PHONICS
What is it?
Phonics is one of the primary building blocks of reading. Without an understanding of the relationship between letters and sounds, reading cannot occur. This multifaceted connection between print and pronunciation is an important component of any instructional program in reading because it provides readers with tools for discovering new written words. |
Starfall
This website is great guidance who want to have extra practice with phonics. I can see this being a station set up in my classroom when we are doing centers.
http://www.starfall.com
Teaching Phonics- Step by Step
Teaching phonics is not dissimilar to learning mathematics. In maths you learn step by step. You learn to count before you add, add before you subtract, subtract before multiplication. It doesn't make sense to learn how to multiply before you understand the concept of counting. You learn in small incremental steps and it is the same when you are teaching reading.
There is an unspoken order in teaching phonics just as there is an unspoken order in how to teach mathematics.
However, if I may jump back to mathematics (sorry - this site really is about reading!), there can sometimes be hazy areas about what to teach and when.
For example, how about 'place-value' - or when exactly do you teach counting in multiples of 5 or 2? When do you teach the 'silent /e/' rule? The point I am trying to get across is, that you do need to be somewhat flexible and be open to go back or forward a few steps if it helps your child.
Sometimes you hit that 'teaching moment' when everything has somehow aligned up and your child has that beautiful 'light bulb' experience! You would be very unwise to ignore such a moment, pressing on with your 'schedule'. No, instead you would use that teaching moment to praise/encourage your child's observations so next time you re-visited that phonics rule, your child would be more likely to remember it.I like how Jolly Phonics teaches the order of letter sounds, introducing a couple of consonant digraphs early on - see below:
To help you, I have listed some phonics basics to help you see the big picture. If you decide to teach consonant digraphs before blends or mix the two up a bit - it doesn't really matter. So long as you see the big picture of what you are trying to achieve, review lessons frequently and remain willing to go at your child's pace of learning. Remember to look out for those magical 'teaching moments'. But above all, make it fun and not a chore!
There is an unspoken order in teaching phonics just as there is an unspoken order in how to teach mathematics.
However, if I may jump back to mathematics (sorry - this site really is about reading!), there can sometimes be hazy areas about what to teach and when.
For example, how about 'place-value' - or when exactly do you teach counting in multiples of 5 or 2? When do you teach the 'silent /e/' rule? The point I am trying to get across is, that you do need to be somewhat flexible and be open to go back or forward a few steps if it helps your child.
Sometimes you hit that 'teaching moment' when everything has somehow aligned up and your child has that beautiful 'light bulb' experience! You would be very unwise to ignore such a moment, pressing on with your 'schedule'. No, instead you would use that teaching moment to praise/encourage your child's observations so next time you re-visited that phonics rule, your child would be more likely to remember it.I like how Jolly Phonics teaches the order of letter sounds, introducing a couple of consonant digraphs early on - see below:
- 1. s, a, t, i, p, n
- 2. ck, e, h, r, m, d
- 3. g, o, u, l, f, b
- 4. ai, j, oa, ie, ee, or
- 5. z, w, ng, v, short oo, long oo
- 6. y, x, ch, sh, voiced th, unvoiced th
- 7. qu, ou, oi, ue, er, ar
To help you, I have listed some phonics basics to help you see the big picture. If you decide to teach consonant digraphs before blends or mix the two up a bit - it doesn't really matter. So long as you see the big picture of what you are trying to achieve, review lessons frequently and remain willing to go at your child's pace of learning. Remember to look out for those magical 'teaching moments'. But above all, make it fun and not a chore!
Whole Group Phonics Lesson
Lesson Plans/Activities
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/lesson-plans-and-activities-teaching-phonics
Sorting Baskets Phonics Activity
http://theimaginationtree.com/2014/03/phonics-activity-sorting-baskets.html
Word Family Lego Buildings
These Word Family Lego Buildings are a great way to encourage your child to hear/see patterns in reading. This is an important skill because it allows children to begin “reading” by grouping sets of letters within a word. To put it simply, word families (sometimes called “chunks”) are groups of words that rhyme. The first part of a word is called the onset and the last part of the word is conveniently called the rime (although it is spelled differently). Word families share a similar “rime” as the onset changes.
http://www.icanteachmychild.com/word-family-lego-buildings/
Fabulous Phonics: a creative approach to teaching phonics
Last week, I spent a fascinating afternoon at John Donne primary school with 24 early years and foundation stage (EYFS) teachers listening to deputy head and early years specialist Ruth Moyler share her creative approach to teaching phonics.
Ruth was first galvanised into taking action on phonics after seeing a group of parents' bewildered reaction to the Letters and Sounds initiative, first introduced to schools across the country in 2007.
"I watched the parents trailing out of the meeting with local authority reps, defeated and deflated. I heard them telling each other they didn't understand words the experts were saying and they didn't feel they could now help their child to read. It made me really angry. These weren't highly educated parents and they were already feeling shut out of their children's education. The new approach and its associated language seemed to be making learning to read more difficult. I thought there just had to be a better way to implement this."
In 2007 Ruth had just moved from an outstanding school to a school at the edge of special measures and this is where the first seeds of her Fabulous Phonics approach were sown.
She said: "I started running sessions for parents in my planning, preparation and assessment (PPA) time and I called it 'family phonics'. I went through what we were going to do with the kids a week ahead of time, letter by letter, sound by sound, it was all about establishing a relationship with the parents, demystifying the process and having no secrets. I knew the group worked when a parent announced to the group that on 'F day' she was going to give her child fish fingers."
When Ruth became deputy head at John Donne primary school, in 2010, she came out of the classroom for the first time in her career and realised her approach could be transferred to to other classrooms and schools.
So how does Fabulous Phonics work? "It's about total immersion in learning letter sounds by linking all the activities in the environment," says Rachel. "The first thing to do is capture interest at this very early stage. We have some children in our reception classes whose spoken language is not well developed and others who have English as their second or third language. We teach just three letters a week. Each letter gets a whole day devoted to it. So you do everything with that letter, special songs, rhymes and stories, eating food that begins with that letter, other multi-sensory activities and active learning outside. I have boxes of tiny toys for every letter and sound – so in the 'A box' you'll find fake ants, aeroplanes, ambulances, astronaut figures and so on."
You can feel the excitement and relief in the room as Ruth explains that this is, in many respects, old school infants teaching. "Many teachers are so worried about teaching phonics correctly that they fail to explore more active and creative approaches. I have visited reception classes which have no sand or water or small world play because the headteachers wanted to school to focus more on phonics," says Ruth.
Instead of covering a topic in the first term of reception, this approach involves weekly themes, designed around the phonics teaching. Teachers start the routine of doing three letters a week; starting with S, A and T and from then on to P, I and N.
"It's systematic synthetic phonics but with a twist," says Ruth. "So that first week it's snakes, ants and tigers... and a jungle theme emerges. We eat sandwiches and apples, all our songs and books are based on the letters. Stories and songs are a terribly important and the language reappears in their play. It is also important that the children take something they have made home every week, for example snake spirals at the end of week one.
At end of every week, students do a 'Big Write'. During the week, teachers help children to make a composite picture about the theme and by Friday, each child has a picture mounted on A3 paper, with space to write their sentence below.
"If you collect these 'Big Writes' into A3 plastic display wallets you have a beautiful record of how the child first learned to write, something they and their families can be so proud of," says Rachel.
"By Christmas they will have completed phase 2 so there is time to complete the whole alphabet. Then after Christmas, it's phase 3, always a difficult time for reception teachers when the pupils find out that they've been tricked, since English isn't a phonetic language at all – you have to introduce the dreaded 'ai' and so on. You have to make phase 3 really brilliant so children (and teachers) don't lose hope."
On a tour of John Donne's reception classrooms we are shown a strange looking 'doll's house', consisting of four quadrants of different brightly coloured worlds: "Welcome to 'Interplayland' – it's a developing project which we have linked to the way that we teach phonics here," explains Ruth. "The four worlds are the Jungle, Pirate-land, Homeland and the Castle, each with doorways joining to the next world. Children play with the tiny toys in this world. Making connections is the basis of intelligence and this 'interplay' helps the children develop their language through complex imaginative play."
It's not just an interesting and creative approach, it's also an affective one. John Donne has more than 40% of children on free school meals and just six of the school's 60 key stage 1 pupils didn't pass the phonics screening.
"An incredible result as many of them came in at such a low level," says Ruth. "At the end of the day, Mr Gove won't be looking over your shoulder to see in which order you do phonics or exactly how. It's the results that count."
Teachers that have embraced the Fabulous Phonics approach are seeing a positive impact too. Claire Harwood, reception teacher at St John's and St Clement's primary school, said: "I came to this same conference last year and got so excited about the ideas I heard that we decided to change the way we teach phonics. The first thing I did was buy the boxes and start filling them up with tiny toys; some letters and sounds are harder to fill than others.
"The real benefits have been having that little bit more structure, I personally struggle with a free flow foundation class so this really suits me, doing three letters a week gets children into a great routine, the pace felt really good and the engagement is fantastic from the children and also for the teachers. As a teacher if you are really interested in what you're teaching the children will be more excited about what they're learning – and this does fascinate me. The children have made such fantastic progress in their writing."
Ruth was first galvanised into taking action on phonics after seeing a group of parents' bewildered reaction to the Letters and Sounds initiative, first introduced to schools across the country in 2007.
"I watched the parents trailing out of the meeting with local authority reps, defeated and deflated. I heard them telling each other they didn't understand words the experts were saying and they didn't feel they could now help their child to read. It made me really angry. These weren't highly educated parents and they were already feeling shut out of their children's education. The new approach and its associated language seemed to be making learning to read more difficult. I thought there just had to be a better way to implement this."
In 2007 Ruth had just moved from an outstanding school to a school at the edge of special measures and this is where the first seeds of her Fabulous Phonics approach were sown.
She said: "I started running sessions for parents in my planning, preparation and assessment (PPA) time and I called it 'family phonics'. I went through what we were going to do with the kids a week ahead of time, letter by letter, sound by sound, it was all about establishing a relationship with the parents, demystifying the process and having no secrets. I knew the group worked when a parent announced to the group that on 'F day' she was going to give her child fish fingers."
When Ruth became deputy head at John Donne primary school, in 2010, she came out of the classroom for the first time in her career and realised her approach could be transferred to to other classrooms and schools.
So how does Fabulous Phonics work? "It's about total immersion in learning letter sounds by linking all the activities in the environment," says Rachel. "The first thing to do is capture interest at this very early stage. We have some children in our reception classes whose spoken language is not well developed and others who have English as their second or third language. We teach just three letters a week. Each letter gets a whole day devoted to it. So you do everything with that letter, special songs, rhymes and stories, eating food that begins with that letter, other multi-sensory activities and active learning outside. I have boxes of tiny toys for every letter and sound – so in the 'A box' you'll find fake ants, aeroplanes, ambulances, astronaut figures and so on."
You can feel the excitement and relief in the room as Ruth explains that this is, in many respects, old school infants teaching. "Many teachers are so worried about teaching phonics correctly that they fail to explore more active and creative approaches. I have visited reception classes which have no sand or water or small world play because the headteachers wanted to school to focus more on phonics," says Ruth.
Instead of covering a topic in the first term of reception, this approach involves weekly themes, designed around the phonics teaching. Teachers start the routine of doing three letters a week; starting with S, A and T and from then on to P, I and N.
"It's systematic synthetic phonics but with a twist," says Ruth. "So that first week it's snakes, ants and tigers... and a jungle theme emerges. We eat sandwiches and apples, all our songs and books are based on the letters. Stories and songs are a terribly important and the language reappears in their play. It is also important that the children take something they have made home every week, for example snake spirals at the end of week one.
At end of every week, students do a 'Big Write'. During the week, teachers help children to make a composite picture about the theme and by Friday, each child has a picture mounted on A3 paper, with space to write their sentence below.
"If you collect these 'Big Writes' into A3 plastic display wallets you have a beautiful record of how the child first learned to write, something they and their families can be so proud of," says Rachel.
"By Christmas they will have completed phase 2 so there is time to complete the whole alphabet. Then after Christmas, it's phase 3, always a difficult time for reception teachers when the pupils find out that they've been tricked, since English isn't a phonetic language at all – you have to introduce the dreaded 'ai' and so on. You have to make phase 3 really brilliant so children (and teachers) don't lose hope."
