Phonics
What is phonics?
When children are first learning to read, they need to know the letter sounds rather than the Alphabet names. This is because if you try to read a word using Alphabet names, it doesn’t work.
E.g. ‘cat’ If you say the alphabet names, C A T, it sounds like “see ay tee” and not sound like the word ‘cat’. We teach children to say the sounds “c- a –t” quickly and then blend them together to make ‘cat’. The children are taught a variety of sounds and then taught to blend to read them. The process which is used to teach them is called phonics.
How we teach it.
We teach phonics daily for 20 minutes per day across the school. The children are taught in ability groups across the key stages. We use programmes called Jolly Phonics in nursery and reception and Phonics Bug in key stage 1. Both run alongside Letters and Sound across the school which teach children new sounds and key words at a quick and rapid rate. During each session the children review previous taught sounds/words, are introduced to a new one and taught to apply the new sound/words to reading and writing through a range of engaging activities. The skills the children are taught in these sessions are applied throughout the curriculum. The children are regularly assessed and monitored in phonics and this is used to inform the planning.
At the end of year one all children will take a Phonic Screening Test. This will assess the children’s understanding of the sounds they are taught and how they use them to read words. If they do not reach the expected level they will retake it again in year two. Family Learning tasks and parents evenings are organised throughout the year to support parents and children at home.
Below are some links to help you help your child at home.
If you are unsure on how the sounds are pronounced then this link with help you. Copy and paste it into your browser.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-eTO8L3t40
Useful webpages
http://www.letters-and-sounds.com
http://www.phonicsplay.co.uk
http://www.ictgames.com/literacy.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks1/literacy/phonics/play
The Terminology
Phoneme
A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a word It is generally accepted that most varieties of spoken English use about 44 phonemes.
Grapheme
A grapheme is a symbol of a phoneme. It is a letter or group of letters representing a sound.
Segmenting and blending
Segmenting consists of breaking words down into phonemes to spell. Blending consists of building words from phonemes to read. Both skills are important.
Digraph
This is when two letters come together to make a phoneme. For example, /oa/ makes the sound in ‘boat’ and is also known as a vowel digraph. There are also consonant digraphs, for example, /sh/ and /ch/.
Trigraph
This is when three letters come together to make one phoneme, for example /igh/.
Split digraph
A digraph in which the two letters are not adjacent – e.g. make
Abbreviations
VC, CVC, and CCVC are the respective abbreviations for vowel-consonant, consonantvowel-consonant, consonant-consonant-vowel-consonant, and are used to describe the order of graphemes in words (e.g. am (VC), Sam (CVC), slam (CCVC), or each (VC), beach (CVC), bleach (CCVC).
How it works
Phase 1
Phase One of ‘Letters and Sounds’ concentrates on developing children's speaking and listening skills and lays the foundations for the phonic work which starts in Phase 2. The emphasis during Phase 1 is to get children attuned to the sounds around them and ready to begin developing oral blending and segmenting skills. Phase 1 is divided into seven aspects.
Each aspect contains three strands:
* Tuning in to sounds (auditory discrimination)
* Listening and remembering sounds (auditory memory and sequencing)
* Talking about sounds (developing vocabulary and language comprehension)
Phase 2
In Phase 2, letters and their sounds are introduced one at a time. A set of letters is taught each week, in the following sequence:
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
The children will begin to learn to blend and segment to help begin reading and spelling. This will begin with simple words.
Words using set 1:
at sat pat sat sap
Words using set 1 and 2:
(+i) |
(+n) |
(+m) |
(+d) |
it is sit pit pip sip tip |
an in nip pan pin tan nap tin |
am man mat map Pam Tim Sam |
dad sad dim din did Sid and dip
|
Words using set 1-3:
(+g) |
(+o) |
(+c) |
(+k) |
tag gag gig gap nag sag gas pig dig |
got on not pot top dog tot pop mog |
can cot cop cap cat cod |
kid kit Kim Ken |
Words using set 1-4:
(+ck) |
(+e) |
(+u) |
(+r) |
kick sock sack dock pick sick pack tuck |
get pet ten net pen peg met men |
up mum run mug cup sun mud |
rim rip ram rat rag rug rot |
Words using set 1-5:
(+h) |
(+b) |
(+f and ff) |
(+l and ll) |
(+ss) |
had him his hot hut hop hum hit hat has hack |
but big back bet bad bag bed bud beg bug bun |
of if off fit fin fun fig fog puff huff cuff |
lap let leg lot lit bell fill doll tell sell Bill |
less hiss mass mess boss fuss hiss pass kiss Tess |
Alongside this, children are introduced to tricky words. These are the words that are irregular. This means that phonics cannot be applied to the reading and spelling of these words.
The tricky words introduced in phase 2 are:
to |
the |
no |
go |
I |
Phase 3
By the time children reach Phase 3, they will already be able to blend and segment words
containing the 19 letters taught in Phase 2. Over the twelve weeks which Phase 3 is expected
to last, twenty-five new graphemes are introduced (one at a time).
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
Sounds |
Word example |
j |
jam |
v |
vet |
w |
win |
x |
box |
y |
yes |
z |
zip |
zz |
buzz |
qu |
quick |
ch |
chop |
Sounds |
Word example |
oo (short) |
cook |
ow |
now |
ar |
star |
air |
hair |
ear |
hear |
er |
term |
ur |
curl |
or |
fork |
ure |
pure |
|
|
Tricky words:
we |
me |
be |
was |
no |
go |
my |
you |
they |
her |
all |
are |
Phase 4
By Phase 4, children will be able to represent each of 42 phonemes with a grapheme. They will blend phonemes to read CVC words and segment CVC words for spelling. They will also be able to read two syllable words that are simple. They will be able to read all the tricky words learnt so far and will be able to spell some of them. This phase consolidates all the children have learnt in the previous phases
Tricky words:
said |
so |
she |
he |
have |
like |
some |
come |
were |
there |
little |
one |
they |
all |
are |
do |
when |
out |
what |
my |
her |
|
|
|
Phase 5
Children will be taught new graphemes and alternative pronunciations for these graphemes, as well as graphemes they already know. They will begin to learn to choose the appropriate grapheme when spelling.
New graphemes for reading:
Sound |
Word example |
|
Sound |
Word example |
|
Sound |
Word example |
|
Sound |
Word example |
ay |
day |
|
oy |
boy |
|
wh |
when |
|
a_e |
make |
ou |
out |
|
ir |
girl |
|
ph |
photo |
|
e_e |
these |
ie |
tie |
|
ue |
blue |
|
ew |
new |
|
i_e |
like |
ea |
eat |
|
aw |
saw |
|
oe |
toe |
|
o_e |
home |
|
au |
Paul |
|
u_e |
rule |
Tricky words:
oh |
their |
people |
Mr |
Mrs |
looked |
called |
asked |
water |
where |
who |
again |
thought |
through |
work |
mouse |
many |
laughed |
because |
different |
any |
eyes |
friends |
once |
please |
|
|
|
|
|
Phase 6
In phase 6, the focus is on learning spelling rules for word endings (these are known as suffixes). The children will learn how words change when you add certain letters. There are 12 different suffixes taught:
-s -es -ing -ed
-er -est -y -en
-ful -ly -ment -ness