1. A phonics quiz 1.What is a phoneme?
2. How many phonemes are in the word
‘strap’?
3. a) What is a digraph? b) Give an example
4. a) What is a CVC? b) Give an example
5. Why has ‘think’ got a ‘k’ at the end (and not ‘ck’ or ‘c’)?
6. a) What is a ‘trigraph’? b) Give an example
7. How many phonemes are in the word ‘twenty’?
8. Write down at least four different ways of representing /ae/
9.What is the best guess when you write /ae/ at the end of a word?

2. Objective
To support practitioners in developing a good knowledge and understanding of phonic principles

3. Phonics at a glance Phonics is Knowledge of the alphabetic code
(26 letters, 44 phonemes, 140 different letter combinations) +
Understanding of the skills of segmenting and blending

4. Letters and phonemes
Letters: 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
44 phonemes: /b/ /k/ /d/ /f/ /g/ /h/ /j/ /l/ /m/ /n/ /p/ /r/ /s/ /t/ / v/ /w/ /y/ /z/ /sh/ /ch/ /th/ /th/ /ng/ /zh/
/a/ /e/ /i/ /o/ /u/ /ai/ /ee/ /igh/ /oa/ /oo/ /oo/ /ow/ /oi/ /ar/ /or/ /ur/ /air/ /ear/ /ure/ /er/
Some of 140 letter combinations illustrated in words:
Cat, peg, pig, log, put,
pain, day, gate, station
burn, first, term, heard, work,
haul, law, call,
tried, light, my,
slaughter

5. Some definitions Hearing a series of spoken sounds and Oral blending
merging them together to make a spoken
word – no text is used
For example, when a teacher calls out
‘b-u-s’, the children say ‘bus’
This skill is usually taught before blending
and reading printed words

6. Some definitions Recognising the letter sounds
Blending
Recognising the letter sounds
in a written word, for example
c-u-p, and merging or synthesising
them in the order in which they
are written to pronounce the
word ‘cup’

7. Some definitions
Segmenting
Identifying the individual sounds in a spoken word (e.g. h-i-m) and writing down or manipulating letters for each sound to form the word ‘him’

8. Phonemes are represented by letters (grapheme)
Four key principles
Phonemes are represented by letters (grapheme)
A phoneme can be represented by one or more letters
The same phoneme can be represented/spelled in more than one way
The same spelling may represent more than one phoneme

9. Four key Principles of phonics
Phonemes are represented by letters (grapheme) GPC
A child needs to learn the letters that make up each sound, this is known as phoneme-grapheme representation.
phonemes can be in the initial, medial or final position of a word. E.g. sat

10. Some definitions
A phoneme is the smallest unit of
sound in a word

11. Some definitions
Grapheme
Letter(s) representing a phoneme
t ai igh

12. Enunciation Teaching phonics requires a technical skill in enunciation
Phonemes should be articulated clearly and precisely

13. Enunciation Jolly Phonics
Phonemes should be articulated clearly and precisely
Most consonants should be pronounced in a continuous manner ssssssss, mmmmm
All phonemes need to be said with care so that they do not become distorted e.g muh
Some phonemes need to be said in the short form /c/ /t/ /p/ /b/ /d/ /g/
Phonemes should be supported by symbols and actions

14. Four key Principles of phonics
A phoneme can be represented by one or more letters
A single phoneme represented by 2 letters or more e.g. ch ai n
vowel digraphs – ai, ee, ie, oa, oo, ar, ir, oi, ou, ay, a-e, u-e etc..
trigraphs – igh, air, ear

15. Some definitions Digraph Two letters, which make one sound
A consonant digraph contains two consonants
sh ck th ll
A vowel digraph contains at least one vowel also known as long vowel phoneme
ai ee ar oy

16. Some definitions
Trigraph
Three letters, which make one sound
igh dge

17. Consonant digraphs ll ss ff zz hill puff fizz sh ch th wh
ship chat thin
ck ng qu x
fox sing quick

18. Adjacent consonants Formally known as blends
Letter combinations where each letter makes an individual phoneme
sp st sk sl
tr ft nt lt
mp un lp dr
cl sw cr sm
e.g. step list clap grasp strap

19. 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. Not everybody knows this yet.
Spread the word to other people
Watch out for old resources (and some new ones)
Train children to think about mouth movements

20. Some definitions Split digraph
A digraph in which the two letters are not adjacent (e.g. make)
a_e e_e i_e
o_e u_e

21. Sound button activity p i g c h i c k class s h i p c a r try
b o y c o w stick
f i l l w h i p zoo
s o n g f o r caught
d a y mist playing
w h i z z have said
come h u f f frogspawn

