1. Cna yuo raed tihs?
Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can. i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? This is why children find ‘checking their spelling’ so difficult!

2. Phonics across Primary The basics

3. What we will cover Why all the fuss about phonics?
What exactly is phonics (and what are the different phonic phases)?
What are FS and KS1 being asked to do?
Sound and word practise
Games and ideas for home

4. Why? Damning Ofsted report reveals literacy failings
The phonics war
isn't over yet
The Independent
Synthetic phonics replaces
unsound literacy strategy
The Times
Leads tear up schools' reading
policy and back phonics approach
The Independent
Damning Ofsted report
reveals literacy failings
The Times
2006

5. National picture Not much phonics in teacher training
1 in 5 children leave primary school unable to read properly
Rose review – Letters and Sounds
Phonics / CL (communication and language) now a top priority for Ofsted

6. Current KS3 Cohorts
Have not experienced post Rose Report style phonics teaching.
May not have had very much phonics teaching at all.
Have gaps in their phonic knowledge which lead to lower spelling level than expected- now we have SPAG tests.
Have a higher reading level than spelling.

7. Current EYFS & KS1 Have daily phonics sessions which include:
Revisiting previous skills
Direct teaching of new skills
Practise of using new knowledge
Opportunity to independently apply new skills.

8. Knowledge - 44ish phonemes (speech sounds) - 140ish graphemes – ways of writing phonemes
Children must be taught all of these to be a successful speller!
What is phonics?
Skills - Blending - Segmenting - applying taught knowledge

9. Merging (or synthesising)
Blending
Merging (or synthesising)
the phonemes c-a-t
into the word cat

10. s a t p i ng h e oa l r y d o A quick blending game
How many words can you make?
How many letters do they have?

11. Segmenting
Taking a spoken word (e.g. him) Identifying the individual sounds h-i-m and working out how to write each sound to create the word

12. Try these with a partner Write how many phonemes you can hear.
Cat
sheep
out
house
computer
table

13. Vocabulary Phoneme – smallest unit of speech sound
Grapheme – a written representation of a phoneme
Digraph – two letters that make one sound oa ai ch ck (either vowel digraph or consonant digraph)
Adjacent consonants– two or more consonants next to each other in a word – stop list – CAN PROVE TRICKY

14. Articulating phonemes- Don’t SHWAR!!!
You need to take care how you say phonemes. They should be said continuously if possible or otherwise repeated. Take great care not to add an –uh sound onto the end of sounds such as t j p
These are called SHWARS!
tap- ter-a-per

15. The Alphabet- What does it sound like?
We will do it together first, then play word tennis with it.

16. The Alphabet- What does it sound like?
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

17. Letters and sounds splits phonics teaching up into 6 distinct phases.
Phonic Phases
Letters and sounds splits phonics teaching up into 6 distinct phases.
I’m going to give a very brief overview

18. Phase 1 Explore and experiment with sounds and words
Distinguish between different sounds in the environment and phonemes
Learn to orally blend and segment sounds in words
Phase 1 shouldn’t really come to an end. These skills should be worked on throughout Primary School.

19. Purpose of Phase 2
Learn first 19 phonemes and know the graphemes that represent them.
Move on from orally blending and segmenting to blending and segmenting letters to read and spell VC (on, it, in, up) and then CVC words (top, pin, sat, man)
Introduce two syllable words, simple captions and some tricky HFW.

20. Phase 2 letter progression
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

21. Teaching High Frequency Words
Some HFW should be taught during each phase.
Many HFW are simple to work out using phonics.
Some are ‘tricky’. Children need to be taught strategies for spelling and reading these words.
These are similar to strategies we will look at later.

22. Applying
Must have opportunities in class to read and write the words that they have been learning in phonics sessions.
Guided reading- using collaborative writing
Shared reading
Captions and labels in the environment
Whiteboards and pens
Magnetic letters
Differentiated literacy work and 1:1 work

23. Purpose of Phase 3
Teach another 25 phonemes and graphemes to go with them.
Learn letter names
Continue to practise blending and segmenting using new phonemes and two syllable words

24. 25 phonemes taught in Phase 3
Letters
Set 6: j v w x
Set 7: 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

25. step list clap grasp strap
Phase 4
To consolidate children’s knowledge of graphemes in reading and spelling words containing adjacent consonants and polysyllabic words
can blend adjacent consonants in words and apply this skill when reading unfamiliar texts, (CCVC, CVCC, CCVCC)
step list clap grasp strap
can segment adjacent consonants in words and apply this in spelling
Beware – Adjacent consonants are not digraphs. They make two distinct sounds.

26. Persevere – they will get there.
Adjacent consonants
Children with speech and language difficulties find this stage tricky.
Persevere – they will get there.
Adjacent consonants are no longer taught as blends as this can be a barrier to learning.
Watch out for old resources i.e WhSmith/ Poundland workbooks.
Train children to think about mouth movements- look in the mirror together to see how your mouths move for certain sounds.

27. Purpose of Phase 5
Children broaden their knowledge of graphemes and phonemes for use in reading and spelling
Learn new graphemes
Learn alternative pronunciations some of which they will have already encountered in high frequency words
Learn to choose the appropriate graphemes when spelling and begin to build up word specific knowledge

28. New graphemes for reading

29. Alternative pronunciations

30. Reading Purpose of Phase 6
Learn some of the rarer phoneme-grapheme correspondences.
Develop automaticity in reading. In particular, reliably recognising digraphs as representing one sound.
Children should become fluent readers during this phase and develop a range of comprehension strategies.

31. Spelling Purpose of Phase 6 Identifying the tricky bit in a word.
Develop strategies for spelling longer words.
Develop guidelines for making choices between spelling alternatives.
Begin to explore spelling conventions e.g. when using the past tense, adding suffixes etc.
Prefixes & Suffixes dominoes game

32. Phonics is taught in KS3 Beyond Phase 6
“Note that the teaching of spelling cannot be completed in Year 2 – it needs to continue rigorously throughout primary school and beyond if necessary.”
Letters and Sounds
Phonics is taught in KS3

33. Phonics teaching in EYFS & KS1
Revisit & review
Teach
Practise
Apply
15 minutes a day
Every single day
At the appropriate phase for the class.
FAST
FUN
SYSTEMATIC

34. What can I do at home?
Do they know all the letters of the alphabet? What about the sounds they make?
Assume nothing!
Do they say any sounds incorrectly on a consistent basis? Is this a habit or a Speech and Language issue?
Can they recall the phoneme when you give them a physical prompt or action?

35. What can I do at home?
A great way to engage children at home with phonics is to play games. Matching pairs, snap, sorting words or letters can all be ways to help teach your children.
If you have a computer at home then below is a list of websites that have fun interactive games for children to play.
Useful website letters and sounds games:

36. What can I do at home? Bath, book, bed!
Read EVERYTHING! Reading is not just about books- cereal boxes, instructions for games, magazine, comics, signs, car reg plates etc.
Sound talk instructions to your children
E.g. Go and get your c-oa-t.
Can you find the f-or-k-s?
Bath, book, bed!

37. What can I do at home? Stay calm- it can become frustrating.
Don’t tell them the word- give them time to figure it out.
Take turns- 1 page each to keep the pace of the book.
Sound buttons, stamp out the word, cut up the word etc.
Post-it notes.