Phonics Information Spring 2017

Overview What is phonics? Phase 2-6 Segmenting Blending Process of a phonics lesson Phonics Screening How you can help

What is phonics? Letters & Sounds There are 44 phonemes (smallest units of sound) in the English language. Phonics helps to identify the sound that each letter makes to be able to read and write. How do you say them? http://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/resources/sound-pronunciation-guide/

Phase 2 - 5

Phase 2 - 5

Set 1: s, a, t, p Set 2: i, n, m, d Set 3: g, o, c, k Phase 2 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

Phase 3 Set 6: j, v, w, x Set 7: y, z, zz, qu Consonant digraphs: (A digraph is 2 letters that make a sound) ch, sh, th, ng Vowel digraphs: ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar, or, ur, ow, oi, ear, air, ure, er

Phase 4 This phase consolidates all the children have learnt in the previous phases.

Phase 5 Children will be taught new graphemes and alternative pronunciations for these graphemes. (A grapheme is the way a sound is written) Vowel digraphs: wh, ph, ay, ou, ie, ea, oy, ir, ue, aw, ew, oe, au Split digraphs: a-e, e-e, i-e, o-e, u-e

Phase 6 The focus is on learning spelling rules for suffixes. -s -es -ing -ed -er -est -y -en -ful -ly -ment -ness

Segmenting and Blending Segmenting – is breaking up a word that is spoken aloud or read, into phonemes (sounds). This skill supports spelling. Blending – is putting the phonemes together to say or read a word. This skill supports reading.

Segmenting Breaking down words for spelling. cat c a t

Segmenting queen qu ee n

Building words from phonemes to read. Blending Building words from phonemes to read. c a t cat

What does a phonics lesson look like?

Year 1 Phonics Screening The children will be asked to ‘sound out’ a word and blend the sounds together. e.g. d-o-g – dog The check will consist of 40 words and non-words; Children will be told if the word is a real or ‘alien’ word, with a corresponding alien image.

What will the children do? Every Year 1 child in the country will be taking the statutory phonics screening check in the same week. The focus of the check is to provide evidence of children’s decoding and blending skills, not to test their comprhension.

What will the children do? Children will be asked to ‘sound out’ a word and blend the sounds together.eg d-o-g - dog The focus of the check is to see which sounds the children know. They will prove this by reading some real and some made up ‘nonsense’ words. THIS IS NOT A READING TEST

Word Examples

How will it be administered? Teachers will conduct all of the screening checks with the children; The children will complete the check one to one in a quiet area of the school; It can be done in ‘one go’ or in shorter ‘bites’; We are not permitted to indicate to the children at the time whether they have correctly sounded out and blended the word.

Results Robins will be scored against a national standard (threshold yet to be determined by DfE) Last year the pass rate was 32 out of 40 In the summer, we will inform you whether your child has reached this standard or is yet to reach the standard. If your child’s score falls below the national standard they are required to re-take the Phonics Screening Check in Year 2.

When will it happen? The screening (challenge!) will take place throughout the week beginning: Monday 12th June

How can you help? Encourage them to use their phonics skills when reading. Children can practise their phonics by playing games online. The children particularly like - * Buried Treasure * Picnic on Pluto

How can you help? Encourage your child to ‘sound out’ when reading or writing. Focusing particularly on spotting more unusual sound patterns. Eg Digraph- 2 letters making one sound cow - ow Trigraphs- 3 letters making one sound Night - igh Split digraphs- 2 vowels with a consonant in between. Used to be known as the magic e! spine - i-_e

How can you help? REMEMBER: Phonics is not the only way you become a good reader. Continue to read with your child each night and encourage them to: Sound out, re-read to check it makes sense, and use pictures for clues. Ask questions about the book; And most importantly ENJOY READING!

Useful Definitions PHONEME - smallest unit of sound GRAPHEME - written representation of the sound DIGRAPH - two letters making one sound e.g ee TRIGRAPH - three letters making one sound e.g igh SPLIT DIGRAPH - where two letters are not adjacent e.g a-e as in make

Questions?