Download Beginners` literacy programme – `Roots`

Beginners' literacy programme – 'Roots'
This beginners' literacy programme is aimed at pupils achieving English National Curriculum reading and writing at below the KS1
Expected Standard.
The Roots programme will help you get your child off to a successful start with reading and writing. It will build upon
their existing knowledge of synthetic phonics from Reception, but will also help them develop a significant vocabulary of
words they recognise by sight.
Best of all, it will encourage a love of reading, since Roots uses a rich variety of teacher-read books.
Key features
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Children are assessed and regrouped according to their reading level every eight weeks – this ensures they
are always taught at the right level and can see their own development.
There is a strong focus on phonemic awareness, speaking and listening, comprehension, and text level skills.
Roots has been successfully used as an intervention programme with Key Stage 2 children.
How Roots is structured
Roots' daily programme is built around four basic components:
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FastTrack Phonics
It will build your childs' phonemic awareness by using colourful mnemonic pictures, integrated with alliterative
phrases, sounds, and letter cues. Fun elements, such as games, ensure it remains enjoyable, as the fastpaced systematic instruction reviews and introduces sounds and their written representations.
Shared Stories
It uses vibrant storybooks to engage your child in practicing their decoding, fluency, and comprehension skills.
New vocabulary is introduced then children are guided as they decode the story with their partners. The
teacher will also lead whole-class discussions that encourage higher-level thinking skills. These will stimulate
your childrens' oral language and cognitive development, as they become confident, enthusiastic readers.
Story Telling and Retelling (STaR)
Teachers will read both fiction and non-fiction books interactively with children as part of daily lessons. Using
partner talk and response, they will start to develop your childls' early skills of predicting, clarifying and
questioning, to support the development of effective reading strategies.
Writing
In addition to a daily supported short writing task, in every third lesson the teacher will guide children through a
longer writing activity that is related to the theme of both the Shared Story and STaR books. Your child will
think, speak, and work collaboratively with others as they go through the writing process.