From the Learning Specialists 

‘Reading is the gateway for children that makes all other learning possible’ 

B. Obama

Reading is so much more than just stringing sounds and letters together to say words; we also need to make meaning of what we read by thinking about phrasing, punctuation and vocabulary and we must become clue detectives to think deeper about the message that the text is delivering. Reading is a complicated, multi-tasking process!

In the beginning though, learning to read involves blending known sounds together. Students are taught to read letters or groups of letters by saying the sound (or sounds) they represent. For example, they will be taught that the letter ‘m’ represents an mmm sound. Next, known sounds can be blended to make words. For example, students are taught that the sounds of the letters ‘c-a-t’ blend together to make the word ‘cat’.

However, there are many words we read that are just too hard to sound out in this way. Try sounding out ‘said’, ‘laugh’ or ‘what’- sounding doesn’t quite work for all words, does it! Learning to identify these words by sight is a way to help. You may be familiar with the sight word lists we use in the early years at Wonga Park (Magic 100 Words and Oxford Words). It is interesting to know that the first 32 sight words that we learn to recognise make up, on average, one third of all reading!

As we continue to build our knowledge of sound patterns, we become comfortable to read more extensive vocabulary; we can break big words up into smaller, manageable parts. When we blend all these smaller parts together, we experience success at reading extensive vocabulary.

Sounding out even helps adults sometimes! Here is a tricky word for you to try in this way… 

Micropachycephalosaurus

(The current record-holder for Longest Dinosaur Name)

‘To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.’ V. Hugo