An important component of Orton Gillingham approach is the practice of red words. For those unaware, ‘Red Words’ are the non-phonetic words, meaning that they don’t follow the usual phonics rules. Red words are generally called ‘Sight Words’. Instead of stopping to decode these words, students are taught to recognize them immediately “by sight,”

So, building the student’s sight word bank is a primary goal. For this to happen, students need good research-based instruction and ample opportunities for review and practice. Here are some Red Word essentials. Adopt an evidence-based instructional sequence Beginning at the start of kindergarten, teachers should introduce Red Word instruction at the onset of phonics instruction and plan to teach high-frequency words that they will encounter regularly in grade-level text.Orton Gillingham is widely regarded teaching approach designed for struggling readers, such as in case of dyslexia. Named after reading and language pioneers, Samuel Torrey Orton (1879-1948) and Anna Gillingham (1878-1963) , Orton Gillingham approach focuses on teaching connections between letters and sounds. It also uses multisensory approach to teach reading which involves using visualization, hearing, touch and movement to form connection. Other than that, it recognizes learning needs of an individual student as the pace, learning style, topic strength varies student to student. At King David Primary School we are embarking on a new phonics adventure with Read Write Inc. Wewant to offer your child the best possible start to becoming independent readers.Children who read regularly or are read to regularly have the opportunity to open the doors to so many different worlds! More importantly, reading will give your child the tools to become independent life-long learners. They are quite simply words that can't be sounded out. If you sound them out they come out all wrong. "Was" for example is a Red Word. If we sounded this word out based on syllable type (extra points for you if you knew it would be a closed syllable) you would get /w/ /a/ /s/ which would rhyme with gas. Makes sense right? But instead, we get a lazy/schwa vowel in there and get a short /u/ sound. So we just have to memorize these words for both reading and spelling.

Teach words that share a common vowel spelling in groups, such as he, be, me, we, she (long e), go, no, so (long o), my, by, why (long i). Similar spelling patterns In Reception all children will learn how to ‘read’ the sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down. Selecting words for instruction in groups or clusters will enrich learning and increase the number of words that can be taught in a lesson. When we encounter familiar words (i.e. sight words), our brains can recognize them in less than 1/20 th of a second. Skilled readers can recognize words accurately and automatically when reading, making decoding effortless and improving fluency and comprehension.The following video is an example of blending sounds with Fred. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEzfpod5w_Q

Select words that have a beginning sound that has been taught. This adds regularity to the Red Word and can help to build a sight word bank early in learning. Examples of words include to, you, for, I . Known spelling patternAs Grey Group have had all of the Red Words as spellings, they will now have multi-syllabic words for their weekly spellings. Read Write Inc (RWI) is a phonics based englishprogramme which helps allchildren learn to read fluently and at speed so they can focus on developing their skills in comprehension, vocabulary and spelling. The programme is designed for children aged 4-7. However some children will need to access this programme beyond the age of 7 to meet individual needs.