Reading Made Simple |
The following dictations should be given as per a normal Reading Made Simple dictation. Follow the instructions to know where to start your child.
Passage 1: Jack sits on the soft sand to snack on crisps. A gust of wind lifts his best hat and sends it into the pond. Jack is cross. The hat cost a lot. He grabs the hat and runs to his truck. He will not trust the wind. The cap is in the black truck. Two or more errors in this dictation indicates that the pupil should start with the /a/ family and progress through Level 2 at a rate of one family a week. If the pupil has less than two errors, then s/he should try the next dictation passage. Passage 2: In the morning, Frank and Jack sat chatting on a bench and munched thick chips. Frank dropped three chips and a gull took them up onto the school roof. Quick as a flash, Frank grabbed the chips and sprang up from the bench. He and Jack went and sat in the car before the gull took more. Two or more errors in this dictation indicates that the pupil should start with the /oo/ family and progress through Level 2 at a rate of one family a week. If this dictation is completed with less than 2 errors, the child should start with the a-e family and progress at the rate of one sound family per week. You may have come to Reading Made Simple because you know that your child has difficulty learning in the standard way. Maybe your child is struggling to learn to read, or maybe to spell. Maybe you have noticed other things about your child that concern you. Maybe you cannot afford specialist help. If this is you and your child, this article for you. As well as making Reading Made Simple as systematic as possible, we need to understand the child's way of learning - or those things that are stopping him/her from achieving the standard we think s/he ought to be achieving. Many children with difficulties learning to read and spell have less obvious difficulties that are underlying these difficulties. What do I mean? I mean things such as poor
These things sound scary! But put simply, it means that maybe:
To get you started thinking about these things, can I suggest you listen to this 5 part course of mini videos? As you listen, write down anything that sounds like your child. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Looking-at-Learning-Differences-Differently-Part-1-of-5-8437421 The main take-away from these 5 videos, if you learn nothing else, is that your child is not being lazy, or defiant. Of course, all children are these things from time to time, some more so than others, but when reading or spelling it is most probably because of one of these difficulties, and if worked on, with a systematic programme and a teacher (yourself) who now understands where the child is coming from, you can work together more harmoniously and you help to make learning something that your child can at last feel successful at. As you teach Reading Made Simple, there are some simple strategies that you can make sure that you include in your lessons to help your child with these difficulties. Some of these things are part of the programme, but knowing how they can hep a child who learns differently will help you to use them more constructively.
Develop the ability to hear sounds in words: Understand that the main aim of phonics is hearing the sounds in words. If your child has trouble hearing the sounds, then you will need to build in more listening exercises or games. Many children learn to hear the initial sound easily enough, but have trouble putting three sounds together to make a word, c-a-t, or separating the sounds of a word out to spell. The answer is much practice, patience and much modelling - you showing the child what is needed. I like to use an ' I do, now you do' approach until the child starts to understand what is needed. Of course, every new sound form Level 1 onwards is taught by the teacher first modelling how to use the new sound, but do not stop there: keep modellling. Understand that this sound awareness will not necessarily only apply to the early stages of learning to read. I have children who have trouble hearing whether a word has /o/ or /oo/, or /e/ or /ee/, as well as many who need a lot of help to differentiate between /sh/ and /ch/. When we reach powerful 'e' I like to play games where the child must listen to hear whether the 'e' is needed or not, to change the vowel to say its name. So be alert as you move through the programme. Watch and listen and step in with more listening exercise if necessary. Use sound it out boxes to help your child to visually sequence sounds. Draw one box for each sound (not each letter). The child can write each sound in each box as s/he sounds out the word. Tracking exercises These are built in to our supplied workbooks for Levels 1 and 2, but you can easily make your own once you understand how Reading Made simple builds on itself, one tiny step at a time. The key is to write a short passage using only words that the child can sound out while using as many words on the new sound list as possible. The child should then first find all the words with the new sound and underline them before reading the passage. Give your child time to think Repeat the instruction, but do not jump in too quickly to help - do not leave it too long either so that he child gets frustrated, but watch for the right moment to intervene, whether it be decoding a word, or spelling a word. Do watch for things the child needs more practice of Use the dictations to assess your child's learning. Give more targeted practice of anything that seems to be a problem. This can be in the form of simple games, practice dictations/revision of a sound family. Understand how children learn Children do not learn in a neat upward line. They go up a bit, back a bit, forward a bit more, back a bit..and so on. Add into this that children who learn differently often have bad days when it can seem as if everything you ever taught them has been forgotten. If this happens, simply model some more until the child realises 'Ok, nothing as changed, I can still do this." Also, remember that a child will not learn for example how to use /ck/ in one week. We are not after instant perfection here. We will teach the lesson in one week, and the child may now be able to sound out /ck/ words, but they will need much, much practice of using and applying the rules in the weeks and months ahead as new rules are introduced. At these times, you will see children do what I call 'wobble' - things you thought were secure suddenly seem to be very insecure. Do not panic but push through. Reassure - and use our old friend - modelling - "I do - now you do." Soon you will find that the 'problem' has resolved itself. Some children wobble far more than others and for longer, but if they COULD do it - they still can! Take it from me! You can teach your child, but you will be teaching yourself as you do so! In our work with many children over many years we have drawn not only upon our own experiences and knowledge, but upon the work of many others who have gone before.
In our practices in London state schools, in deprived areas we have seen what works best with the many children we have worked with, and we have utilised different ideas from various phonic programmes to meet the needs of the children. Disillusioned by the complexity and inflexibility of many phonics programmes we saw the need for our own programme - one that was simple and one that made use of those parts of the programmes we had tried that work best for most children, and one that teaches both reading and spelling thoroughly. In this way, Reading Made Simple was born. Reading Made Simple is fully in agreement with the five principles set out by The National Reading Panel (2000) and The Science of Reading that a programme of phonic instruction should include the teaching of:
1. The teacher must take responsibility for the child's progress. If a child fails to learn to read, it is the teacher's fault, not the child's or that of the programme being used per se. 2.The capabilities of children are vastly underestimated. I have seen many children reading fluently well before their 5th birthday, having been taught by a good phonics method. 3. The need for simplicity: Many programmes include far too many rules and use complicated vocabulary to describe the phonic code. The more rules, the more to remember and some children just cannot cope. These are the children with poor short-term memories and difficulties processing information. They need things to be kept as simple as possible - and so do many teachers and parents! Phonics can be easy to understand, easy to teach and we can make it easier for the child to learn to read and write, rather than putting stumbling blocks in their path. 4. The power of a dictation to help children's spelling and therefore writing ability to progress quickly.
5. The need of constant revision, using
6. The need for careful introduction of sounds: So that no word is ever presented for which the necessary spelling has not already been introduced. This is one of the main difficulties I have encountered with many other phonic programmes. For example, some will include the word ’shark, when teaching ’sh’, without having first taught ’ar’. This causes many children to stumble in their progress, 7. The need of vocabulary carefully matched to the child’s age at each stage This is another problem I find in many phonic programmes. Very often, word families are introduced according to some ‘ideal’ schedule, but the words in some of the families are just not relevant to young children - so they are not likely to stick so easily and be easily forgotten. Other programmes introduce phonic sounds which are only found in words that the child is less likely to use at a young age. For example, which child is going to be using the word ‘jaunty’ in their writing? Or ‘renew’? Experience proves that these words are best left until children are well on their way with phonics and have the maturity to process them. The words used in Reading Made Simple at each level are words that, on average, children are likely to use and need when either reading or composing their own writing, at each level of ability. 8. The need for a key set of words for each sound, that are concentrated on for both reading and spelling for all, but particularly by all for spelling. Of course, the more able will quickly learn to apply the new sound to many more words when reading and spelling, but spelling goes more slowly and any with a processing difficulty, especially, but all children, benefit from a list of ‘key’ words to use as a point of reference for each sound. I pin the relevant list for that week up around the room for easy reference. I have them on hand for quick reference whenever a child needs short, sharp revision. In short, I make every effort to help the child to assimilate the teaching. 9. The need to spend one whole week on each new sound for spelling, but also for reading if a child has a special need.
