START TRACKS

 

DIY READING

 

READ WORDS

 

WRITE WORDS

 

CHUNKS/RULES

 

HIGHER LEVEL SPELLING





















   HOME



   TEACHING




   COURSES



   MATERIALS



   TRACKS TEACHERS



   PARENTS



   REFERRALS



   THE TRACKS STORY


   CONTACT















       Read Words





The Read Words Track is the way we teach phonics for reading. It is structured and cumulative. 

During its development it was clear that some pupils had more difficulty in using phonics for spelling than reading, and a few pupils, more difficulty in using phonics for reading. We therefore developed phonics for reading as a track (Read Words) and phonics for spelling as a track (Rules). 







Blending




The first challenge was to develop the blending skill, and the Start Reading Words Track
was developed to deal with this.  However, the Read Words Track can operate without the need to blend more than 3 sound segments at a time, thus making decoding easier.






The sounds





The second challenge was to teach pupils initial sounds effectively. We overcame this issue simply by bypassing it. Our interactive techniques allow pupils to learn initial sounds incidentally. We don't even need to assess the pupil's growing knowledge.  



The way we deal with more complex groups of letters varies according to their frequency of use and ease of learning. We teach the frequently-used and simpler sounds directly using a hierarchy of methods - depending on the ability of the pupil. We teach more complex groups and less frequently-used sounds with a system of references.  






The techniques





Pupils read words on cards by decoding them with a systematic left to right blending technique.
There is no repetition, words are always randomly presented. If a pupil makes mistakes or is unsure the teacher provides a minimal cue, or if necessary, a series of minimal cues that teach a strategy for decoding that particular group of words. 



At each point in the session the teacher is making decisions for individual pupils. The teacher decides whether to move the pupil back or further on into the track, which cue is appropriate for the pupil, and whether to allow the pupil to use the cue immediately, or whether to build in a delay so that that the pupil has both to remember and act on the cue independently.






X Read Words





X Read Roads is an individual extension to the track that takes pupils to the point at which any word in English can be decoded. At these higher levels the development of comprehension increasingly becomes part of the process.