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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. - - + + 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

8. 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

9. Indicating phonemes: sound buttons
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10. Indicating the phonemes: phoneme frame
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11. Indicating phonemes: sound buttons
d o g
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12. Indicating phonemes: sound buttons
s t r u t
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13. Indicating phonemes: sound buttons
ch a t
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14. Indicating phonemes: sound buttons
ch ur ch
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15. Indicating phonemes: sound buttons
s c r u n ch
Justine Earl Canterbury Christ Church University

16. h igh Indicating phonemes
Justine Earl Canterbury Christ Church University

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

18. Making the long ‘a’ phonemeei
eigh
vein
eight
Rachel
rein
weight
reign
Justine Earl Canterbury Christ Church University

19. 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

20. 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

21. Reading for pleasure and for life
deos/3858_reading_for_life_not_for_tests
Justine Earl Canterbury Christ Church University