Phonics and Reading at St. Leonard’s
As a school we are committed to continually raising standards in Reading. We aim to develop each child so that they are able to read with fluency as well as develop a love of reading that will stay with them throughout their lives. Being able to read is the most important skill children will learn during their early schooling. Our aim is to ensure the highest standards of reading and literacy for every child by providing them with the skills necessary to read with confidence, fluency and understanding. We believe that children must learn to read and read to learn. Therefore, we aim to develop children’s competence in both word reading (by teaching phonics) and comprehension to develop understanding.
Phonics
At St. Leonard’s, we follow the Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS) scheme which allows children to learn the skills and knowledge required, to become independent readers, supported by reading books that are closely matched with their developing phonic knowledge.
More information on the scheme can be found at:
Essential Letters and Sounds
Reading – Intent, Implementation, Impact
Please click here to see our EYFS Reading Intent, Implementation and Impact document
Click here to see our KS1 - KS2 Reading Intent, Implementation, Impact document
At Home
Parents often ask how they can support their children with phonics at home. There are a range of highly informative videos about the teaching of phonics on the Oxford Owl website which are well worth watching. You can find them using the following link: https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/advice-for-parents/phonics-videos/.
The videos include advice on:
- How to pronounce pure sounds
- How to blend sounds to read words
- How to support phonics learning
- Phonics top 10 tips
What are the Reading Vipers?
VIPERS is an anagram to aid the recall of the 6 reading domains which make up the UK’s reading curriculum. They are the key areas which we feel children need to know and understand in order to improve their comprehension of texts.
VIPERS stands for:
- Vocabulary
- Inference
- Prediction
- Explanation
- Retrieval
- Sequence or Summarise
How can parents help?
VIPERS can be used on any text that a child is reading, as well as on pictures, picture books and even films! When any adult is listening to a child read, all they have to do is think of questions about the book/picture/film that cover all of the VIPERS, and there are great examples below of how you can create your own questions using the following question openers.
|
EYFS – Y2 |
Y3 – Y4 |
| Vocabulary |
What does the word ….. mean in this sentence?
What does this word or phrase tell you about …..? |
What do the words ….. and ….. suggest about the character, setting and mood?
Find one word in the text which means …..
Which word tells you that …..? |
| Infer |
Why was …..? feeling …..?
What do you think the author intended when they said …..? |
How can you tell that …..?
What impression of …..? do you get from
these paragraphs? |
| Predict |
What do you think will happen next? What makes you think this?
What is happening? What do you think happened before? |
Do you think ….. will happen? Yes, no or maybe?
Explain your answer using evidence from the text.
What does this paragraph suggest will happen next? What makes you think this? |
| Explain |
Who is your favourite character? Why?
Is there anything you would change about this story?
Do you like this text? What do you like about it? |
The mood of the character changes throughout the text.
Find and copy the phrases which show this.
How does the author engage the reader here?
Why is the text arranged in this way? |
| Retrieve |
How many …..?
What happened to …..? |
How would you describe this story/text? What genre is it? How do you know? |
| Sequence
Summarise |
What happened after …..?
What was the first thing that happened in the story? |
Can you summarise in a sentence the opening/middle/end of the story?
In what order do these chapter headings come in the story? |
Examples of how to use the Reading Vipers
Here is a piece of text taken from Prince Cinders by Babette Cole:
Prince Cinders had three brothers who were not very nice to him at all. Although he did all the work around the house, they always wanted him to do more! They did nothing to help him and they always teased him because he was small, scruffy, spotty and skinny. What horrible brothers they were!
One day, a dusty fairy fell out of the chimney as Prince Cinders was washing up and landed with a puff of ash all around her. “What on earth was that?” he asked. His heart was beating so fast in his chest. The fairy dusted herself down and announced, “All your wishes will be granted!”
Vocabulary question: What two words has the author used as alternatives for ‘said’? What does granted mean?
Inference questions: (‘Reading between the lines’): Why does the fairy dust herself down? Why do you think this? How did Prince Cinders feel when the fairy fell out of the chimney? How do you know?
Prediction question: What do you think will happen next?
Explanation question: What do you think about Prince Cinder’s brothers? Explain why you think this.
Retrieval questions: How many brothers does Prince Cinders have? What was Prince Cinders doing when the fairy fell from the chimney?
Finally, you can find out more about the Reading Vipers here: https://www.literacyshedblog.com/blog/applying-vipers-to-well-known-texts and here: https://www.literacyshedblog.com/blog/reading-vipers
KS1 Reading Viper Question Stems https://www.literacyshedblog.com/uploads/1/2/5/7/12572836/ks1_reading_vipers.pdf
KS2 Reading Viper Question Stems https://www.literacyshedblog.com/uploads/1/2/5/7/12572836/ks2_reading_vipers.pdf
