Usborne Phonics Readers - 12 Book Set

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If you’re looking to save money and print out a free resource, The Measured Mom has created mini phonics books for each word family. I absolutely love these books, particularly because of their large text. A child can sound out each word in the word family with confidence. These are an incredible resource and I highly recommend them! Our analysis of inspection evidence for 30 secondary schools, inspected between September 2021 and January 2022, showed that 28 used reading assessment tests to screen all Year 7 pupils and identify those at risk of struggling with reading. Standardised screening tests, such as cognitive ability tests or reading age assessments, effectively identified the bottom 20% or 30% of readers, based on a chosen cut-off score or according to the gap between pupils’ reading age and their chronological age. They showed pupils who were at risk of not getting a grade 4 in GCSE English. However, schools did not follow up with diagnostic tests to identify precise gaps in pupils’ reading knowledge. S Higgins, M Katsipataki and R Coleman, ‘Interim evidence brief reading at the transition’, Education Endowment Foundation, 2014. ↩ Oversight of struggling readers is led by the vice-principal and assistant principal. The assistant SENCo and English teacher leading on the form-time reading programme also have responsibility for the progress of struggling readers. The academy invests heavily in specialist programmes for struggling readers. A Quigley and R Coleman, ‘Improving literacy in secondary schools: guidance report’, Education Endowment Foundation, 2019. ↩

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. Schools tended to stop additional support and monitoring once pupils were beyond key stage 3. Each of the schools assessed and monitored struggling readers until at least Year 9. However, none of them told us that they continued to monitor pupils’ progress beyond key stage 3, or once pupils had reached their chronological reading age. Nor did they always continue to give pupils the additional help once they had ‘graduated’ from a reading programme. This meant that the schools did not always know the longer-term impact of help, or whether pupils continued to struggle in key stage 4. Several pupils told us that they felt less enthusiastic and motivated to read for pleasure by the time they reached key stage 4. Introduction Skilled reading

In this school, the headteacher said she felt that taking children out of lessons was ‘detrimental to their learning’. Staff expertise in teaching reading You’ve got gradual change over the years, staff have actually started to really realise the fundamental importance of literacy, reading, writing, regardless of your subject.

Phonological awareness extends into phonics when a child understands that letters make sounds and those letters create words. In 2000, the National Reading Panel released its report, and they concluded, without room for doubt, that early instruction in phonics is the best way to teach children how to read. This expansive study researched letter-sound correspondence (phonics) versus the “look-say,” or whole language, teaching that had been a struggling method since the 1950’s. They unanimously found that phonics is the best approach to early reading. Using evidence from classrooms as well as data from interventions gave schools additional evidence of how specialised reading programmes and additional teaching were having an impact in the classroom. This was an important aspect of how schools knew what was effective. It showed that the additional teaching for struggling readers was helping them to access the full curriculum. What pupils said about the help they got with reading secondary and primary schools HMI – to understand the current issues they find in schools and what might support inspection practice Training supported an ethos that valued and understood the importance of investing in reading and staff working together to help struggling readers. This culture of collaboration was evident in our discussions with staff. One reading support teacher said:

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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. literature review – to understand the issues for struggling adolescent readers and review evidence of effective strategies and interventions shown to support older struggling readers 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: The rationale for this work lies in the need for all pupils to leave school as successful readers and with GCSE English at grade 4 or above. It is essential for pupils to be able to read proficiently, so they can access post-compulsory education and participate fully in society. Our education recovery reports also show that learning loss as a result of school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic is making reading a greater issue in secondary schools. [footnote 22] 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.’

It is important to only introduce Phonics Readers if your child knows some letter sounds, shows interest, and can sit in one place for 5-10 minutes. Whether you homeschool and want a great set to focus on with your child, or you want to supplement your child’s school learning, having a Phonics Readers Set in your home will help your child work on their phonetic learning. There are many Reader Sets that teach the phonetic approach to reading.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

Some schools also shared information on support strategies for individual pupils. This meant there was a consistent approach to how classroom teachers and support staff incorporated the learning from interventions with specialist teachers. Monitoring the impact of additional teaching and knowing what works A popular approach in Scotland, this method is associated with the teaching of reading in which the phonemes associated with particular graphemes are not pronounced in isolation. Children identify (analyse) the common phoneme in a set of words in which each word contains the phoneme under study. For example, teacher and pupils discuss how the following words are alike: pat, park, push and pen. Analogy phonicsScreening assessments identified pupils who struggled with reading and needed further assessment. All the schools screened the whole of Year 7, as well as pupils who joined after Year 7. Each school then used more granular diagnostic assessments to identify specific reading gaps and weaknesses, so they could give pupils the appropriate additional teaching. Diagnostic tests were most often used with the lowest 20% to 30% identified though screening. Schools invested in several diagnostic assessments to test different aspects of reading, including phonic knowledge, word reading efficiency, reading accuracy and speed, and comprehension. Many of these children who are coming to us with such a low reading age already have probably had intervention after intervention at primary school and it hasn’t worked, so they need something different. In contrast, other secondary schools are treating pupils as individuals and building up a complete picture of their barriers to reading. One HMI said: