Phonics for Parents 1st Feb. 2016

What is Phonics? When we talk we use different sounds to make each word Phonics connects all these sounds with their letter shapes Children are taught that sounds go with particular letters and that the sounds are put together to make words. We all use this understanding when we make sense of words that are spoken and written

Key Phonics skills... Distinguishing environmental sounds Hearing and saying letter sounds in words Seeing letters and saying their sounds Putting sounds together to read words (blending) Hearing individual sounds in words to write words (segmenting) Knowing words automatically

The role of Phase 1 Central importance of developing speaking and listening skills Relies on and complements a broad and rich language curriculum Promotes the range and depth of children’s language experience Introduces oral blending and segmenting Paves the way for systematic phonic teaching to begin Singing and saying rhymes are very important

Some definitions Phonemes are the smallest units of sound in a word eg the ‘r’ in rain Grapheme Letter(s) representing a phoneme r ai n

What is a cvc word? consonant vowel consonant A word with 2 consonants and 1 vowel in the middle Cat Bus Top Tip Pet

Digraph Two letters, which make one sound eg ‘ai’ in rain A consonant digraph contains two consonants sh ck th ll e.g. ‘sh’ in shop A vowel digraph contains at least one vowel ai ee oa oo e.g. ‘ee’ in sleep

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’ This skill is usually taught before blending and reading printed words

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’

Phase 2 Introduces 19 grapheme-phoneme correspondences Decoding and encoding taught as reversible processes As soon as children have a small number of grapheme/phoneme correspondences, blending and segmenting can start (/s/a/t/p/i/n/) ‘Tricky’ words

Phase 2 sounds s a t i p n c k ck e h r m d g o u l f b + constant revision and practise

Phase 3 Introduces another 25 graphemes Most comprising two letters One representation of each of 44 phonemes Reading and spelling two syllable words and captions Typical duration: Up to 12 weeks

Phase 3 Sounds Remaining single letter sounds j, v, w, x y, z, zz, qu + Consonant digraphs: ch, sh, th, ng Vowel digraphs: ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar, or, ur, ow, oi, ear, air, ure, er

A blending activity p i g s h i p b o y f i l l s o n g d a y w h i z z c h i c k c a r c o w w h i p f o r

Segmenting WORD PHONEMES shelf dress think string sprint flick

Segmenting shelf sh e l f dress d r ss think th i n k string s t ng WORD PHONEMES shelf sh e l f dress d r ss think th i n k string s t ng sprint p flick ck

High frequency words The majority of high frequency words are phonically regular Some exceptions – for example the and was – should be directly taught

Phase 2 Tricky Words to the I no go

Phase 3 tricky words he she we me be was you they all are my her

Segmenting WORD PHONEMES sun match ship they throat chair

Segmenting sun s u n match m a t ch ship sh i p they th ey throat r oa WORD PHONEMES sun s u n match m a t ch ship sh i p they th ey throat r oa chair air

Pronunciation Using phonics requires some skill in pronunciation Phonemes should be spoken as clearly and precisely as possible – don’t worry too much!

Useful links http://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/ (for phonic help click ‘reading’ then ‘Expert Help’ then ‘Phonics Made Easy’ then ‘ Say the Sounds’) Booktrust.org.uk (Great for the pleasure of reading) http://jollylearning.co.uk/jolly-phonics-letter-sounds-app-2/ (Lots of practical phonics help) http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/phase-2-games.html http://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/SoundStimuli.html

A phonics quiz: What is a phoneme? How many sounds are in the word ‘cat’? How many sounds are in the word ‘string’? a) What is a CVC word? b) Give an example What is meant by blending? What is meant by segmenting? What is a grapheme?