Fun with Phonics – workshop 2

Fun with Phonics – workshop 2 Monday 28th March, 2011

Aims for the day • To understand how the letters and sounds programme progresses from phase 2 to phase 6. • To have a brief overview of how we assess, track and measure children’s progress against EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) curriculum. • To evaluate progress so far in trying phase 1 activities at home and any further questions.

Letters and sounds • In phase 2 children learn to recognise many letters of the alphabet and the sounds that they make. They also learn how to read words by sounding out the letters they see (blending) and to write words by splitting up the sounds in words they hear (segmenting). • Phase 3 teaches the trickier letters of the alphabet and unusual ways of making new sounds e.g. sh, ch, th. • Phase 4 concentrates on letter blends – groups of letters where the sounds are so close together it can be difficult to discriminate between them e.g. frog, best, blob, spring • Phase 5 looks are the vowel sounds made with groups of letters e.g. ea – beat, air – chair, igh, night • Phase 6 looks at bringing all the previous phases together in more complex forms and other grammatical structure e.g. changing the tense.

Phase 2 • To teach 19 letters and their sounds. • To move from oral blending and segmenting to blending and segmenting with letters. (Be able to read and write simple words, usually with 2 or 3 sounds) • To read simple captions – short sentences with simple decodable words. • To read decodable high frequency words and some tricky key words e.g. the, no, go, to Children enter phase 2 when they have a broad experience of activities from phase 1. They should be able to notice the differences between spoken sounds and hear and say sounds in words (3 sound words) in the order they appear. They should be able to recognise the rhythm of some words and be able to say a few words that rhyme. Children do not need to be totally secure at this level as it will continue, but will need to have had a variety of experiences before moving to phase 2.

Phase 2 order of letters • s, a, t, p • i, n, m, d • g, o, c, k • ck, e, u, r, • h, b, f, ff, l, ll, ss Letters are introduced a group at a time by introducing the name of the letter and the sound that it makes. Please check with a member of staff if you are unsure of the pronunciation or check out our radiowaves and school website. We play lots of games to give the children plenty of practise in making the sounds in different contexts.

Example of decodable words taught at phase 2 • Tag, gap, sat, cap, ran, man, had, lap, pack • Peg, leg, red, bed, pen, neck, get • Pin, sit, pick, ticket, hit, big, fit, till, fill • Pot, cop, sock, hot, fog, doll, lot, boss, • Cup, sun, sunset, mug, tuck, rug, hut, fun, Children will play lots of games with letter cards/fans, whiteboards and magnetic letters as well as whiteboard pens to explore building, writing, mixing and creating new words with these.

Examples of captions taught within phase 2. • pat a dog • a cat in a hat • a pin on a map • a red rug • socks on a mat • a hug and a kiss • go to the log hut

Phase 3 • Phase 3 at Lacewood is slightly different to how it appears in the Letters and Sounds programme. • Phase 3 concentrates on children learning the remaining letters of the alphabet and the other ways of making consonant sounds. • Phase 3 also consolidates all the activities of phase 2 and challenges them into more complex contexts.

Phase 3 • J, v, w, x, y, qu, z, zz, ch, sh, th, ng • Jog, jet, van, vixen, wet, will, six, fox, yes, yoyo, quiz, quick, zip, fizz, • Chop, chin, check, chicken, ship, shop, shed, them, this, that, with, thick, ring, rang, song, Children again play games to explore words, blending and segmenting the above sounds and also learn to read and spell words from the high frequency word list. This is the level that all children by then end of foundation stage would be expected to be working within.

Phase 4 • Blending and segmenting consonant blends at the beginning and end of words. • Essentially this means many words have 2 to 3 consonants at the beginning and/or end that are spoken so closely together that it may be difficult to hear each sound. We call them initial and final blends. • Went, help, band, gust, shelf, thump, from, spot, plan, fresh, spark, tramp, stand, twist

Phase 5 • This can be the most tricky phase for many children and is certainly one of the longest phases for children to go through. • It concentrates on learning first of all one alternative way of making a long vowel sound using one or more letters e.g. igh = I, ay = a, ee = e, ow = o. • Children will then learn to read words and captions with these sounds as well as learning how to segment the sounds in words with the sounds to spell them.

Phase 5 • Children will then begin to learn all the other ways of making these sounds, e.g. e = ea and ee, a = ai and ay, I = igh, ie etc. • The games and activities though all the phases are very similar but as the children progress through the phases they become more challenging and the children are expected to increase their pace and confidence.

