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Phonics is the main way that children are taught to read and spell in UK schools. However, many parents are at a complete loss when it comes to helping their children, as they do not understand what phonics is or how it works. Their children come home making all sorts of strange sounds, and these parents are bewildered. Sadly, not many teachers, despite their training, really know how to teach phonics. Help is at hand. We aim to show you how easy it is! Help is at hand!
Maybe you are like the dad I saw at the supermarket last week. He and his little lad (no more than age 5 if that) were coming our through the automatic doors. The little lad saw the sign saying 'AUTOMATIC DOORS' and went up to it with great enthusiasm. 'Look dad!' he said, 'This says 'a', 'd'.'
His dad pulled a face showing his confusion and then said rather irritatingly 'It says automatic doors - now come on!' If the lad's teacher had been there she/he would have hopefully been delighted. This little lad was beginning to take notice of print in his environment and apply what he had been taught - always an encouraging step. No doubt he had been taught the initial sounds that each letter of the alphabet stands for and now he had seen them for himself. He wasn't worried that he was only looking at the first letter - he could see letters with which he was familiar. Had his father have understood what was happening, and knew how to teach phonics, he could have said 'Oh, yes, you are right!'. If he was a little more aware, he could have maybe gone a step further and said 'Look - 'd' for door. This other word says 'automatic' - you'll learn to read that word soon! In this way, the lad would have felt that he really was making progress: he was starting to decipher words for himself! Okay - so what was happening here?
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Words are made up of different sounds. We learn these sounds when we are babies - when we learn to babble. The young child says 'mmmmm' or 'ddddd'. Then as speech devlops further, the young child puts two sounds together 'da da da da'. As it develops yet further, they utter a word - or a close approximation to it. 'Ah' we say s/he's saying _______!'
Later on one word becomes two, then three until whole sentences are formed. Learning to read and spell should be just like that. Sounds first - then words: a bottom up approach. |
Learning to read with phonics means first becoming aware of the individual sounds that make up words, and then learning to put them together to make words.
That is the way our brains learn best.
Phonics is a code
Think of it as a code - first the code has to be learnt, and then it can be used to decipher anything written in that code - in this case 'English'.
Some people do fine with the first stage, that is, learning the intial sounds and combining them into words like:
c u p
v e s t
So let's have a closer look!
Initial sounds
Try for yourself. Listen as you say each word. Say it gently, and then see if you can just pick out the first sound - start to say the word - get your tongue/teeth/lip ready and then gently say the first sound and STOP! This is the initial sound.
Once the child knows these well, then s/he can begin doing what we call 'blending' them. This simply means, putting them together to make words.
Simple words using intial sounds only
Now the fun begins! Seeing as there are 44 different sounds to learn (including the initial sounds) and that some sounds have one or more ways to write them, the child has much to learn. But with careful teaching and games and worksheets to help along the way to give practice, they are soon learnt. Do remember though, that all children are different and some will learn faster and others slower. That does not matter - what does matter is that they GET THERE!
44 sounds to learn
Becoming a reader
2 letters together making a new sound
Other ways of making vowel sounds
Spend a while thinking of a word with each group of letters in:
How these letter combinations are best taught
a: cat, mat, bat, sat, fat, hat, van, jam, Sam, can, etc...
rain: pain, train, brain, Spain, paint, drain, snail, tail, etc...
r ai n
Children need to learn to recognise these letter groupings so that they can instantly say their sound and write both letters when given a word with that sound in. Of course, there is more than one way of making many of the sounds:
ai ay a-e eigh
for example
Flashcards
A simple teaching method for teaching phonics
- On Monday the teacher/parent should introduce the new sound. First the child is shown the flashcard with the new sound written on it and told what sound the letters represent.
ai
- the teacher/parent should write each word out for the child, one at a time, sounding each one out as s/he writes, in a list on a board/paper. Dissect each word into the sounds (not letters) s/he hears e.g. r ai n.
- Go through all the words on the list and then hide them.
- Ask the child to write them on a white-board, chalkboard or paper, as you dictate them, one-by-one.
- Ask the child to read what s/he has written and correct any mistakes by helping the child to feel the sounds as s/he says the word slowly, stretching it out:
r...ai...n
- read them
- write them
- play games
- complete worksheets for that sound: Phonic Worksheets
- look for the words in book and around the home/classroom/outside
What is important, is a child should not be asked to read a word for which s/he has not yet been taught the sounds to enable them to decode it.
Some programmes stop at this point as once children have got the idea, they very often then progress onwards, working out the code for themselves and are soon reading well. Some children do benefit from going more thoroughly through the remaining sounds and rules as they will not pick them up for themselves. All children benefit though, from moving on to look at more complex sounds and longer multisyllabic words as this ensures good spelling too. This may take several years.
In conclusion, I hope we have made it easy for you to understand how to teach phonics.
Please do remember that all children learn at their own pace.
Also remember that progress is not always constant. Children move forwards, then plateau and may even seem to forget things, but then move forward again. Keep calm, reinforce the weak points, and move on again.
Welcome
Hello, I'm Lilibette, qualified teacher (B.Ed Hons). I have taught phonics in mainstream education, followed by have home-educated my two sons to 18, and am now a private tutor.
Reading Made Simple (a completely free systematic phonic reading programme) and Sound-it-out are the results!
I aim to bring advice and resources aimed at enabling parents and teachers to EASILY teach phonics effectively. That is: to help children become life-long readers, forming a bedrock on which all further education can be built. My mother helps to draw the pictures and between us we have many years experience of teaching KS1, special needs and ESL. We hope you enjoy browsing our site!
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