Information from our phonics meeting:
In our phonics meeting we discussed reading fluency and the phonics screen test that the children will take in June.
Fluency
In school, we are building on children’s reading fluency by reading the same book three times during the week. Fluency involves being able to read at speed with little sounding out and adding expression to their voice. The first time the children read the book the focus is on accuracy, the second building fluency and the third expression and comprehension. It would be great if your child could read their phonics book at home several times to continue to work on this.
There are a few activities that you can do at home to help build on your child’s speed of reading. Practicing the speedy green words at the back of the book and red words at the front will both help with this. The speedy green words are the words we ask children to read in their head and we practice a few times so that they can read them on sight. The red words are tricky words that don’t follow the common sounds the children have learnt. We tell the children what these words say and practice them until they are familiar with them.
Phonics Screen
The phonics screen is a national reading test that all children in Year 1 take at the end of the year. The test checks children can read sounds within words accurately. There are 40 words, 20 real and 20 alien/nonsense words. It contains nonsense words to check children have the skills to be able to read any unfamiliar word that they come across.
The children are not aware that it is a test and are just asked to read like they normally would. They are familiar with reading alien words as part of our phonic lessons. Extra support is put in place for any child that needs it and you will be informed of this. If you’re child doesn’t pass the screen, further support will be offered to them going into Year 2 and they will have another opportunity to take it again.
We will send home practice sheets for your child to try at home. When reading these we ask the children to ‘spot the special friends, Fred talk, read the word’. This is to help them spot the sounds we have been learning and they are less likely to make mistakes if they sound each word out.
If you want any further information or have any questions, please let us know.
Year 1/2 Class Blog 