Developing Phonics

What is phonics? Phonics is simply the system of relationships between letters and sounds in a language. Knowledge of sounds is used to ‘de-code’ words. Phonics has been promoted by the government as the best way to boost reading standards.

Why Phonics? 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. It is particularly helpful for children aged 5 to 7. Almost all children who receive good 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.

Learning phonics The process starts long before any letters or the sounds that the letters make are learnt. The first stage is to : Learn the ability to hear and apply different sounds. Tune ears to hear different things. Join in with songs, rhymes and stories by clapping, stamping and skipping Understand that words are made up of sounds and that different sounds can be heard in words.

Learning phonics During the next stage the emphasis is on synthetic phonics, in which words are broken up into the smallest units of sound (phonemes). This usually occurs in early years teaching. Children are taught the letters (graphemes) that represent these phonemes and also learn to blend them into words. So, at its most basic, children are taught to read the letters in a word like c-a-t, and then merge them to pronounce the word cat. A phoneme can be represented by one, two, three or four letters (such as "ough" in "dough"). Children are systematically taught around 40 phonic sounds and the combination of letters used to represent each sound. Most sounds, however, have more than one way to spell them. For example, "e" in "egg" can also be spelt "ea" as in "head" or "ai" as in "said". Graphemes are grouped together and children progress from one group to the other and will be tested at the end of year one, when they are six years old.

Phonics ‘phases’ At school we follow the ‘Letters and Sounds’ process of teaching phonics. Letters and Sounds breaks the teaching of phonics into 6 phases: Phase 1-3 in Reception Phase 4 -5 in Year 1 Phase 6 in Year 2 Each Phase differs in terms of length and skills taught. We supplement this with a range of resources and activities to make the learning and appropriate for the age and abilities of the children. Eg. Jolly Phonics (actions); Internet based activities, puppets.....

Phase 1 These activities are designed to pave the way for all other phonics teaching. These activities run along side all other phases. They help the children to tune their listening skills. During this phase the children experience regular, planned opportunities to listen carefully and talk extensively about what they hear, see and do.

Phase 1 There are 7 aspects within this Phase: General sound discrimination – environmental sounds General sound discrimination – instrumental sounds General sound discrimination – body percussion Rhythm and rhyme Alliteration Voice sounds Oral blending and segmenting

Phase 1 Each aspect is divided into three strands. Tuning into sounds (auditory discrimination) Listening and remembering sounds (auditory memory and sequencing) Talking about sounds (developing vocabulary and language comprehension).

Phase 1 Activities within the seven aspects are designed to help children: listen attentively; enlarge their vocabulary; speak confidently to adults and other children; discriminate phonemes; reproduce audibly the phonemes they hear, in order, all through the word; use sound-talk to segment words into phonemes.

How can you help? Go on a listening walk Sing songs together Say some action rhymes Make up rhymes and silly words Make up little nonsense stories with words beginning with same letter Make voices of characters

Letters and Sounds There are 26 letters in the alphabet. There are 44 sounds in the English language. These sounds are associated with one or more of the letters. We use a song to teach the children the alphabet and the sounds that each letter makes.

Phase 2 In phase 2 children: begin to learn phonemes Recognise some high frequency words Learn 19 letters of the alphabet with one sound for each. Develop segmenting for spelling and blending for reading.

Phase 2 Letter progression 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 ss http://www.mumsnet.com/learning/phonics/listen-to-the-44-phonic-sounds

Sound and Actions Learning the /s/ sound Action: Weave your hand like a snake, making an ‘s’ shape, saying ssssss

Blending Sug s – u – g Pon p – o – n The sug and the pon. Some strategies for teaching blending include sound buttons robot arms cubes HAVE A GO

Words, words, words! Children will be taught to read 3 kinds of words Words they can blend (sound out). Words that are high frequency words they can blend. Word that are high frequency words they can’t blend and must learn (tricky words).

Which words belong to which group? was said he the to his cat dog cap mat and at it in

Phase 3 j v w x y z, zz qu ch ar sh or th ur ng ow ai oi ee ear igh air oa ure oo er

Phase 3 Some strategies for segmenting (for spelling) include: the use of phoneme frames magnetic whiteboards and letters HAVE A GO

Phase 4 Practise previously learned graphemes Teach blending and segmentation of adjacent consonants Teach some tricky words Practise blending and reading words with adjacent consonants eg swing Practise segmentation and spelling words with adjacent consonants Read or write sentences using one or more high-frequency words and words containing adjacent consonants

A Phonics Lesson Each phonics lesson is around 20 minutes in length. The lessons take place daily. Lessons are made up of 4 parts: Revisit/Review Teach Practise Apply A lesson may have a reading or a spelling focus Letter formation is taught as part of the lessons

What can you do to support your child? Some things that you can do at home to support your child: Flashcards Stepping stones CVC Words Phoneme frames Noughts and Crosses Box of sounds