1. Letters & Sounds Parent Workshop
Wednesday 1st November 2017
Jane Hill

2. What is “Phonics”? Is it the only way ? No.
The phonics approach teaches children to decode words by sounds, rather than recognising whole words. The emphasis in early years teaching is on synthetic phonics, in which words are broken up into the smallest units of sound (phonemes).
Is it the only way ? No.
“Reading" phonetically - decoding, is not the same as reading, It is not necessarily reading for meaning, understanding or for pleasure.
Teachers will use a variety of strategies to teach reading because no child learns in the same way. There are many methods which may be used in combination.
In the look and say method, children are exposed to pictures and stories from an early age and will learn to recognise complete words. This is at the opposite end of the spectrum to synthetic phonics. (but is the method of learning ‘tricky’ words –that cannot be decoded)
Recognising rhyming patterns and the use of powerful texts to engage children's interest are among some of the strategies we use.

3. What is Letters & Sounds?
It is a comprehensive teaching document which covers all of the phonic skills children need to learn, starting in the Early Years Foundation Stage and going through KS1 to the end of Year 2.
hment_data/file/190599/Letters_and_Sounds_-_DFES pdf
(GOOGLE: Letters and Sounds – gov.uk)
It consists of 6 phases covering all the 44 phonemes. Phase 1 is the foundation of any phonic teaching and learning and is taught in nursery. Phase 2,3 and 4 are taught in Reception.
Letters and Sounds teaches children how to use their sounds through blending in reading and segmentation for spelling.

4. Letters & Sounds - Phase 1
Phase 1 provides a firm foundation for future learning. It focuses on developing speaking and listening skills which are needed before the more focused work starts at Phase 2.
Phase 1 is split into 7 aspects and each aspect covers 3 strands;
tuning into sounds; listening and remembering sounds and talking about sounds.
The aspects are
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

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

6. Blending & Segmenting

7. E.g. Aspect 1:
Strand 1) Tuning into sounds -main purpose ■ To develop children’s listening skills and awareness of sounds in the environment. Can they:
■ recall sounds they have heard;
■ discriminate between the sounds;
■ describe the sounds they hear.
Strand 2) Listening and remembering sounds - main purpose ■ Further development of vocabulary and children’s identification and recollection of the difference between sounds. Can they:
■ describe what they see;
■ identify the animals and imitate the sounds;
■ add new words to their vocabulary.
Strand 3) Talking about sounds -main purpose ■ To make up simple sentences and talk in greater detail about sounds. Can they:
■ identify different sounds and place them in a context;
■ identify similar sounds;
■ make up sentences to talk about sounds;
■ join in the activities and take turns to participate.

8. Modelling listening and speaking
The ways in which adults model speaking and listening, interact and talk
with children are critical to the success of Phase One activities and to
promoting children’s speaking and listening skills more widely.
The key adult behaviours can be summarised as follows.
■ Listen to encourage talking – time spent listening to children talk to
each other, and listening to individuals without too frequent interruption,
helps them to use more, and more relevant, language.
Adults should recognise that waiting time is constructive. It allows children to
think about what has been said, gather their thoughts and frame their replies.
■ Model good listening. This includes making eye contact with speakers, asking the sort of questions attentive listeners ask and commenting on what has been said. Adults should adapt their spoken interventions to give children ample opportunities to extend their spoken communication. How? Why? Tell me about….
■ Provide good models of spoken English to help young children enlarge their
vocabulary and learn, for example, how to structure comprehensible sentences, speak confidently and clearly, and sustain dialogue. Phase One activities are designed to foster these attributes.

