EARLY READING - PHONICS

EVERYTHING STARTS WITH READING!

Being able to read is the most important skillchildren will learn during their early schoolingand has far- reaching implications for lifelongconfidence and well - being.

(‘Letters and Sounds’ Principles and Practice of High Quality Phonics)

It iz tiem too gow hoam sed vkator pilla. But iy doat wont 2gow howm sed th butt or flie. Iywot to staiy heyr.

WHY PHONICS? Research shows that when phonics is taught in a

structured way - starting with the easiest sounds and progressing through to the most complex – it is the most effective way of teaching young children to read and spell.

Almost all children who receive teaching of phonics will learn the skills they need to tackle new words. They can then go on to read any kind of text fluently and confidently, and to read for enjoyment.

Children who have been taught phonics also tend to read more accurately than those taught using other methods, such as ‘look and say’. This includes children who find learning to read difficult, for example those who have dyslexia.

WHAT IS PHONICS?Phonics is a way of teaching children to read and spell. We teach the children how to: recognise the sounds that each individual letter makes; identify the sounds that different combinations of letters

make - such as ‘sh’ or ‘oo’; and blend these sounds together from left to right to make a

word. Children can then use this knowledge to ‘de-code’ new words that they hear or see. This is the first important step in learning to read. We also teach the children how to: segment (split) words for spelling.

HOW DO WE TEACH PHONICS?

Phonics is taught using the highly structured Letters and Sounds programme, working through the 6 progressive Phases. Children are taught:

The full range of common letter/ sound correspondences.

To hear separate sounds within words.

To blend sounds together.

To segment words to spell them.

WHAT ARE SPEECH SOUNDS?

Although there are 26 letters in the English alphabet, there are more than 40 speech sounds.

Phoneme – The smallest unit of sound in a word.

Grapheme – What we write to represent a sound/ phoneme – for some phonemes, this could be more than one letter.

BLENDINGOral Blending:Hearing a series of spoken sounds and merging(blending) them together to make a spoken word – no textis used.For example, when children hear /b/u/s, they will say bus.

This skill is taught before blending using printed words.

Blending:Recognising the letter sounds in a written word, for example c- u- p, and blending them in the order whichthey are written, to read the word ‘cup’

SOUND BUTTONS

s i t l e g m o p

c a n f i t

DIGRAPHSTwo letters which make one sound.

A consonant digraph contains two consonants next to each other, but they make a single sound. e.g. sh, ck, th, ll

Examples of consonant digraphs

ll sh ngw i l l sh i p s i ng

DIGRAPHSA vowel digraph contains at least one vowel but thetwo letters still make a single sound. e.g. ai ee ar oy

Examples of consonant digraphs

oo ai oi b oo k r ai n c oi n

TRIGRAPHS

Three letters, which make one sound.

Examples of consonant digraphs

igh ear air n igh t f ear ch air

PHASE ONEPhase one comprises of seven aspects. Aspect One: Environmental Sounds Aspect Two: Instrumental Sounds Aspect Three: Body Percussion Aspect Four: Rhythm and Rhyme Aspect Five: Alliteration Aspect Six: Voice Sounds Aspect Seven: Oral Blending and segmenting

The aim of this phase is to foster children’s speaking and listening skills as preparation for learning to read with phonics.

PHASE TWOBy the end of phase two children should be ableto read some vc and cvc words.

Children will also learn to read the ‘tricky’ words ‘the, to, go, I and no.’

Five sets of letters are introduced – one set per week.

Children are taught reading and spelling throughout the week.

Each session follows the same format.

The activities used to teach vary and can be adapted. They are multisensory and appeal to different learning styles.

PHASE THREE

Children are taught another 25 graphemes.

Children will then use this knowledge to blend and segment two syllable words.

Children continue to blend and segment CVC words for reading and spelling.

PHASE FOUR

By Phase 4 children are able to represent each of42 phonemes by a grapheme. Children will beable to blend and segment CVC words for readingand spelling.

Phase 4 is consolidation of children’s knowledge.

Children are encouraged to practice blending forreading and segmenting for spelling of adjacentconsonants.

PHASE FIVE

Throughout this Phase children will broaden theirknowledge of graphemes and phonemes.

They will learn alternative pronunciations of graphemesIncluding split digraphs.

PHASE SIX

Children working at phase six can read lots of wordsautomatically.

Children can decode words quickly and silently.

Children’s spelling will be phonemically accurate.

During this phase children become more fluent readers and increasingly accurate spellers.

TEACHING SEQUENCEEach session follows the same format:Revisit / review

Practising previously taught phonemes, digraphs or trigraphs every day.

Practising a small number everyday helps the children remember.

Children need plenty of opportunities for “over-learning”.

Teach

The new Phoneme is introduced in memorable ways.

Stories, songs, actions, props e.g. jelly, puppets, and film clips etc.

are used.

TEACHING SEQUENCEPractise

Reinforce the learning so that it remains in the children’s minds.

Practise reading and/or spelling words with the new phoneme or Practise previously taught phonemes / digraphs / trigraphs to reinforce learning from earlier sessions

Apply

Demonstrate how to apply the new learning by reading or writing a phrase or that incorporates one of the new phoneme / digraph or trigraph. This helps ensure children understand that phonics is related to reading and writing and is not just isolated knowledge.

Each session is taught at a good pace, about 20 – 25 minutes long.

THE PHONICS CHECK

In June all Year One children will be expected toundertake a phonics check.

The aim is to check that a child is making progress in phonics.

If a child has not reached the expected standard we will ensure that additional support is given to help themprogress in year 2.

THE PHONICS CHECK

Your child will sit with a teacher he or she knows and be asked to read 40 words aloud.

Your child may have read some of the words before, while others will be completely new.

The check normally takes just a few minutes to complete and there is no time limit. If your child is struggling, the teacher will stop the check.

THE PHONICS CHECKThe check will contain a mix of real words and ‘non-words’ (or ‘nonsense words’). Your child will be told before the check that there will be non-words that he orshe will not have seen before. Your child will be familiar with this because we use ‘non-words’ when we teach phonics.

Non-words are important to include because words such as ‘vap’ or ‘jound’ are new to all children. Children cannot read the non-words by using their memory or vocabulary; they have to use their decoding skills.

ANY QUESTIONS?