22. Examples of CCVC, CVCC, CCCVC and CCVCC
b l a c k s t r o ng
c c v c c c c v c
f e l t b l a n k
c v c c c c v c c

23. Words sometimes wrongly identified as CVC
bow few
saw her

24. A segmenting activity slip chirp

25. A segmenting activity Segment the following words shelf dress think
string
sprint
flick

26. Segmenting shelf sh e l f dress d r ss think th i n k string s t ng
WORD
PHONEMES
shelf sh e l f
dress d r ss
think th i n k
string s t ng
sprint p
flick ck

27. Phonemes are represented by letters (grapheme)
Four key principles
Phonemes are represented by letters (grapheme)
A phoneme can be represented by one or more letters
The same phoneme can be represented/spelled in more than one way
The same spelling may represent more than one phoneme

28. Four key Principles of phonics
The same phoneme can be represented/spelled in more than one way
This is very common particularly among the vowels, e.g. rain, may, lake
burn, first, term, heard, work

29. The same phoneme can be represented in more than one way
vowel digraphs (long vowel phonemes)
a ae ai ay ey eigh
e e-e ea ee y
i i-e ie igh y
o o-e oa oe ow
u u-e ue oo ew
oo u oul
ow ou ough
oi oy
ar a
or aw ore a ough
air are ear
eer ear

30. On the surface this appears to present problems in spelling accuracy but there are many rules that can be applied according to position and associated consonants
Certain representations of a phoneme are more likely in initial, medial and final position in monosyllabic words

31. Activity - Sort the words into groups according to long vowel phonemeae ee ie oe ue

32. The best bets for representing /ae/ at the beginning and in the middle of a word are a-e and ai
The best bet for representing /ae/ at the end of a word is ay

33. Phonemes are represented by letters (grapheme)
Four key principles
Phonemes are represented by letters (grapheme)
A phoneme can be represented by one or more letters
The same phoneme can be represented/spelled in more than one way
The same spelling may represent more than one phoneme

34. Four key Principles of phonics
The same spelling may represent more than one phoneme
E.g. mean, deaf This is where children need to learn to use the skill of making sense of the text.

35. The basic principle
meat bread
he bed
bear hear
cow low

36. Spelling
There are patterns or regularities that help to determine choices or narrow possibilities – for example for each vowel phoneme some digraphs and trigraphs are more frequently used before certain consonants than others
Children need to explore these patterns through word investigations
Teachers need to understand these patterns in order to structure their teaching and design or select appropriate activities

37. High frequency words
The majority of high frequency words are phonically regular
Some exceptions – for example the and was – should be directly taught
It must always be remembered that phonics is the step up to word recognition. Automatic reading of all words – decodable and tricky – is the ultimate goal

38. The Rose Report – March 2006 recommended that whatever phonic programme is in use by a school, it should have a systematic progression with clear expectations by teachers and practitioners of the expected pace of teaching and learning

39. Some definitions Synthetic phonics
‘Synthetic phonics refers to an approach to the teaching of reading in which the phonemes [sounds] associated with particular graphemes [letters] are pronounced in isolation and blended together (synthesised). For example, children are taught to take a single-syllable word such as cat apart into its three letters, pronounce a phoneme for each letter in turn /k, æ, t/, and blend the phonemes together to form a word. Synthetic phonics for writing reverses the sequence: children are taught to say the word they wish to write, segment it into its phonemes and say them in turn, for example /d, ɔ, g/, and write a grapheme for each phoneme in turn to produce the written word, dog.’
Definition adopted by the Rose Report

40. Four key principles Phonemes are represented by letters (grapheme)
A child needs to learn the letters that make up each sound, this is known as phoneme-grapheme representation.
phonemes can be in the initial, medial or final position of a word. E.g. sat
A phoneme can be represented by one or more letters
A single phoneme represented by 2 letters or more e.g. ch ai n
vowel digraphs – ai, ee, ie, oa, oo, ar, ir, oi, ou, ay, a-e, u-e etc..
trigraphs – igh, air, ear
The same phoneme can be represented/spelled in more than one way
This very common particularly among the vowels, e.g. rain, may, lake
On the surface this appears to present problems in spelling accuracy but there are many rules that can be applied according to position and associated consonants
The same spelling may represent more than one phoneme
E.g. mean, deaf This is where children need to learn to use the skill of making sense of the text.

41. Simple view of reading Word recognition language comprehension
The ability to recognise and understand the words on the page
phoneme awareness and phonics teaching
repetition and teaching of ‘tricky’ words
language comprehension
The ability to understand language
talking with children
reading to children
teaching comprehension strategies

42. - - + + 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 -
Language comprehension