9. Silly soup – alliterative focus. Can also have a rhyming focus

10. It is now time to build on Phase 1 and move into Phase 2!

11. The language of Phonics
Phonemes – the sound of the letter or letters e.g. a, ai, s, sh
Graphemes – the written form
In Reception we teach each phoneme (sound) and the grapheme (letter) alongside an action from the Jolly Phonics scheme.
Diagraphs – when 2 letters make 1 sound e.g. ch, sh
Split Diagraphs – 2 letters making one sound together but they are split by another letter e.g. made, tile
CVC – Consonant-vowel-consonant e.g. cat, dog, bed
CVCC – e.g. past, left
CCVC – e.g. step, stop

12. Correct pronunciation is vital …
Sounds should be sustained where possible (e.g. sss, fff, mmm) and, where this is not possible, ‘uh’ sounds after consonants should be reduced as far as possible (e.g. try to avoid saying ‘buh’, ‘cuh’). Teachers help children to look at different letters and say the right sounds for them.
We all sometimes need to check the correct pronunciation of the phonemes, this is especially true as we move into the vowel diagraphs in Phase 3.
Youtube has a good set of videos to help you and your child pronounce the sounds correctly. Try adding ‘Sounds of the English Phonic Code by PhonicBooks’ to the search bar.
The Jolly Phonics songs (which accompany our taught actions) are available on Youtube too!
Please do monitor your child’s use of Youtube – it is best to watch these videos together.

13. What happens in Reception? Discrete Phonics teaching 25 mins daily
We begin teaching Phase 2 of the Letters & Sounds programme as soon as possible, having informally assessed phase 1 understanding and knowledge. Phase 2 usually starts after October half term.
Phase 2 begins the systematic teaching and learning of phonics. Each week we learn 4 new letters and revise and consolidate the ones we have learnt before.
We teach children how to blend (put the sounds together) and segment (split them up) each and every day.
We also teach the High Frequency and Tricky words as part of the process.

14. Phase 2- coverage 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

15. Daily Phonics Session Each phonics session follows the same pattern
Revisit and Review
Teach – the new letter
Practice – using the new letter and others already taught in blending and/or segmenting
Apply – from week 3 onwards – we read or write a short caption together.
HFW and Tricky words are taught and consolidated within this process.

16. Letters & Sounds in the wider environment
The development of our children’s Letters & Sounds knowledge does not just happen in those discrete teaching sessions.
We weave phonics into our continuous provision (the activities which are available to the children) both inside and outdoors. There are opportunities offered to ‘bump into phonics’ in the sand, the play dough, the shop and the home corner for example. The games we play in our discrete sessions are then left out for the children to explore in their own time. This is when children can investigate, practice and consolidate their understanding of what has been taught.

17. Phase 3 – coverage Phase 4 consolidates and extends Phase 3 but no new GPCs are taught
Phase 3 lasts for approximately 12 weeks. Set 6: j, v, w, x Set 7:y,z,zz,qu Consonant diagraphs: ch, sh, th, ng Vowel diagraphs: ai,ee,igh,oa,oo,ar,or,ur,ow,oi,ear,air,ure,er We also learn lots of tricky (non-decodable) words during Phase 3 he, she, we, be, me, was, you, they, all, are, my, her

18. Reasons to write
Understanding and being able to use and apply Letters and Sounds is one of the building blocks to being a good writer.
Encourage your child to hear and say the intial sounds in words and begin to represent them in writing e.g. writing an invitation list for a party; J (Jane), K (Kirsty), E (Emma)
Children need to be presented with opportunities to use their phonic skills – whether this is writing a simple shopping list ’apl’ (apple) ‘mlk’ (milk), ‘bnarnar’ (banana). It is important to recognise and praise these early attempts at using their phonics – avoid ‘no that’s not right, copy this correctly’ we want our children to be confident to have a go.

19. Writing Process Adult modelling
How often does your child see you write something?
Consider opportunities you could demonstrate writing in real life situations to your child. E.g. writing a doctor’s appointment on the calendar. Verbalise what you are doing to help your child make the link between thinking and writing….
I’m just going to write your doctor’s appointment on the calendar so we don’t forget it, next Wednesday at 4.15.

20. Useful websites/apps