1. Phonics in PRA and Year 1 English

2. The 44 sounds of the English Language
English is made up of just 44 sounds. These are the building blocks that make up the English language. Once we know these sounds, and the graphemes that spell each sound, we can read and spell almost any word accurately.
Free powerpoint template:

3. Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com
Blending
Pupils read the sounds (graphemes) – not letter names, and blend them together to make a word.
eg. m-a-n becomes ‘man’, and p-l-ay becomes ‘play’.
Free powerpoint template:

4. Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com
Segmenting
Pupils hear the word, then split it up into its separate sounds (phonemes) to spell it. We call this process ‘finger spelling’.
It should be a 4 step process:
Pupils hear the teacher say the whole word slowly and clearly.
Pupils repeat the whole word back to the teacher.
Pupils identify how many sounds (not letters) it is, and hold up that number of fingers. (so c-a-t would be 3 fingers; d-ay would be 2)
Pupils then spell the word on their fingers – again naming sounds, not letters.
Pupils write the word.
Free powerpoint template:

5. Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com
Red words
‘Red words’ are non-decodeable phonetically. E.g.‘who’ or ‘what’
We teach the children to remember these as sight words, so they do not blend or segment them.
Free powerpoint template:

6. A Whole School Approach
It is really important that we all agree on how to read and spell words with the children, and that the children use the same strategies across the curriculum in Years 1-4.
This will ensure children are not confused by different teachers using different methods.
So, in maths, for example, if children are asked to read or spell the word ‘THREE’, we will help them by reading it ‘th – r – ee’.
Free powerpoint template:

7. Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com
Summary
Phonics is spelling using the 44 sounds as building blocks to blend (for reading) and segment (for spelling) words.
Phonics focuses on sounds, NOT letter names.
When teaching children in any English subject, we need to use the approach the children know. Be aware of spelling words by breaking them up into SOUNDS (eg. green is g-r-ee-n and brown is b-r-ow-n).
If a word really cannot be spelled phonetically (ie a ‘red’ word), only then do we learn it as a sight word.
Free powerpoint template: