Systematic Synthetic Phonics (SSP) An Introduction Justine Earl Canterbury Christ Church University

What is reading? Reading is much more than the decoding of black marks upon the page: it is a quest for meaning and one that requires the reader to be an active participant. English for Ages 5-16 (The Cox Report, 1989) Justine Earl Canterbury Christ Church University

Phonics: the most straightforward part of English It is self-contained (discrete). It is clearly structured (systematic) It is supported by a scheme – providing the content, progression, assessment tools and ideas. There is a wealth of resources to help. It is skills based. Justine Earl Canterbury Christ Church University

Phonics: what makes it seem difficult. The new technical vocabulary. It is a skill you as a reader do not use consciously. The current focus and emphasis on phonics. The use of a scheme. Justine Earl Canterbury Christ Church University

What matters for the children Their phonic input matches their needs. The skills they learn in the discrete phonics sessions are applied when they read and write. There is not a linear approach to learning to read – those children still tackling decoding can also demonstrate more advanced reading skills. Any focus on phonics is balanced by the rest of the English / literacy curriculum. Justine Earl Canterbury Christ Church University

Some Key Statements to Understand There are around 44 phonemes in the English language. Letters are symbols (graphemes), which represent the sounds (phonemes) in words. A phoneme can be represented by a grapheme made up of one or more letters: c/a/t, k/ee/p, h/igh, th/r/ough. A phoneme can be spelt in more than one way. So one sound can have different representations: day, great, make, paper. Some graphemes represent more than one phoneme. So one spelling but more than one sound: bread, bead, steak. You need to teach the skill of blending the phonemes together in a word in order to be able to decode it. c-a-t cat. You need to teach the skill of segmenting each phoneme in a word in order to be able to spell it. cat c-a-t. Justine Earl Canterbury Christ Church University

- - + + Good language comprehension, poor word recognition Good word recognition, good language comprehension Word recognition - + Poor word recognition, poor language comprehension Good word recognition, poor language comprehension Two dimensions of reading: word recognition and language comprehension Four possible outcomes: Good word recognition and good language comprehension Good word recognition but poor language comprehension Poor word recognition but good language comprehension Poor word recognition and poor language comprehension Allow time for staff to consider the four quadrants alongside their class list. They may be able to start thinking about whereabouts the children would be plotted on the graph. - Language comprehension Justine Earl Canterbury Christ Church University

Some key terms to know Phoneme: smallest unit of sound Grapheme: symbol which represents the phoneme GPCs: grapheme-phoneme correspondences Digraph Trigraph Adjacent consonants /consonant cluster Blending for reading Segmenting for spelling Justine Earl Canterbury Christ Church University

Indicating phonemes: sound buttons Justine Earl Canterbury Christ Church University

Indicating the phonemes: phoneme frame Justine Earl Canterbury Christ Church University

Indicating phonemes: sound buttons d o g Justine Earl Canterbury Christ Church University

Indicating phonemes: sound buttons s t r u t Justine Earl Canterbury Christ Church University

Indicating phonemes: sound buttons ch a t Justine Earl Canterbury Christ Church University

Indicating phonemes: sound buttons ch ur ch Justine Earl Canterbury Christ Church University

Indicating phonemes: sound buttons s c r u n ch Justine Earl Canterbury Christ Church University

h igh Indicating phonemes Justine Earl Canterbury Christ Church University

Making the long ‘a’ phoneme ay ai a-e say rain make tray Spain cake play snail game Justine Earl Canterbury Christ Church University

Making the long ‘a’ phoneme ei eigh vein eight Rachel rein weight reign Justine Earl Canterbury Christ Church University

Some key terms to know Phoneme: smallest unit of sound Grapheme: symbol which represents the phoneme GPCs: grapheme-phoneme correspondences Digraph Trigraph Adjacent consonants /consonant cluster Blending for reading Segmenting for spelling Justine Earl Canterbury Christ Church University

Key phonic knowledge A phoneme can be represented by one or more letters The same phoneme can be represented in more than one way. The same spelling may represent more than one phoneme. A grapheme is the representation of the phoneme – so may be more than one letter. Justine Earl Canterbury Christ Church University

Reading for pleasure and for life http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/resources/vi deos/3858_reading_for_life_not_for_tests Justine Earl Canterbury Christ Church University