Ten new fully-illustrated Ditty books, with a strong phonic structure

The Ditties are short, phonically decodable passages based on the letter sounds learned in Speed Sounds Set 1. Each book contains three Ditties and seven reading activities, including: a list of Speed Sounds to practise before reading each Ditty, a list of Green words and Red words ('tricky' high-frequency words) and questions to talk about. The Ditties prepare children to quickly move on to the Storybooks, building their vocabulary and ensuring they will be able to decode all the words in the stories with confidence.

There are accompanying Get Writing! Red Ditty Books which provide practice in early writing skills and a Get Writing! Handbook which contains guidance on how to use the Ditties to support children's writing.

Full guidance on using the Ditties as part of Read Write Inc. can be found in the Read Write Inc. Phonics Handbook.

Channel 4 featured Ruth Miskin and the Read Write Inc. method being used in schools in a series of programmes broadcast in Autumn 2007 and Summer 2008. Read Write Inc. raised standards and turned struggling and non-readers into more confident and competent readers.

Features

• Books contain effective reading activities to support children's reading.
• They are clearly structured and humorous so that children want to read them again and again.
• They contain engaging, colour illustrations by Tim Archbold.
• They are written by experienced children's author Gill Munton.
• Ditties use natural and fluent language that children have learned to sound out.
• In Read Write Inc. Phonics:
• Speed sounds cards introduce the 44 sounds and the corresponding graphemes (letters), to enable children to decode words easily.
• Children work in pairs to practise speaking, listening and spelling.
• 75 lively Storybooks provide lots of reading practice. Each set of stories is carefully levelled to ensure children can decode the texts with confidence.
• Linked writing books at every level reinforce the reading-writing connection.
• Initial assessment material in the teacher's handbook indicates the best starting place for each child. Continuous assessment is provided throughout the programme.
• Clear and detailed handbook, with excellent classroom management strategies, provides full support and guidance for implementing Read Write Inc. in the school.