Tools for Reading (Phonology)
Phonological awareness is the foundation upon which later phonic knowledge is built and, in the earliest stages, learners should be supported to identify rhyme and alliteration, segment units of sound in speech – words, syllables and phonemes – and manipulate these sounds.
Phonological Awareness – Listening Skills
Phonological Awareness – Rhyme Awareness
Phonological Awareness – Sentence Segmentation
Phonological Awareness – Syllables
Phonological Awareness – Onset and Rime
Phonological Awareness – Phonemic Awareness
Through observation and assessment in everyday activities, experiences and play practitioners will assess and determine learners’ proficiency. Many learners will have acquired these skills through rich early literacy experiences. However, some learners will require more time and opportunities to enable them to progress in their reading development more effectively. This includes older learners who may not have fully developed these fundamental abilities.
When learners have well developed phonological awareness, phonics instruction will then help them to learn the ‘The Alphabetic Principle’– the idea that there is a predictable relationship between the sounds we hear and the letters, or letter patterns, we use to represent these. Practitioners will follow a structured and systematic approach to phonics instruction, teaching sound-letter relationships in a logical sequence. This can be effectively supported by the Appendix section of the Fife Literacy Progression Pathways which provides a clear order to follow, helping practitioners determine the most appropriate learning and teaching opportunities.
As writing was invented to represent speech, manipulatives like cubes, cards or other objects may be used initially to make this concept more concrete for young learners or those who require further support. Once an understanding that symbols are used to represent speech sounds has been established, these can be replaced by letters. Learners will engage in multi-sensory activities to apply what they are learning to the reading and writing of words. Practitioners may find the digital Phonic Play Mats a useful way to resource this, in addition to the provision of magnetic letters or other materials to support a a ‘Speech to Print Approach’.
Initially, through their phonics instruction children will learn that all 26 letters of the alphabet make at least one predictable or common sound. As they progress, practitioners will support them to develop an understanding of different letter patterns, types of syllable and smallest units (morphemes) that make up words. This may be well supported by sound walls or strips to help learners draw on their developing knowledge and understanding to read and write. As the English language is complex, practitioners will explicitly teach decoding strategies (e.g. ‘Set for Variability’) that help learners view reading as a ‘problem solving’ process when they encounter unfamiliar words. Practitioners may find the Supporting Decoding video useful to support with this.
To help learners gain access to a shared text, practitioners will draw on a range of strategies such as reading aloud, choral or echo reading, tiered or teacher devised material or assistive technology. This bypasses the need for independent reading and enables all learners to engage. In this way, a truly inclusive environment will be created.
The learning and teaching of high frequency words should be a clear priority in the reading curriculum as they make up a significant percentage of words learners will be required to read and write. Practitioners will use effective approaches that support the Orthographic Mapping process, so that this learning is more effectively committed to the long-term memory by forming connections between the semantic (meaning), phonological (auditory) and orthographic (visual) pathways. This helps learners develop a greater number of ‘sight words’ which they can instantly and automatically recognise without any conscious effort.
Tools for Reading
Visual Discrimination skills are required for processing the fine detail in text and, in the earliest stages, learners should be encouraged to recognise and discriminate between different shapes, colours, patterns, pictures and symbols. Through observation and assessment in everyday activities, experiences and play, practitioners will determine learners’ proficiency. Many learners will have acquired these visual discrimination skills through rich early literacy experiences and environments. However, some learners will require more time and opportunities to enable them to progress in their reading development more effectively. This includes older learners who may not yet have fully developed these fundamental abilities.
When learners have well developed visual discrimination skills, phonics instruction will then help them to make the necessary connections between the sounds we hear and the letters, or letter patterns, we use to represent these. Being able to identify the subtle similarities and differences between letters and words will support learners as they begin to decode text.
As the English language is very complex, practitioners will explicitly teach decoding and comprehension strategies that help learners read with increasing fluency, understanding and expression. When supporting reading, practitioners will draw on their knowledge and understanding of the Science of Reading to effectively group learners for focused instruction. Practitioners’ use of assessment will help to identify those who demonstrate similar strengths or developmental needs in both their word reading and language comprehension skills. Effectively organised Guided Reading groups then provide an opportunity for explicit teaching and practice of the most relevant skills and strategies, involving much more than just ‘hearing’ children read aloud.
