teaching y 1's to read!

help! i'm teaching a group of very low ability year one children to read using read write inc. they have a very low attention scan, squabble endlessly and when finally getting down to doing some reading they say random words and then say they have finished the book! they are not too bad with their letter sounds although the sounds are not secure. in the past i have always worked with children who could read, even if not confidently but were ok. i really don't know what to do next. once they have settled down they are eager to learn and impress and they are so lovely.
any advice would be greatly appreciated x

oh my lord our ecar teacher has some great idea but they are usually for one to one stuff - could you make groups very kinaesthetic in some way

I work with children who are struggling readers and am RWI and Cumbria trained. I hope some of these suggestions might work, sorry in advance if you already know them.... dont want to teach you to suck eggs lol

ensure they know all letter sounds, any that are not known may need to be worked on individually (if its possible, I know sometimes you may be forced to have the whole group) as they wont all be stuck on the same sounds.
But, even if they dont know all letter sounds, you can be working on them while they are learning to blend 2 letter and cvc words, eg at, up, on, it, is, cat, pan, pot, log etc. Rhyming activities and word families are good for cvc words.
Repetition is boring for you, but neccessary for the little ones.
You may find that you're sounding out virtually every word but encourage them to recognise that cat is made up of the letter sounds /c/ /a/ /t/, point to the letters while they are reading/saying them and say "c-a-t cat" Hopefully, they'll start remembering the letter sounds they dont know.

Finger pointing to every word while they try and read is essential. Encourage sounding out and always give positive praise, even if they get it wrong ("good try, you nearly got it, try that again...")and using the picture as a clue (kids can get over reliant on this, so I only say it as a last resort before I give the word)

Either print off the first 45 High frequency words or make flashcards so that they can overlearn the words, you can play loads of games to help with reading the HF words.

Magnetic letters are good if they can stay on task, but a nightmare if they have attention problems. I cant always have the letters out with some of my little darlings as some just play with the letters.

Speak to your class teacher and ask if you can send some homework tasks home for the children to work on any tricky letter sounds with parents. Also, ask parents to help the children learn about 6 high frequency words at a time, just reading the words to start with but it will help the children to recognise the words.

I had a particularly poor group for RWI last year, similar sounding to your group - weren't secure with letter sounds, could read some HF words, poor attention span, very needy, I used the low level books, the easier the better to start with as it builds confidence. You may need to read the book to them first and then have them read it after you. Persevere and you'll see them fly. (fingers crossed!)

Good luck, and sorry if I've waffled and you knew all that already lol

I dont know how many children you have in your group but it might be better to make the group smaller, if possible. I know they say 'paired reading, one child is the teacher etc' but it only works if one or both children can actually read, otherwise its "Miss, we've finished" when you know they skipped half the book! lol

oops, thats come out a bit all over the place!