Phase 6 • By the time children enter phase 6 they should be competent and confident in all the previous phases. They should be able to read hundreds of words by either reading them automatically, decoding them out loud or decoding them silently (segmenting and blending). • Spelling may not be actually accurate but should be easily decoded by the reader.

Phase 6 • Children will continue to develop their spellings of longer and more tricky words. • They will learn how to change words from the present to the past tense and how to add suffixes. • Children will become generally more independent. • Phase 6 is ideally expected for children in Year 2.

EYFS Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum.

EYFS Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum. Split into 6 core areas of learning all of equal importance. • PSED Personal, social and emotional development • CLL Communication, language and literacy • PSRN Problem solving, reasoning and numbers • KUW Knowledge and understanding of the world. • PD Physical development • CD creative development Points 1, 2 and 3 are split into sub-sections.

PSED Personal, social and emotional development. Split into • Dispositions and Attitudes - dispositions and attitudes and self care. Your child’s attitude to new experiences, people and there own development and their ability to take are of their own needs with independence. • Social development – Making relationships with adults and children, sense of community their awareness of themselves as part of a school, family and social community. • Emotional development – self confidence and self esteem and behaviour and self control.

CLL communication, language and literacy. Split into; • Language for communication and thinking– your child’s ability to use talk to ask questions, respond and talk to others about their experiences. How a child is able to use language to talk about past and present experiences, talk about what they are doing and to re-create experiences. • Linking sounds and letters – a child’s ability to join in with rhyme and rhythm activities and to use their increasing phonic knowledge. • Reading – a child’s ability to explore, enjoy and experiment with books and how they utilise their phonic knowledge to read. • Writing – How a child explores marks and mark making and how they begin to use their phonic knowledge to represent sounds and words. This area also includes fine motor control and handwriting skills.

PSRN Problem solving, reasoning and numbers Split into; • Numbers as labels for counting – using numbers and counting in different contexts. Recognising numbers and using number knowledge to solve problems. • Calculating – solving problems that involve adding, subtracting, more and less in practical contexts. • Shape, space and measures – describing and identifying shapes, making patterns, sorting, measuring and solving problems including these elements.

KUW Knowledge and understanding of the world. • This area includes exploring and making, designing and building, ICT, a child’s awareness of time and place and understanding of different communities. These communities can include communities within school e.g classes, groups, within their friendships e.g. which football team they support etc, as well as communities around the world.

PD Physical development. • This covers a child’s ability to use and negotiate space with a range of different movements and actions as well as an overall awareness of health and fitness. It also includes how well a child is able to use tools and equipment throughout the environment.

CD Creative development. • As well as the expected area of art this area also includes creating music and dance and developing their imagination and use of imaginative play.

Assessing progress • So, overall there are 13 areas of learning (the 6 key areas and the 3 that are split into sub-sections.) • Progress is measured against EYFS from birth to 5 years and is split into 7 age bands that do cross over.

Assessing progress • The format of the curriculum means that we are able to tailor our curriculum to suit the stage that each child is at as well as the age they are. • Generally children are expected to start nursery (f1) working at stage 5, 30 to 50 months and by the end of reception class (f2) stage 6, 40 to 60+ months. • It is very rare that a large group of children will conform to a generalised expectation.

Assessing progress Within the age band 40 to 60+ months children’s progress can be tracked and counted in points. For each area of learning there are 9 possible goals (early learning goals) to achieve, each goal is equal to 1 point. 13 areas x 9 points = a total possible of 117 points. It is very rare for a child to achieve all 9 point is each area of learning. An average expectation is set by the government of 6 points in each area of learning. 13 areas x 6 points = 78 points

Assessing progress There are very, very few children who are equally as able in each area of learning. A child may gain 8 points in one area but only 4 in another. For each child we are looking for an average combined score of around 78 points. Some children will exceed this score and some may fall below it. Many factors can affect progress, from what level the child is at when they begin in foundation stage, events in a child’s life and their experiences to a child having a particular interest in a certain area of learning.

Finally…. • We hope you have found the presentations interesting. We didn’t want to bamboozle you with the science but just wanted you to have some awareness of some of the terms you may hear adults talking about in foundation stage when they are discussing your child. • Any questions? Thank you for attending!!!

Fun with Phonics – workshop 2