10. The need to use multi-sensory methods:
11. The need of a reading scheme that:
12. The value of games: For some children, learning is very hard and it can become tedious. For these children especially we recommend the use of phonic games to ease the child over a difficulty, be that learning to blend, or which letter combination needed to spell a word. Games can be found on our sister site: Sound it out Phonics. This programme is designed to make use of all these excellent, time-honoured components. If you would like more information about the Reading Made Simple method please read further: Reading Made simple uses phonics to teach both reading and spelling. It is a flexible programme that you can use to suit the needs of your child. It can be used as a reading and writing programme for a child who is just starting out. Others only desire to use it as a spelling programme for a child who can already read. Others may be using it for intervention work with a child who has failed to make progress so far. Whatever your need, Reading Made Simple can help! Always remember that spelling and reading are two sides of the same coin! The one helps the other and together both are stronger. The Reading Made Simple method: How and Why Reading Made Simple WorksReading Made Simple is a highly structured programme of synthetic (building from sounds to words), systematic Phonics that utilises what is called the spiral method of teaching phonics. The spiral method emphasises the introduction of concepts slowly, over time and gives pupils plenty of practice and repetition. Reading Made Simple teaches phonics through a process of incremental development and continual review. How does Reading Made Simple use Incremental Development? Reading Made Simple breaks the learning of phonics down into small, manageable pieces. See the progression chart here. Reading Made Simple introduces these pieces a little at a time and lets phonic concepts build upon one another. This incremental development, as it is called, is designed to spread skills and knowledge development out over time, developing confident readers and writers. Reading Made Simple chunks phonic information; that means, it presents phonic concepts in bite sized pieces, over a longer period, so that learning becomes less of a strain on a student’s working memory, leading to longer term information retention and lessening frustration in the long run. This is the main component that makes it suitable for all children, including those with a processing difficulty of any kind. Reading Made Simple is based on well-established and long-standing educational studies. Continual Review The other feature that characterises Reading Made Simple, is the importance it places on continual review, practice and assessment. With Reading Made Simple, phonic concepts are reviewed and practiced periodically over time, mixing older concepts into newer lessons and thereby cumulatively giving children lots of practice and repetition over the course of the programme. Through experiential knowledge of those points in learning where many pupils falter, extra practice has been built in to help children progress as seamlessly as possible. The supply of worksheets and games can help to ease a child over a difficulty. By placing a stronger emphasis on practice, repetition and doing dictations, Reading Made Simple can help with information retention and in making phonic skills more automatic (known as procedural fluency), leading to greater reading and writing fluency, and further to good reading comprehension. Because this constant repetition and practice is done over time, the learning of phonics can therefore be less frustrating and stressful for some children, particularly those that tend to get overwhelmed by too much information too soon, whereas those without any difficulties make good progress, with ease. Reading Made Simple may look from the outside like any other phonic programme. On the inside, it differs much, especially from Level 1 onwards. Find out more! In a nutshell: Why does Reading Made Simple work when others fail?
These are the supporting resources which we have available to help you to teach Level 3 of Reading Made Simple, a 100% FREE phonic reading and writing programme. Phonic Word Lists for Level 3This is a PDF file containing a list of the words in each of the phonic families taught in Level 3. It is helpful for revision, of which much is needed in Level 3, for pupils much have as much exposure to the new words as possible in order for them to be stored in the long term memory, for automatic recall as pupils will not necessarily spend a week learning each new sound, if studying only for reading. Level 3 Reading BooksThese books are not as graded as those written for Level 1, but if read after the indicated lesson has been taught, the child will have the phonic knowledge to cope with most, if not all of the text.
Pleas be guided by your child's ability as to whether a book is suitable for your pupil at any given point - some are more challenging length-wise. These are all good books to read and you can always come back to them later. |
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How to teach RMS The weekly lesson schedule explained How to do a dictation Make sure you do it correctly! Where to start your child Troubleshooting What to do if you hit a problem |