I am a TA and I teach read/write inc to yr 2 students who are struggling with literacy. It works for our school, because it is a highly structured programme and that is what many of our children need. You can't judge a whole programme by only observing one class; of course there is writing but generally it is a book a week and so you don't write every day - on day 1 you normally just read the book. Towards the end of the week the student is expected to write a story with a very structured framework (depending on what level they are on). Every day they practice speed sounds, sounds of the week, new vocab. We often use magnetic letters and white boards to practice spellings. The idea really is taking phonics to the extreme and turning learning reading and writing English into an exact science as much as you can. Children understand that there are 'green words' which you can 'Fred talk' using the 'speed sounds' which they learn at the start of each lesson, and 'red words' which you can't sound out, or 'Fred talk' You know you have oodles of magnetic letters stashed away in your closet, or maybe they’re all over the floor of your classroom. Either way, we all have a set ( or two, or three) of magnetic letters that are gathering dust somewhere.

Free eBooks | Videos | Set 1 resources | Set 2 resources | Set 3 resources | Kits and flashcards to use at home Read Write Inc. Phonics The students weren't challenged. There was no opportunity for kids to read or write harder words. There was no differentiation at all. The Magnetic Speed Sound Cards are very effective in helping children identify letter shapes and develop blending and segmenting skills, but – being magnetic – they can be difficult to store! Make a t-chart with a permanent marker and a cookie sheet. Invite students to sort upper and lowercase letters on the cookie sheet.

Mixed packs and cards

Members of our group have found ingenious ways of organising their Magnetic Speed Sound Cards. Tina Marie (left) uses a multi-section screw box organiser to separate their Cards whilst Gina Claire (right) uses individual boxes. Story Introduction – print from the Read Write Inc. Phonics Online subscription on Oxford Owl if preferred Laura Stainer shared this excellent photo in our group. They use ‘colour popper wallets for each band, and label these with the book name and number’. Then, they put inside ‘a teacher copy of the book, all of the Green Word Cards, a lesson plan and the story introduction’, as well as ‘all of the books they need’. They read these words over and over, off the IWB and from their books - but it was still only about 20 different words)

I think RWI is better for reading then writing, but that's not surprising, reading has to precede writing. no i don't think it's brilliant, but it does seem to work well for some students who need a lot of structure/and or students who are struggling with literacy. It is also good at getting the students to really think about what they are reading and therefore encouraging comprehension - reading with understanding of what they are reading rather than just reading by rote Place a sun-bleached letter matching mat on cookie sheet and invite children to match the letters to the correct spaces.Bryony Dorrans (left) uses big plastic folders with tabs to organise their Green Word Cards and Picture Sounds Cards, whilst Jane Victoria (middle) and Claire Louise (right) use boxes with tabs to arrange their nonsense words, Speed Sound Cards, Red Words and Picture Sounds Cards. Sight Words– Your kids can use these letters to practice spelling their sight words on cookie sheets or your file cabinet. This is hands-on, independent activity to use during your literacy centers.

We have lots of free Read Write Inc. Phonics resources to help your child, including eBooks, practice sheets and parent films. We suggest you start by watching this film for parents: What is Read Write Inc. Phonics? Speed sounds and Read Write Inc. Stages Using magnetic letters daily can help young children in preschool or kindergarten begin to internalize the shape and feel of letters. This internalization builds alphabet fluency, which is a predictor of future reading success. Did you know that magnetic letters are a powerful literacy learning tool? That’s right, you can create “gold nugget” activities right now that will help your kids learn the alphabet and other important emergent literacy skills. Are you looking for fun, hands-on alphabet activitiesfor your students to letter identification and formation? This bundle of interactive letter activities will help your students develop their fine motor skills, hand and eye coordination, hand muscle strength, and more! each lesson is an hour long over 5 days (although we only teach over 3 days and tend to do a book every two weeks)Put magnetic letters in a pencil pouch to make a personalized name kit for each child that they can use to spell their names on cookie sheets or at home on the fridge. The best part about these activities is that you won’t break the bank or spend hours toiling away in your classroom to create stellar literacy activities, just grab a set of magnetic letters and you’re good to go! Letter Matching– During literacy centers, your kids can practice matching capital and lowercase letters using these magnetic letters and cookie sheet. I don't expect each single lesson to mean progress, a lot of it is reinforcement of things that have been taught previously but may not have settled firmly enough (yet) in child's skill set; gotta get the basics strongly in there before moving on. RWI relies on rote activities to really embed in the child's brain the Learning Objective. In reception they spend a whole day on each letter; you'd think teaching "d" was a 5 minute job, but they made it into 200 minutes. Thing is, the child remembers D better that way, and for longer, because "D" made such a huge impression. And so on, with other letters & sound groups. Magnetic letters are such a fun manipulative for kids to use when learning letters, sight words, CVC words, and more! But, they can be expensive to buy. Now, you can make your own magnetic letters for your classroom or homeschool.