Read Write Inc. Phonics is a literacy programme developed by Ruth Miskin. The aim is to teach every child to read and write.

The programme is systematic and encourages children to make connections. For example, children connect sounds with mnemonic pictures. 

Progression

The sounds are taught in sets:

Set 1 Sounds 
Set 1 sounds are taught in the following order together with rhymes to help children form the letters correctly and instantly recognise sounds ready for blending. We do not use letter names at this stage.

Set 2 Sounds
The children are then taught Set 2 Sounds - the long vowels. When they are very confident with all of set 1 and 2 they are taught Set 3 Sounds.
 

Set 2 Speed Sounds
ay	ay: may I play	play, day, may, way, say, spray
ee	ee: what can you see	see, three, been, green, seen, sleep
igh	igh: fly high	high, night, light, fright, bright, might
ow	ow: blow the snow	blow, snow, low, show, know, slow
oo	oo: poo at the zoo	too, zoo, food, pool, moon, spoon
oo	oo: look at a book	took, look, book, shook, cook, foot
ar	ar: start the car	car, start, part, star, hard, sharp
or	or: shut the door	sort, short, horse, sport, fork, snort
air	air: that’s not fair	fair, stair, hair, air, chair, lair
ir	ir: whirl and twirl	girl, bird, third, whirl, twirl, dirt
ou	ou: shout it out	out, shout, loud, mouth, round, found
oy	oy: toy for a boy	toy, boy, enjoy

Set 3 Speed Sounds
Sound	Phrase	Words to practice reading and spelling
ea	Cup of tea	clean, dream, seat, scream, real
oi	Spoil the boy	join, voice, coin
a-e	Make a cake	make, cake, name, same, late, date
i-e	Nice smile	smile, white, nice, like, time, hide
o-e	Phone home	home, hope, spoke, note, broke, phone
u-e	Huge brute	tune, rude, huge, brute, use, June
aw	Yawn at dawn	saw, las, dawn, crawl, paw, yawn
are	Care and share	share, dare, scare, square, bare
ur	Nurse with a purse	burn, turn, spurt, nurse, purse, hurt
er	A better letter	never, better, weather, after, proper, corner
ow	Brown cow	how, down, brown, cow, town, now
ai	Snail in the rain	snail, paid, tail, train, paint, rain
oa	Goat in a boat	goat, boat, road, throat, toast, coat
ew	Chew the stew	chew, new, blew, flew, drew, grew
ire	Fire! Fire!	Fire, hire, wire, bon/fire, in/spire, con/spire
ear	Hear with your ear	hear, dear, fear, near, year, ear
ure	Sure it’s pure	pure, sure, cure, pic/ture, mix/ture, ad/ven/ture

The order of storybooks and non-fiction books is as follows: 

Books are read three times to develop accuracy, fluency and comprehension. Writing activities are linked to these texts.

Terminology

Green words: Green words are words that can be broken down into sounds, and then sounds can be blended together, for example sh-o-p…shop. These words are decodable.

Red words: Red words are not easily decodable. These are taught explicitly, and are words that children are encouraged to read on sight, for example ‘the’. Fred Talk Fred is a frog that can only talk in sounds. He encourages children to sound out words, for example h-a-t…hat.

Fred Fingers: Fred Fingers are used for spelling. Children sound out the word they are spelling and put up the correct amount of fingers for the word. For example, ch air has 2 sounds, so 2 fingers are held up. Children pinch each sound on their fingers before writing the word.

Organisation

Children are assessed every half term, or sooner, and grouped according to their progress. Children are well supported as they are taught in small groups by teachers and teaching assistants.

Helpful websites

Ruth Miskin website for video tutorials: https://ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out more/parents/

Oxford Owl for free eBooks: https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/

ICT games for phonics activities: http://ictgames.com/literacy.html

Phonics Play for phonics games: https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk