© Crown copyright 2006 Communication, Language and Literacy Development: Improving phonics subject knowledge A CPD discussion session for Consultants 12 th. October 2006

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© Crown copyright 2006 Objective To support consultant colleagues in developing a good and shared knowledge and understanding of phonic principles

© Crown copyright 2006 Phonics: The priority for training ‘It is hardly surprising that training to equip those who are responsible for beginner readers with a good understanding of the core principles and skills of teaching phonic work, including those responsible for intervention programmes, has emerged as a critical issue’ The Rose Report Independent review of the teaching of early reading, Final report, Jim Rose, March 2006 (DfES DOC-EN. ISBN )

© Crown copyright What is a phoneme? 2.How many phonemes are in the word ‘strap’? 3.a) What is a digraph? b) Give an example 4.a) What is a CVC? b) Give an example 5.Why has ‘hiss’ got ‘ss’ at the end (and not ‘s’)? 6.Why has ‘think’ got a ‘k’ at the end (and not ‘ck’ or ‘c’)? 7.a) What is a ‘trigraph’? b) Give an example 8.How many phonemes are in the word ‘twenty’? 9.Write down at least four different ways of representing /ae/ 10.What is the best guess when you write /ae/ at the end of a word? A phonics quiz

© Crown copyright 2006 Enunciation Teaching phonics requires a technical skill in enunciation Phonemes should be articulated clearly and precisely

© Crown copyright 2006 Phonic terminology: some definitions

© Crown copyright 2006 Some definitions A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a word

© Crown copyright 2006 Some definitions Grapheme Letter(s) representing a phoneme taiigh

© Crown copyright 2006 Some definitions 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’

© Crown copyright 2006 Some definitions 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

© Crown copyright 2006 Some definitions 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’

© Crown copyright 2006 Some definitions Digraph Two letters, which make one sound A consonant digraph contains two consonants shckthll A vowel digraph contains at least one vowel ai ee ar oy

© Crown copyright 2006 Some definitions Trigraph Three letters, which make one sound igh dge

© Crown copyright 2006 Some definitions Split digraph A digraph in which the two letters are not adjacent (e.g. make)

© Crown copyright 2006 Some definitions Synthetic phonics ‘Synthetic phonics refers to an approach to the teaching of reading in which the phonemes [sounds] associated with particular graphemes [letters] are pronounced in isolation and blended together (synthesised). For example, children are taught to take a single-syllable word such as cat apart into its three letters, pronounce a phoneme for each letter in turn /k, æ, t/, and blend the phonemes together to form a word. Synthetic phonics for writing reverses the sequence: children are taught to say the word they wish to write, segment it into its phonemes and say them in turn, for example /d, ɔ, g/, and write a grapheme for each phoneme in turn to produce the written word, dog.’ Definition adopted by the Rose Report

© Crown copyright 2006 CVC words - some points to note

© Crown copyright 2006 Words sometimes wrongly identified as CVC bow few saw her

© Crown copyright 2006 Consonant digraphs ll ss ff zz hill pufffizz sh ch th wh shipchat thin ck ng qu x fox singquick

© Crown copyright 2006 p i gs h e e p s h i p c a r b o yc o w f i l l w h i p s o n gf o r d a ym i s s w h i z zh u f f CVC words – clarifying some misunderstandings

© Crown copyright 2006 CVC words – clarifying some misunderstandings p i gc h i c k s h i p c a r X b o y Xc o w X f i l l w h i p s o n gf o r X d a y Xm i s s w h i z zhuff

© Crown copyright 2006 ll ss ff zz ck fillmisswhizzhuff chick

© Crown copyright 2006 Examples of CCVC, CVCC, CCCVC and CCVCC b l a c ks t r o ng c c v c c c c v c f e l tb l a n k c v c cc c v c c

© Crown copyright 2006 A segmenting activity

© Crown copyright 2006 A segmenting activity s s

© Crown copyright 2006 A segmenting activity s l l s

© Crown copyright 2006 A segmenting activity s l i il s

© Crown copyright 2006 A segmenting activity s l i p il sp

© Crown copyright 2006 A segmenting activity Segment these words into their constituent phonemes: shelf dress think string sprint flick

© Crown copyright 2006 Segmenting WORDPHONEMES shelfshelf dressdress thinkthink stringstring sprintsprint flickflick

© Crown copyright 2006 A basic principle The same phoneme can be represented in more than one way: burn first term heard work

© Crown copyright 2006 /ae//ee//ie//oe//ue/ /oo//ow//oi//ar//au/

© Crown copyright 2006 /ur//air//ear//n//j/ /r//s//e/

© Crown copyright 2006 Sorting activity field grow moon swarm learn bear grass

© Crown copyright 2006 WordMistake field/ie/ grow/ow/ moon/oo/ swarm/ar/ learn/ear/ bear/ear/ grass regional pronunciation

© Crown copyright 2006 A basic principle meatbread hebed bearhear cowlow

© Crown copyright 2006 The same phoneme can be represented in more than one way aa-eaiayeyeigh ee-eeaeey ii-eieighy oo-eoaoeow uu-eueooew oououl owouough oioy ara oraworeaough airareear eerear

© Crown copyright 2006 Certain representations of a phoneme are more likely in initial, medial and final position in monosyllabic words Reducing uncertainty

© Crown copyright The best bets for representing /ae/ at the beginning and in the middle of a word are a-e and ai 2.The best bet for representing /ae/ at the end of a word is ay

© Crown copyright 2006 Spelling There are patterns or regularities that help to determine choices or narrow possibilities – for example for each vowel phoneme some digraphs and trigraphs are more frequently used before certain consonants than others Children need to explore these patterns through word investigations Teachers need to understand these patterns in order to structure their teaching and design or select appropriate activities

© Crown copyright 2006 High frequency words The majority of high frequency words are phonically regular Some exceptions – for example the and was – should be directly taught

© Crown copyright 2006 Key message The Rose Report recommended that whatever phonic programme is in use by the school, it should have a systematic progression with clear expectations by teachers and practitioners of the expected pace of teaching and learning

© Crown copyright 2006 Progression and pace Activity – Read ‘Guidance for practitioners on progression and pace in the teaching of phonics’ blications/literacy/pri_fwk_core_pospapers/ Consider the implications for the use of current phonic materials and resources in the Foundation Stage and in Key Stage 1