Phonics Workshop Helping you to support your

children with Phonics and Reading at home.

Aims for the session:

To understand the importance of phonics.

To get an idea of how phonics is taught in school.

To understand the progression through phonic phases and how to support and develop children’s learning.

What can I do at home?

20 spoken vowel sounds – but only 5 vowels

44 phonemes – the different sounds NOT spellings

69 spellings with more than one pronunciation

80 - 84 basic spelling patterns with one or more

alternative spellings

91 basic English spelling system spelling patterns

185 - 205 spellings for 44 phonemes (50 spellings is the

European average)

2828 unpredictably spelt words that need memorising

among the 7000 most common

Why Phonics?

The aim is to secure essential phonics knowledge and skills so that

children can progress quickly to independent reading and writing.

Reading and writing are like a code: phonics is teaching the child to crack

the code.

Gives us the skills of blending for reading and segmenting for spelling.

Year 1 phonics Screening check.

High quality phonics work… Phonic work is time-limited (phases 2-4) whereas

work on comprehension continues throughout life (phase 6)

Interactive multi-sensory phonic session at their own level.

Opportunities for independent reading and writing.

Pace and progression is key.

Technical vocabulary A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a word. A phoneme may be

represented by 1, 2, 3 or 4 letters.

Eg. t ai igh

A syllable is a word or part of a word that contains one vowel sound. E.g. hap/pen bas/ket let/ter

A grapheme is the letter(s) representing a phoneme. Written representation of a sound which may consist of 1 or more letters E.g. The phoneme ‘s’ can be represented by the grapheme s (sun), se (mouse), c (city), sc or ce (science)

Alliteration is the consonant sound at the beginning of several words in close succession.

Pseudo/ Alien words are words invented to help test decoding skills.

Technical vocabulary A digraph is two letters, which make one

sound. ◦ A consonant digraph contains two consonants

sh th ck ll

◦ A vowel digraph contains at least one vowel

ai ee ar oy

A split digraph is a digraph in which the two letters are not adjacent (e.g. make)

A trigraph is three letters, which make one sound. E.g. igh dge

Technical vocabulary Oral Blending – hearing a series of spoken sounds and merging

them together to make a spoken word (no text is used) for example, when a teacher calls out ‘b-u-s’, the children say bus.

Blending – recognising the letter sounds in a written word, for example c-u-p, and merging or synthesising them in the order in which they are written to pronounce the word ‘cup’.

Segmenting – identifying the individual sounds in a spoken word (e.g. h-i-m) and writing down or manipulating letters for each sound to form the word ‘him’.

Technical vocabulary

REMEMBER!

CVC refers to phonemes NOT LETTERS!

Summary of Phases Phase 1 (on-going)

◦ To distinguish between sounds and become familiar with rhyme, rhythm and alliteration.

Phase 2 (6 weeks) ◦ To introduce 19 grapheme-phoneme correspondences.

Phase 3 (12 weeks) ◦ To teach one grapheme for each of the 44 phonemes in order to spell simple regular words.

Phase 4 (4-6 weeks) ◦ To read and spell words containing adjacent consonants.

Phase 5 (in Yr1) ◦ To teach alternative pronunciations for graphemes and alternative spellings for phonemes.

Phase 6 (in Yr2) ◦ To develop their skill and automaticity in reading and writing.

Phase 1 - ongoing To develop language and increase vocabulary through speaking and

listening activities.

To develop phonological awareness.

To distinguish between sounds.

To speak clearly and audibly with confidence and control.

To become familiar with rhyme, rhythm and alliteration.

Use sound talk to segment words into phonemes.

Example activities - listening walks, dodgems, Silly Soup, rhyming chants/songs,

Phase 2 – Up to 6 weeks

To introduce grapheme-phoneme correspondences

Children know that words are constructed from phonemes and that phonemes are represented by graphemes.

They have knowledge of a small selection of common consonants and vowels – only 19!

They blend them together in reading simple CVC words and segment them to support spelling. – use of magnetic letters!

Phase 2

Letter Progression (one set a week)

Set 1: s a t p

Set 2: i n m d

Set 3: g o c k

Set 4: ck e u r

Set 5: h b f,ff l,ll s

Correct Articulation of phonemes is essential!

Pronunciation - not ‘uh’ on the end – use soft voice!

Video – Articulation of Sounds (Search on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COJdn6sbbsk

Articulation Long oo

spoon

moon

balloon

smoothie

Soft Sound

think

thin

thick

thumb

Short oo

cook

book

look

hook

Spoken Sound

the

that

there

this

This is one reason why the English

Language is tricky!

Children won’t grasp this overnight or by osmosis…they need

to be immersed in an awareness of

language throughout the day.

Teaching Sequence Revisit and Review

Recently and previously learned phoneme-grapheme correspondences, and blending and segmenting skills.

Teach

New phoneme-grapheme correspondences; skills of blending and segmenting.

Practise New phoneme-grapheme correspondences; skills of blending and segmenting.

Apply New knowledge and skills while reading/writing.