As learners continue to develop their skills to effectively decode text, a strong reading culture in classrooms and across the school setting promotes a life-long love of language, literature, and other media. Practitioners will act as role models and harness daily opportunities to read aloud to learners, promoting the many benefits for language as well as cognitive, social, and emotional development. Creative spaces invite learners to independently explore texts for enjoyment and opportunities for them to engage with a wide variety of texts for their own purposes are encouraged by access to reading material that will develop knowledge or spark imagination. When developing library spaces, practitioners will also create opportunities to involve learners and offer choice in selecting reading material to effectively increase motivation and engagement for reading.
Across different areas of the curriculum, practitioners will be discerning with their use of classic and contemporary texts for teaching and ensure there is an appropriate balance between fiction and non-fiction e.g. graphic novels, poems, newspaper articles, adverts, song lyrics, instructions, biographies/autobiographies, recipes, posters. Texts that positively highlight diversity and are representative of our modern, evolving society in Scotland today are vitally important for exploring important issues, developing empathy, respect and informing beliefs.
To further support and strengthen the link between home and school learning, learners from the early years to Primary 3 are gifted book bags and learning materials as part of the Scottish Government’s annual Bookbug and Read Write Count programmes. These can help families include fun and supportive reading and writing activities in their everyday lives. Schools will determine other effective ways to engage their wider school community in the development of their reading curriculum e.g. whole school events, author visits, links with a local library, school trips, involvement in reading initiatives or programmes, competitions.
Skills for Understanding, Analysing and Evaluating
When supporting language comprehension, practitioners will draw on their knowledge and understanding of the key skills learners should be developing to support effective reading. In addition to the Progression Pathways, resources such as Scarborough’s Reading Rope may be considered as this illustrates aspects that may pose barriers to language comprehension.
As comprehension of a text can be greatly influenced by a learners’ background knowledge, vocabulary and knowledge of language and text structures, practitioners will explicitly teach a range of strategies that can support learners to understand texts they have engaged with. Developing this understanding will be achieved most effectively through:
- Opportunities for learners to expand their background knowledge through activities that precede, or complement, reading experiences. This will help them acquire relevant information, ideas, or vocabulary.
- Opportunities for learners to make connections between their personal experiences, knowledge of the world and their understanding of the author and purpose of the text type e.g. typical text structures or language features.
- Opportunities for learners to make predictions before and as they read to develop their skills of deduction and inference, drawing on evidence to inform their thinking and logic.
- Opportunities for learners to visualise text in different ways. This may involve the use of drawings, drama activities or activating different senses using prompts e.g. pictures, sound effects, objects, scents.
- Opportunities to engage learners in discussion using different types of questions that incorporate a range of higher order thinking skills, from literal to inferential to evaluative e.g. a Question Matrix. Facilitating more classroom talk and discussion about texts invites more active learning as learners are continually required to use the text when explaining or reasoning.
- Opportunities to develop learners’ knowledge of text structures or language features through a rich text. Exploring elements used by real writers in context can greatly support the practise and transferral of skills, unlikely to be achieved as effectively through decontextualised or standalone exercises.
- Opportunities for learners to develop their understanding of how to effectively summarise and draw together the main ideas of a text.
- Opportunities for learners to develop strategies to help them determine the meanings of unfamiliar words. Vocabulary instruction may be explicit (e.g. selecting specific words to focus on, teaching strategies such as using context clues) or may be implicit (e.g. giving a definition, highlighting words or parts of words to support connections ‘in the moment’).
Effective readers have conscious control of their strategy use and are able to make decisions about which to use and in what situations.
As appropriate to their age, stage and needs, practitioners will engage learners in instruction that teaches them the reading comprehension strategies that support that support confident reading as well as help them to develop the necessary metacognitive awareness of how and when to use these strategies for best effect.
In this way, learners engage more assuredly with unfamiliar text and view reading as a ‘problem solving’ process, supported by the toolkit of strategies they have learned to refer to.
