic approach.’
The Simple View of
Reading
A Conceptual Framework to Inform
the Teaching of Reading
The searchlight model
Phonics
(sound and spelling)
Knowledge of
context
Text
Grammatical
knowledge
Word recognition
and graphic
knowledge
Slide 5
The Simple View of reading – two
distinct processes
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Word Recognition
a process by which words on
the page can be recognised
and understood
time limited
Learning to read
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Language comprehension
a process by which both texts
and spoken language are
interpreted and understood
continues throughout life
Reading to learn
The Simple View of reading
Word Recognition
to develop automaticity
in reading words children:
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Word recognition is set
alongside
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Speaking and listening
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Phonemic awareness
Apply their phonic knowledge and
skills to de code and encode;
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Vocabulary development
Develop a store of familiar words.
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Language comprehension
Master the alphabetic code;
The Simple View of Reading
The Early Reading Development
Pilot
Early Reading Development Pilot
Carried out by PNS alongside Rose Review
 Involved 180 schools in 18 LAs
 Trialled new approaches to using Playing With
Sounds
 Focused on increasing the pace at which phonics
is taught, with a view to progressing phonics more
effectively in the Foundation Stage
 Focussed not just on phonics, but on
improving provision for Communication,
Language and Literacy in general within the pilot
schools.
Findings of the final national review of the early
reading development pilot (as given at national
conference 3/7/06)
• Children made greater than expected progress
in phonics and reading
• Positive impact on children’s Personal, Social
and Emotional development
• Evidence of impact on writing
• Evidence of boys being more involved in selfinitiated writing as a result of real and
purposeful activities
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EAL children making good progress in phonics
and reading and significantly in vocabulary
extension
Teachers in pilot were more knowledgeable
and confident about how to teach and apply
phonics in reading and writing activities
Improved Assessment for Learning practices
More opportunities being given to children to
apply their phonic knowledge
Children made significant progress where there
was Head Teacher support and effective
Foundation Stage practice in place
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As a result schools have reviewed and raised their
expectations of progress in phonic development,
including the impact on children at risk of
underachievement and those with SEN
Practitioners reported that it is possible to focus on
children’s development without compromising the
wider principles underpinning the Foundation
Stage curriculum
The phonic audit to identify priorities for early
reading development, and the emphasis placed on
tracking pupils’ progress to match provision to
need, were welcomed and seen as strengths in the
design of the pilot
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These findings and those from the Rose
Review support the conclusion that it is
possible to start early phonic work whilst
still giving children access to the full range
of learning and development opportunities
in the Foundation Stage
Pilot will continue this year, under name
CLLD. 10 schools in Lewisham will be part
of this.
Using findings of the ERDP and
Rose to support practice
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High quality, systematic phonic work should
be taught discretely. In practice this means
teaching relatively short, discrete daily
sessions, with the time distributed as judged
best by the practitioner
It should include a variety of related
activities that advance learning
incrementally.
Phonic work for young children should be
multi-sensory in order to capture their
interests and sustain motivation and
reinforce learning
Rose Review 2006
‘The best teaching seen during the review was at a brisk pace,
fired children’s interest, often by engaging them in multisensory activities, drew upon a mix of stimulating resources,
and made sure that they received praise for effort and
achievement.’
Rose Review 2006
Discuss in pairs
How does the teaching of phonics within
your school already incorporate the
following points:
 Multi-sensory
 Firing children’s interests
 Drawing upon a mix of stimulating
resources?
The ERDP pilot found that successful discrete
phonics sessions incorporated these
elements:
REVISIT AND REVIEW
TEACH
PRACTISE
APPLY
PNS July 06
REVISIT AND REVIEW
Recently and previously learned phoneme
grapheme correspondences, or blending
and segmenting skills as appropriate.
This should be a very brief recap of recently
learned skills and knowledge
TEACH
New phoneme-grapheme correspondences;
Skills of blending and segmenting.
A brief, interactive game or activity to
introduce new skills and knowledge
PRACTISE
New phoneme-grapheme correspondences;
Skills of blending and segmenting.
Another brief game or activity which
provides an opportunity to practise these
skills and knowledge
APPLY
New knowledge and skills while
reading/writing
A brief experience which provides an
opportunity for children to see how the new
learning can be applied and contextualised eg
by the practitioner writing a short sentence
that includes a CVC word, or by children reading a
phrase or short sentence that is phonically
decodable.
DVD – example of a direct teaching
session
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While watching the DVD, note where the adult
does each of the four elements with the
children:
Revisit and Review
Teach
Practise
Apply
‘Practitioners and teachers must
exercise professional judgements about
organising teaching groups to provide
optimum conditions for learning. In
these respects, good practice in phonic
work simply reflects good practice in
general’
Rose Review
Paving the way
Getting ready for phonics
‘The introduction of phonic work should always
be a matter for principled, professional
judgement, based on structured observations and
assessments of children’s capabilities’
Rose Review March 2006
‘Practitioners who know the children they teach
are able to judge when…children are able to
distinguish between sounds sufficiently to do
some direct teaching of letter/sound
correspondence (phonics)’
Draft EYFS Framework May 2006
Discuss in pairs
What knowledge and skills need
to be in place in order for a child
to be ready to begin on a
‘structured phonics
programme’?
‘Obviously, developing children’s
positive attitudes to literacy, in the
broadest sense from the earliest stage is
very important…exploiting play, story,
songs and rhymes and providing lots of
opportunities , and time, to talk with
children about their experiences and
feelings’
Rose Review
‘Far more attention needs to be given,
right from the start, to promoting
speaking and listening skills, to make
sure that children build a good stock of
words, learn to listen attentively and to
speak confidently and clearly’
Rose Review
Learning and Teaching
Communication, Language and
Literacy in the Early Years
Foundation Stage
Phonological awareness
Ability to hear and discriminate general sounds,
speech sounds and patterns
 Awareness of rhyme, rhythm and alliteration
 Understanding that words are composed of
sounds/phonemes
THROUGH:
Singing songs
Responding to music
Listening to rhymes
Playing listening, rhyming, rhythmic and alliterative
games
Hearing rhyming, rhythmic and alliterative stories
General speaking and listening experiences
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Training day 29th November
Linking sounds to letters – the early
stages
Pack from this training available:
Games to support phonological
awareness
Assessing children’s phonics
skills and knowledge
Practitioners should assess, in meaningful
ways:
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Recognition of letters (and groups of letters,
such as digraphs)
The ability to sound out phonemes
The ability to hear and blend phonemes
The reading of phonetically regular words
The reading of some irregular words
Teaching should then be adapted to take
account of the outcomes of this assessment.
‘Assessment during the Foundation Stage
should take full account of well informed
observations of children’s early language
development’
Rose Review 2006
‘Schedules, routines and activities MUST flow
with the child’s needs, with practitioners
planning for individual children using sensitive
observational assessment.
THERE MUST BE NO TESTS FOR
CHILDREN AT ANY STAGE WITHIN
EYFS.’
Draft Early Years Foundation Stage Framework
May 2006
Assessment for learning is most
effective when:
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it takes account of the importance of learner
motivation
it is sensitive and constructive
effective feedback is provided to children
it develops learners’ capacity for self-assessment
teaching is adjusted to take account of the
results of assessment
Example of an assessment sheet for
direct teaching session
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Practitioners should continue to make both
spontaneous and planned observational jottings around
children’s significant achievements
This sheet should be used for direct teaching (adult
focus) sessions only
It should be used to help to plan the next steps in
learning for each child and may feed into a class
progress tracking sheet for phonics
Progression and pace in the
teaching of phonics
 Phases
 Phonic progress tracking
sheet
Discuss in pairs
 Look
at the phonic phases within the
outline of progression in your packs,
focusing particularly on phases two
and three.
 How do these expectations compare
with your school’s current end of
reception expectations?