Phase 2 – Example Activities

Sound Buttons

Box of Sounds – children sit in a circle. Place objects in the centre of the

circle. Pass a box containing grapheme cards around the circle singing. Child holding the box at the end of the song takes out the top card, identifies sound and places it next to the corresponding object. (Alternately call out a sound for the child to find)

Splat the sound

Phase 2 – more ideas!

Pebbles with letters on

Cutlery drawer organiser – sort objects by letters

Nursery Rhymes

Water with paint brushes

Writing on back/floor/wall with finger

Tricky Words

Phrases to represent the word. E.g. silly ants in dustbins – said.

Jumping up to hit the word

Stepping on the stairs

Matching pairs game

Regular practice

Phase 3 – Up to 12 weeks

To teach children one grapheme for each of the 44 phonemes in order to read and spell simple regular words.

Naming and sounding letters of the alphabet.

Recognise letter shapes and say a sound for each

Hear and say sounds in the order in which they occur, and read simple words by sounding out and blending.

Recognise common digraphs and read some high frequency words.

Phase 3 – Example activities

Buried Treasure

Sentence Substitution

Phoneme Frames

Phase 4 – (4-6 weeks)

To teach children to read and spell words containing adjacent consonants and polysyllabic words.

Teaching should focus on the skills of blending and segmenting words containing adjacent consonants.

They should not be taught in word families such as spot, spit, spin as the children will treat ‘sp’ as one unit.

Phase 4 Children now have the ability to blend and segment therefore they are moving beyond simple cvc words to cvcc, ccvc, ccvcc and cccvc.

b l a ck s t r o ng

c c v c c c c v c

f e l t b l a n k

c v c c c c v c c

Phase 4 – Example activities

Yes/No

Phoneme Count – prepare boxes/gift bags labelled with a

number. Sort objects/words into boxes according to how many units of sound the word has in it.

Phase 5 To teach children to recognise and use alternative ways of pronouncing the graphemes and spelling the phonemes already taught.

Teaching the long vowel phonemes

Read and spell phonetically decodable 2/3 syllable words e.g. bleating, frogspawn, shopkeeper.

Choose the appropriate graphemes to represent phonemes when spelling words.

Recognise an increasing number of high frequency words automatically.

Spelling complex words using phonetically plausible attempts

ai a-e ay

Seeing themselves as writers!

Phase 5 – Example activities

Word Relay

Activity pack available

When children are secure at phase 5 they can move on to ‘Support for Spelling’

Spelling Vocabulary

Syllable wa/ter ba/na/na in/for/ma/tion

Prefix/ Suffix un- -ing -ed -s/-es/-ies -er -est

Compound word carpark cupboard snowfall

Silent letters k/h/b/t/gh/w E.g. climb , knee

Contraction and Apostrophe don’t isn’t

Root word rain (rainy/rainfall/rains/ rained/ raining)

Year 1 Phonics Screening

A screening check for year one to encourage schools to pursue a rigourous phonics programme.

Aimed at identifying the children who need extra help are given the support.

Assesses decoding skills using phonics

40 items to be read (20 real words, 20 pseudo words)

If children do not pass in Year 1 they have to retake the test at the end of Year 2.

What does it look like?

Phonics screening check

(mid-June)

- 80% of children pass

- Not all those who pass are

fluent readers.

- The highest scores are not always by the most fluent

readers.

Tracking and Progress

Children are assessed briefly at the end of each session to ensure understanding and good progression.

Children are assessed against a progress tracking grid.

Children move teaching groups to accommodate their need and ability – we stream the children by phase across the Infants.

End of phase progress checks.

Year 1 Phonics screening check.

How can I help? - Reading Books

Your child brings home reading books each

week. Talk about the book, the character,

what is happening in the story, predict what

may happen next. Encourage a love of

reading – not a chore!

I cnduo't bvleiee taht I culod aulaclty uesdtannrd waht I was rdnaieg. Unisg the icndeblire pweor of the hmuan mnid, aocdcrnig to rseecrah at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mttaer in waht oderr the lterets in a wrod are, the olny irpoamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rhgit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whoutit a pboerlm. Tihs is bucseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey ltteer by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Aaznmig, huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghhuot slelinpg was ipmorantt!

What else can I do at home? Ask your child to find items around the house that represent

particular sounds, i.e. ‘oo’ - ‘spoon’ ‘bedroom’

Play matching pairs – with key words or individual sounds/pictures.

Key words on the stairs

Play tricky word bingo

Flashcard letters and words – how quickly can they read them?

Notice words/letters in the environment.

Go on a listening walk around the house/when out and about.

Lots of activities online for children to practice their phonic knowledge.

Phonics games websites Teach your monster to read (App)- the link is on our school Facebook page.

Mr Phonics (youtube)

Mr Thorne Does Phonics (youtube)

Jolly phonics songs (youtube)

Websites such as:

http://www.letters-and-sounds.com

https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/freeIndex.htm

http://www.ictgames.com

http://www.familylearning.org.uk/phonics_games.html

http://www.lovereading4kids.co.uk/

http://www.booktrust.org.uk/books/children/how-to-share-books/reading-with-your-child-booklets/

Questions

?