Usborne Phonics Readers - 12 Book Set

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It’s very complicated – we talk about two things – teaching pupils to read who are struggling and helping them to access the curriculum. In other subjects they are being taught vocabulary useful for that subject. But is it actually teaching them to read? It’s a very difficult area for secondary schools to navigate, not just the quality of interventions, but how much time it takes or where it is in the curriculum. It’s a real tension for secondary school leaders to manage that.’

The illustrations in Primary Phonics are very simple, and the readers progressively learns their vowel sounds. These Storybooks Starter Set 1 are the perfect introduction to phonics-based early reading. The books contain decodable stories, so they have an added comprehension element while the inside covers clearly list phonetic concepts and sight words included in each book. Pupils described how help with reading was improving their confidence and motivation to read. For instance, one Year 7 pupil said that a strategy to ‘break down syllables’ they were practising in reading classes helped ‘boost my confidence to speak fluently in class’. This pupil therefore wanted to read more in class. The Very First Reading Set from Usborne includes shared reading for an adult and child to enjoy a fun story together. The first book, Pirate Pat, uses only 8 letters to create the sentences that your child will read. And each book adds more letters to create more words to sound out together. When you discover that your child has learned their letter sounds, and you feel that he/she is ready to begin combining those sounds to create words, then he/she is ready for a Phonics Reader Set. And I wholeheartedly recommend any of the below 10 Sets to you today! I have weighed pros and cons for each reader, and I share my favorites. The most important thing we need to ask ourselves is: You can see the progress they’ve made, you see it in lessons when they’re eager to read. It’s beyond the figures – we do what we do to see that palpable result. It’s not necessarily about that number on a spreadsheet or reading age – it’s about them having that confidence.How do secondary schools with strong outcomes for struggling readers identify these pupils’ particular reading needs?

Each year, around one quarter of 11-year-olds do not meet the expected standard in reading at the end of primary school in Year 6. [footnote 27] This level is considered to be the threshold of functional literacy, and gives children the knowledge and skills needed to manage the demands of the secondary school curriculum. Evidence suggests that fewer than 1 in 5 of these pupils can expect to get a GCSE grade 4. Your student will learn many concepts with the All About Reading: Level 1 curriculum. I love that while introducing new concepts, it also includes several phonics readers that reinforce the concepts learned. Every component of reading is taught: decoding (phonics and structural analysis), vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. The three readers included are Run, Bug, Run, The Runt Pig, and Cobweb the Cat. Here is simple text from the fourth story, which includes simple text and pencil-drawn illustrations: The need for word recognition and language comprehension means that readers who struggle to recognise words accurately will also struggle to understand what they read. Good readers are strong in both word reading and language comprehension. Good language comprehension cannot compensate for poor word reading. [footnote 8] We also saw how additional help for struggling readers was part of a wider whole-school strategy to improve the reading of all pupils. This meant that as well as additional teaching in the foundational components of reading, such as accurate word reading and fluency, struggling readers benefited from teaching across the curriculum that focused on the vocabulary knowledge needed for comprehension and subject-specific reading. Annex A: detailed research methods Schools frequently stopped giving pupils additional help once they had ‘graduated’ from a reading programme or had reached their chronological reading age. This meant that schools might not know if previously struggling readers were continuing to make progress with their reading.It was important to talk to pupils about the help they got with reading. By talking to pupils directly, we explored their views of the teaching they had received and their progress as readers. These discussions helped us to better understand the pupils’ experience of struggling with reading. Librarians also played an active role in supporting struggling readers. In 3 schools, librarians had access to data on struggling readers, such as reading ages, and helped pupils to find books that they might like and that were suitable for them. In 2 schools, librarians were responsible for online reading assessments. One librarian administered reading tests at the end of a paired reading scheme. Librarians used this information to find out what pupils were reading. In each of these schools, librarians were part of the way schools used data to monitor the progress of struggling readers and to recommend suitable books for them to read.

The release of this report does not mean that we should let go of “sight words.” Certainly children need to know those too! The core of reading instruction should be based on phonics patterns and methods. Of course we, as adults, do not sound out the words we read; so our goal is for children to commit words to memory for both reading and spelling. But for beginning readers, it is most beneficial to sound it out. The decoding skills pupils do have may not be fluent enough for the demands of the secondary curriculum. A study with pupils in Years 7 to 9 found that only a small number of struggling readers with poor reading comprehension had adequate word reading fluency. [footnote 14] Although poor word decoding does not prevent comprehension, it is a barrier to skilled, proficient reading comprehension. [footnote 15]literature review – to understand the issues for struggling adolescent readers and review evidence of effective strategies and interventions shown to support older struggling readers Pupils told us how teachers would talk to them about reading. For example, one Year 7 pupil said that his teacher would recommend new books because they ‘know what I like’. Other teachers talked about the importance of knowing their pupils and knowing their interests, so they could recommend books they might be interested in or broaden their horizons by introducing them to new authors. The role of librarians More detailed, tailored assessments decide which of 2 reading programmes a pupil should be put on. The school uses a systematic synthetic phonics programme for pupils with a reading age of 9 and above, to decide who needs additional help and which module of the programme they start on. All pupils in the 2 lowest attaining English classes do this phonics assessment. The aim of this research was to illustrate what some secondary schools do to support struggling readers effectively. We did not want to measure the effectiveness of support, but instead wanted to develop an in-depth understanding of some common threads of good practice and high-quality provision that could be used in similar contexts. We therefore used a purposive sample of a small number of schools where a range of evidence indicated accelerated progress for readers who did not meet national standards on entry to Year 7. These schools recognised that although cross-curricular, school-wide initiatives improved reading, there were pupils who first needed specific teaching in phonics. Once pupils could read accurately, they were better able to access and benefit from what schools did to improve the reading of all pupils.

Other schools timetabled additional teaching outside the normal school day. Two schools said they had changed the time of extra reading lessons as a result of monitoring and evaluating their existing reading timetable. Both schools found that teaching sessions before school worked best. One member of support staff described why the school made the decision to change teaching times: This academy is a mixed secondary school with a sixth form. It is part of a sponsor-led academy. The school has 1,150 pupils, of whom 32% speak English as an additional language and 30% are disadvantaged.The HMI focus groups indicated that secondary schools did not always have staff trained to teach pupils who were in the early stages of learning to read. They also showed that teachers did not always know how to help struggling readers in class. Many pupils said that reading had previously caused them stress and anxiety. This was often when pupils were asked to read aloud in class. One Year 7 pupil said, ‘It was really embarrassing because I didn’t know how to say some of the words.’ Another Year 7 pupil in the same school said: CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words are progressively learned with delightful, full-colored pictures. The only downside to these readers (and it’s a big issue to note) is that Abeka’s program learns all the vowels in their first little book. Learning the vowels — because they all sound so similar to a child just becoming phonologically aware — is not beneficial for most children. Another resource that you may consider are the First Phonics Readers from Wildflower Ramblings. I created these readers for my son who struggles to sound out three letters together (h – a – t), but can understand and synthesize two letters being sounded out together (h – a). Start with your child’s reading scheme book. These books will improve reading skills at the just the right level to give challenge and practise. Moving up through the colours or levels can be very important to children and this will help them progress