It is absolutely essential that reading be taught by phonics and not by the so-called "look-say" methods currently in vogue in the public schools. If the child is not taught to read correctly, then the entire school program which follows will be so difficult that the child will have a very great disadvantage.
How often do we stop to consider what a wonderful skill to acquire is the ability to speak. The facility to communicate with each other in a complex yet straightforward manner from an early age is surely chief among proofs of our exceptional origins. None other of God's creatures have this gift, but mankind is made in the image of God so that there can be communication between us and our Creator. That places speech on a very high level.
Not only can we speak, but we are able to write down what we say so that other people can 'hear' our words in our absence. We call that 'reading' and the acquisition of this skill provides the gateway into every kind of learning and understanding. It ought to be easy to learn to speak and to read. Babies soon begin to copy the speech sounds they hear around them, especially as parents or siblings help them to discern which sounds are most important. Learning to read can begin at that stage too as very young children imitate those specific speech sounds which are the building blocks of written language.
Our facial features have been cleverly designed to influence our vocal chords and voice. When we speak we use the lips, tongue, teeth and throats and nose to shape the sounds we utter. Spoken words are these sounds uttered in sequence. We do it without thinking about it, but teaching reading means thinking about these sounds. Let us give them their official name: they are called phonemes. Thinking about them carefully and learning the symbols (or letters) which stand for those phonemes is the beginning of reading.
Altogether, when we speak we utter 44 phonemes: 26 of these are easily learnt as pupils learn to match the letters of the alphabet to objects that begin with that sound, 'a' for 'apple', 'b' for 'ball', etc. saying the sound the letter stands for, not it's name. Eventually pupils learn that the phonemes 'a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u' as they are used in some words, stand for the name of the letter and not it's sound: gate, here, ride, home, tune, for example. Later they will discover that more new phonemes are made when 2 or 3 letters work together. Five of these new sounds are made with two consonants, 'sh', 'ch', 'th', 'ck', 'ng'. Boat, girl and book are examples of vowel sounds and vowel consonant combinations. All of these phonemes are dealt with individually and this website will help you to know how to go about blending them into words. There are only 44 phonemes, but they can be represented by many more combinations of letters. This means simply that sometimes there is more than one way of expressing the same phoneme in writing. The 'ai' sound looks different in 'rain', 'play', 'eight' and 'plate'. So learning these phonemes is a bit like learning to unlock a code. Rather than having to learn lots of individual words by heart, we teach children the code and then they can unlock many words, even if they have never seen them before. This is why a good phonic system is empowering.
The speed at which 44 phonemes, and the combinations of ways to make them are learnt depends of course on the pupil's ability, but also on the patience and commitment of the teacher (or parent) and the systematic and regular teaching of the programme. We cannot over emphasise the importance of those things. Also, above all, the teacher must beware of 'going through the motions', just doing the job, without understanding what needs to be done and how important is this task.
Therefore, although the main teaching session each day is short, the careful teacher will be constantly looking for opportunities to apply the lessons to their students daily activities. This will ensure maximum progress. An easy to use, FREE phonics reading and spelling programme
To make it easy for you to teach your child to read AND spell with phonics, we have written our own simple systematic (each tiny step builds carefully ont he one before), phonics reading and spelling programme: Reading Made Simple.
What can you expect from the Reading Made Simple programme?
Amazing things. Two year olds reading. The whole of Peter and Jane finished by age 5 if not sooner - which in case you don't know would enable the reader to pick up the Authorised Version of the Bible and pretty much be able to read any passage from it. That's the age most children are when they start to learn their alphabet sounds! Most phonics programmes teach either reading or spelling. We aim to teach both. We take one tiny step at a time and build the next step carefully onto it, building success, often where others have failed. Not all phonics programmes are equal. Don't be put off if your child has speech problems. A phonic programme fits well with speech therapy. Teach your child to read as s/he learns to talk. My son was able to finish Peter and Jane by six and a half, having only started talking aged 3 and half with a couple of words. He could read better than he spoke, but his reading then brought his speaking on. FAQ The phonic language (phonemes, graphemes, digraphs etc...) is so complicated - do the children need to know it? No - and nor do you! It only complicates what should be simple. I deliberately refer to them all simply as 'sounds'. Little children (unless they become graduate linguists) will not need to remember this vocabulary - it serves no purpose in the process of learning to read and spell. Can all children learn with phonics? There are a very few children/adults who can not hear the phonic sounds. I repeat - a very few. In most cases of phonics failing, it is due to the teaching method/the teacher's lack of experience, not the fault of phonics per se. Phonics works with all children regardless, when taught well, as even those very few who do not hear the sounds, benefit from a good phonic programme teaching reading and spelling in a sctructured way, grouping patterns of words together (e.g: rain, pain, Spain, snail etc..) One of the main pitfalls I see that causes many children to supposedly 'fail' with phonics, is not spending enough time ensuring the child can blend (put the sounds together to make a word - c..a..t.. cat), and segment (isolate the sounds in a word cat: c..a..t..). Ensuring the pupil is competent in these two skills will ensue success, Do not rush over these stages. What's wrong with 'look and say' methods? Some children seem to start well with whole words methods but come unstuck later when they meet more and more words they have never seen before and have no plan for working out what they say. Or they come unstuck with spelling. Added to which, when your child is young you may not know that they have a difficulty such as dyslexia - which can be overcome as far as reading and spelling is concerned with a synthetic phonic approach. Better to teach phonics from the start and eliminate years of anguish. Conclusion:
To me as a teacher and then later as a parent, it has been of paramount importance that my pupils read well - not a second best programme that fails them as they reach higher levels. It has also been important to me that they spell well. Schools in general have very low standards - they are trying to teach towards tests, rather than with a long term view of an adult who is fully literate to an excellent level. They are working with multiple pupils and time is a huge constraint. Let's set a new standard We don't want to be proud, but we do want excellence. Choose your reading and spelling programme well - it matters more than any other subject in the early years. A child who can read can teach themselves anything! In fact, spend most of your formal schooling time in KS1 focusing almost exclusively on the 3 R's - Reading, writing and 'rithmetic. This is the time to lay a solid foundation. The rest of their schooling hangs on mastery of these fundamental skills. Get this right and the rest falls more easily in to place.
Find out more about phonics here: A simple guide to understanding phonics
I thoroughly reccommend the two books I have advertised in this post, if you would seriously like to know why phonics is the best method to teach reading and spelling.
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Research from the University of Bristol is suggesting that phonics, as a means of teaching reading, is of no more effect than other methods, such as whole word methods. Professor Jeffrey Bowers, from the University of Bristol, has said that despite "widespread consensus in the research community" that the reading method (phonics) is preferable to meaning-based approaches, there is a lack of "empirical evidence" to suggest that it leads to better outcomes. Is this correct? Should we just throw phonics out and let teachers once more have free choice? I believe that your answer will depend on what you mean by 'works'. If you want way to make sure that your child learns to both read and spell to a high standard, to read and write challenging material, then yes, phonics works. If you want to raise a child for the modern, entertainment driven culture where the need to be able to read is minimalised - then use whichever method you like. Remember though, that although many accuse the reading method debate of being hijacked by political parties, it always will be. Reading is political and history tells us why. If you can keep people illiterate, then they can be easily deceived: they cannot read to discover the truth. I am not a university lecturer, or a politician, just a plain, simple, practitioner with over 30 years experience of teaching phonics. However, if my knowledge of university lecturers is right, they usually have very little practical experience of teaching, tending to be rather insulated and divorced from real life. In addition, I have learnt through experience that in many disciplines in life - be it medicine, education or the like, 'evidence' is not to be trusted. Statistics are fine as far they go, but the 'results' are very dependent on the interpretation of those statistics and a thorough knowledge of the factors considered in their collection, as all research is limited. My own personal experience tells me that I would not want to stop teaching phonics. I will tell you why. My Background I was trained in the late 80's/early 90's, when natural language methods were the vogue. Our lecturers shared their delight in the work of such as Marie Clay, and declared this to be the NEW way forward. We students were filled with hope and enthusiasm. I spent many hours on the phone to my mother, an infant school teacher in the heart of London, in a very deprived area, extolling the virtues of the NEW way and decrying her old fashioned methods of look and say flashcards. She had been taught in the 50's when 'look and say' had been heralded as the NEW method and phonics (though not very well understood and not always well taught) was on the way out, having held sway in the 40's. She too had become disillusioned with 'Look and Say', finding that it went so far, but not far enough as the child's capacity for memorising new words was eventually exhausted. She was at the stage of wondering why the older teacher in the room next door when she first started teaching, had better success. She now knows that the method this teacher was using - one that had not been introduced to my mother's cohort of students - was the phonics method. All that my mother remembers, is that the infant children in the class next door were reading and writing to a high standard, while she struggled to teach these subjects. BUT, because she had been taught the NEW methods, the staff were (foolishly) keen to learn from HER! However, she instinctively knew that the method I was acclaiming was not the solution. Whole Language Methods Marie Clay has been heralded for her work with reading recovery. She studied how children who learned to read easily learnt, and tried to apply that to help those who were struggling. The term 'emergent readers and writers' developed around this time - meaning that the skill was in the child, and all that had to happen was that a way should be found to help it 'emerge'. It resulted in children desperately struggling to 'read' and being rewarded for their ability to guess, though it wasn't put like that. It was called using 'skills'. It involved managing to ’read’ the text by looking at the pictures and using context and meaning. At no time, was any method introduced to the child to enable him/her to know for sure that s/he has said the right word. Similarly in writing, children were left to find their own way to write, which in practice resulted in classes of seven year olds filling pages with 'writing' that was undecipherable, and