On a tour of John Donne's reception classrooms we are shown a strange looking 'doll's house', consisting of four quadrants of different brightly coloured worlds: "Welcome to 'Interplayland' – it's a developing project which we have linked to the way that we teach phonics here," explains Ruth. "The four worlds are the Jungle, Pirate-land, Homeland and the Castle, each with doorways joining to the next world. Children play with the tiny toys in this world. Making connections is the basis of intelligence and this 'interplay' helps the children develop their language through complex imaginative play."
It's not just an interesting and creative approach, it's also an affective one. John Donne has more than 40% of children on free school meals and just six of the school's 60 key stage 1 pupils didn't pass the phonics screening.
"An incredible result as many of them came in at such a low level," says Ruth. "At the end of the day, Mr Gove won't be looking over your shoulder to see in which order you do phonics or exactly how. It's the results that count."
Teachers that have embraced the Fabulous Phonics approach are seeing a positive impact too. Claire Harwood, reception teacher at St John's and St Clement's primary school, said: "I came to this same conference last year and got so excited about the ideas I heard that we decided to change the way we teach phonics. The first thing I did was buy the boxes and start filling them up with tiny toys; some letters and sounds are harder to fill than others.
"The real benefits have been having that little bit more structure, I personally struggle with a free flow foundation class so this really suits me, doing three letters a week gets children into a great routine, the pace felt really good and the engagement is fantastic from the children and also for the teachers. As a teacher if you are really interested in what you're teaching the children will be more excited about what they're learning – and this does fascinate me. The children have made such fantastic progress in their writing."
Diagraphs Worksheets
http://teachingresourcesblog.wordpress.com/2013/08/29/diagraphs-worksheets-ch-sh-and-th/
Letter and Sounds Correspondences
ELL Students and teaching phonics
Phonics is the understanding that there is a predictable relationship between phonemes (the sounds of spoken language) and graphemes (the letters and spellings that represent those sounds in written language). Readers use these relationships to recognize familiar words and to decode unfamiliar ones.
Phonics instruction is a way of teaching reading that stresses learning how letters correspond to sounds and how to use this knowledge in reading and spelling. The goal is to help children understand that there is a systematic and predictable relationship between written letters and spoken sounds (CIERA, 2001).
Considerations when instructing ELLs in phonics
Phonics instruction is a way of teaching reading that stresses learning how letters correspond to sounds and how to use this knowledge in reading and spelling. The goal is to help children understand that there is a systematic and predictable relationship between written letters and spoken sounds (CIERA, 2001).
Considerations when instructing ELLs in phonics
- Students who are not literate in their own language or whose language does not have a written form may not understand some concepts and need to be taught about the functions of print (Peregoy & Boyle, 2000).
- Students may have learned to read and write in a native language in which the letters correspond to different sounds than they do in English, or they may have learned to read and write in a language with characters that correspond to words or portions of words. For example, "alphabetic writing systems such as the three different ones used for English, Greek, and Russian represent speech sounds or phonemes with letters or letter sequences. In contrast, in logographic writing systems, such as Chinese, each written character represents a meaning unit or morpheme; while in syllabic writing systems, such as kana in Japanese and Sequoyah's Cherokee syllabify, each written symbol represents a syllable (Peregoy & Boyle, 2000, p. 241)."
- In Spanish (the native language of 77 percent of ELLs in U.S. schools, [NCBE, 2002]), the letters b, c, d, f, l, m, n, p, q, s, and t represent sounds that are similar enough to English that they may transfer readily to English reading for many students. Consequently, many students need minimal phonics instruction for these consonants. In contrast, vowel letters look the same in Spanish and English but are named differently and represent very different sounds. Therefore, English vowel sounds and their numerous spellings present a challenge to Spanish literate students learning to read English because the one-to-one correspondence between vowel letters and vowel sounds in Spanish does not hold true in English (Peregoy & Boyle, 2000).
These can be used as extra work to give ELL learners the extra help they may need. This is also something the parents will be able to use to help their children in school.
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Letter-Poems-with-Fundations-Lines-397758
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Letter-Poems-with-Fundations-Lines-397758