RWI Phonics

Date: 25th Jul 2016 @ 10:15pm

Read Write Inc (RWI) is a phonics based programme which helps children learn to read whilst also developing a wide range of vocabulary and encouraging a love of stories. It was developed by Ruth Miskin and more information on this can be found at www.ruthmiskinliteracy.com . It is a programme is for primary school children learning to read.  

How do we know RWI works?

Schools embedding this programme have been recognised by OFSTED in the HMI ‘Reading by Six Report’ (November 2010) as an example of how the best schools teach reading.

What does the RWI teaching process look like at Elton?

Children are first taught the pure ‘set 1 sounds’ so that they will be able to blend the sounds in words more easily. In School we call this ‘Fred Talk’. We do not use letter names at this stage; we simply focus on the sounds that are used to sound out words. To view correct pronunciation of the sounds watch the video below.  At this stage, the children are not only taught the ‘sound’ the letter makes, but also how to form the letter, using a rhyme and picture prompt. Learning the terminology Phonics is a highly effective way of teaching reading and spelling. Blending when reading and segmenting when spelling. It is based on the link between sounds and the way we write them down (graphemes).

i-n contains 2 sounds and 2 graphemes.

c-a-t contains 3 sounds and 3 graphemes

ch-a-t contains 3 sounds and 3 graphemes

l-igh-t contains 3 sounds and 3 graphemes

c-r-a-sh contains 4 sounds and 4 graphemes

s-t-r-ee-t contains 5 sounds and 5 graphemes

Each word always contains the same number of sounds and graphemes.

Graphemes can have 1,2,3,4 or 5 letters.