being rewarded for 'writing'. Maybe this is not what Marie Clay meant by her method, but it was sure the way it was put into practice at ground level, by inexperienced teachers. Any nay-sayers were dismissed. Clay was a psychologist and her mantra was 'it's all in the child' and that is what drove her work. Supposing she is wrong and it is not all in the child? What then? Putting theory into practice In college it sounded good. Until I was faced with a class of inner London children in 1991 and the Oxford Reading Tree Biff, Chip and Kipper books, and I realised that our utopic ideas were of no use. I had to use the scheme provided by the school and I had had no training in its use. Furthermore, the children in my charge had little literary experience before entering school. I was starting from rock-bottom - in year 1. My children had only started school in the preceding term. I tried - I honestly did. I wanted to make whole language methods work. I was convinced it was the right way. After one term I had to admit defeat. Yes, a few children were learning to read, but I was concerned about the rest - especially those whom I had quickly recognised as being potential remedial cases. These children were simply play reading: looking at the pictures and guessing what the text said. Sometimes they got it right, but in my mind this was not reading and I could not see how these children were ever going to make the necessary quantam leap into readership. Thankfully, the pressure for results was not as keen in those days as it is now, but I still felt acutely embarrassed by my lack of progress. Being young, I did not stop to think about asking the other teachers. I realised later, that had I have done so, I would not have found any better success. The Junior department had long given up hope of the infant children reaching their doors able to read. I expected chidlren to be able to read, whatever was put in front of them, whether there were pictures attached or not. Was that too much to ask? Later I learnt that some children learn to read despite the method being used: they find structure for themselves - but often cannot explain it - but you can see them applying it as they read. A solution I desperately looked for help and scoured the ads in the TES - a newspaper in those days. I found the advert for a phonics spelling scheme - a very simple approach that I could understand - no complicated language to learn. I began. The programme presumed that the children would know the sounds of the letters of the alphabet. I didn't know them myself. We learnt together. The children loved chanting 'AY says 'a', Bee say 'b' adding a new sound each day. And then the wonder as we started to build cvc words (though we didn't worry about calling them that). The children were so proud of their achievement. Better still I had parents of children with older siblings coming to me saying, 'What are you doing? My child is reading better than his older brother/sister,' or others new to the school 'He didn't get taught to read in his last school - this is amazing, he's making so much progress. ' The success was not just in reading - by the end of Year 1, these children, who had started at rock-bottom, were writing an A4 page of readable writing. The phonics programme had given them confidence to write - they enjoyed writing and they were blossoming. Meanwhile the head was ecstatic and decreed that phonics be used across the school. I was still young and rather bewildered, as I genuinely though that you sent your children to school to learn to read and yet - here were parents expressing surprise that I was teaching them to read! It is only with age that I have learnt the reasons why. Meanwhile, my mother had been sacked for trying to teach her class in inner London: she gave too much direction and she should have been letting the skills emerge. The result: 60 children in one classroom - aged 7, playing with sand and water all day with no direction from the teacher. This was the age of chronic teaching failure: thousands of children were used as guinea pigs for an experiment that failed them. Something had to change. These children are now in their 30's - an age group in which so many, I am finding, do not like to read, or consider themselves deficit in this area. These adults are now the parents of our primary children. The phonics battle Thankfully, while I was only just discovering phonics, others like Mona McNee, who had devised a phonic system of her own as schools had failed her Down’s Syndrome son, were busy campaigning for it to be brought back into schools. They faced a long hard battle and were very unpopular. Whole language experts accused them of just teaching 'decoding' without teaching meaning. For me, I found that as we decoded, we made sense of what we read. I didn't expect the children to decode words that were not in their vocabulary - not for a long time, at least. The children were delighted that they could read and it made sense to them. The decoding was a means to an end: as a word became familiar, it seemed to become a 'look and say' word and, over time, with a good reading scheme with a limited vocabulary, more and more words fell into this category. BUT, when they met a word they had not met before they did not have to guess - they had a sure-fire method of working it out - by themselves - without a picture to help. This must be reading. What good is context if you do not know what the individual words say? Does Phonics work? It depends what you are looking for. For me - it does the job perfectly. I have always found that where phonics fails, it is because the teacher has not studied the learner and matched the way of using phonics to the child. There are many ways of teaching with phonics - not all of them are helpful. Find a method that works, and make it work. Know your children inside out - individually - and tailor the method to the child - not the child to the method. Having taught children from Reception, right through to GCSE and beyond, and I can see the evidence. Children taught well by phonics leave the competition standing. The secret is in that little word ‘well’! Other posts you might like: How to teach phonics effectively How to: get the best from Letters and Sounds How to: help your Y1 class pass the phonics test
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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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