Reading workshop for parents

[toomuchicecream]

I have to run one of these for my KS1 class. What would you like to see included if your DCs school ran one?

I'm going to do an overview of phonics and how we teach it, how our reading scheme (and book changing) work, guided reading and then how to develop a child's comprehension. Anything else?

Sounds perfect to me! I wish my ds's school had done something like this when he started this year...I think I'm starting to annoy his teacher with the constant notes in his reading record making sure I'm going about things in the right way!!

Phonics - stress the importance of the sounds. Also tell them which system you're using e.g. jolly phonics and where to find resources to support at home. Maybe put it on your school website.

Praising effort rather than achievement.
Practicing reading does not have to be just using the book sent home from school: street signs, cereal packets, comics, are all valuable resources that may engage less-interested readers.
The home reader does not have to be finished in one sitting.

Information about the different components you look for e.g. Phonics, comprehension, expression etc and how there are assessed so that parents can understand further down the line what aspects of reading they need to help work on. I wish my school would do that!

Stress the importance of reading to a child. DD was so afraid we would stop reading to her that she virtually refused to learn to read.

Make sure parents understand that they do not have to follow a reading scheme at home. I come across friends who didn't get any early readers from the library as they were afraid of confusing the child when it would stumble across sounds it hasn't been taught yet. Our school promoted extra reading as reading with the parent.

Sounds great - maybe higher order reading skills such as inference/deduction etc? Also, the importance of reading at home most nights and how disadvantaged children who do not get this opportunity are?

A book list would also be helpful - maybe a 'books to share' list rather than one that might invite comparisons about children's reading levels.

Dd1's school does a phonics workshop at the start of EYFS and English and Maths workshops for KS1 and KS2. It's really helpful, especially as they put the presentations on the website, so even if you can't get there for the presentation you can still read the slides.

our school has a very high number of English as an additional language families and so the staff gave details of a website (I can't remember it unfortunately) which played the actual phonic sounds so they could hear them. I know many of those parents found this very helpful because the children could practice the sounds at home using this and develop the correct pronunciation. I would say it is worth including this. (useful for English speaking families too if they aren't familiar with phonics)

How to listen to your child.
e.g. if they come across a word they can't read do you
a) encourage sounding out even if it takes 20 attempts
b) try to sound out twice then say it for them
c) get them to guess
d) or what

How to spot if a book is too hard (number of problem words per page?)

It's OK for a child to read some 'easy' books, likewise reading 'hard' books but not understanding them may be counterproductive

It's a marathon not a sprint

Purpose of the y1 phonics test, and why a child needs to be able to sound out 'nonsense' words (DD1's book just had a 2 page list of nonsense words (Billionaire Boy by David Walliams)

Thank you all - very helpful.