Phonics Training for Parents October 2017

What is phonics? Letter sounds – not letter names Government initiative Good phonics = good reading, writing and spelling. This is the term used for letter sounds rather than the alphabetical name. An initiative has been set up by the government to raise children’s phonological understanding. A good understanding of phonics enables children to blend sounds together for reading and then breaking them down for spelling.

We use an approach called Synthetic Phonics. Phonics for reading Children are taught to break down a word and say each phoneme (sound). Phonics for writing Children are taught to reverse this process, saying the word and segment the sounds Karen e.g. children are taught to break a 3 letter word down and pronounce each phoneme (sound) for each letter in turn, i.e. ‘cat’ would be broken down into C-a-t. Synthetic phonics for writing is the reverse of the sequence Children are taught to say a word they wish to write, segment it into its phonemes and say them in turn, e.g. d-o-g. the children would write a grapheme (letter) for each of the phonemes heard and then produce the written word ‘dog’.

The Phonic Alphabet The English language has 44 phonemes They should be taught to write each letter, forming it accurately. Children are taught to produce the sounds as shortly as possible, e.g no ‘uh’ on the end of ‘d’ and ‘g’. Duncan British spoken English is generally reckoned to use 44 sounds or ‘phonemes’. Technically a phoneme is the smallest unit of sound that can make a difference to a meaning of a word. 20 of these are vowel sounds and 24 are consonant sounds.

Enunciation Teaching phonics requires a technical skill in enunciation Phonemes should be articulated clearly and precisely. Demonstration – what skills do you need to write the word cat ? Lisa

Jolly Phonics Each sound is supported by a story, a song and an action. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybiJTZNLvTI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjKq8s8154s Karen One of our support materials we use in school is called Jolly Phonics. We will share with you some of the actions to support the sounds.

Letters and Sounds 6 phases Phase 1-listening to sounds Phase 2 and beyond- introducing the phonemes. Duncan New Letters and Sounds document is split into 6 phases.

Phase 1:Good listening skills Speaking and listening skills (games) Rhyme – Willoughby Wallaby Woo! Alliteration – Fabulous Fred or Zippy Zoe! Duncan The development of speaking and listening skills Listening games Rhyme etc Alliteration- Silly Sally slipped on a slippery snake.

Other teaching techniques Alphablocks – use the cbeebies website, or BBCiplayer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0TDJbQdEUM

Phase 1 outcomes: They may be able to distinguish between speech sounds. Many - blend and segment orally Some - recognise words that rhyme and be able to provide a string of rhyming words e.g cat, bat, sat Duncan Children will have expereinced a wealth of listening activbities, including songs, stories and rhymes. Ways to support your child in the phonics pack you’ll be receiving later.

Letters and Sounds: Phase 2 19 phonemes and graphemes Blend and segment Tricky words Lisa We introduce the 1st 19 phonemes and their matching graphemes. Phonic time 4 times a week where we introduce and practise phonic activities-reading, writing etc

Letters and Sounds: Phase 3 Next 25 graphemes Middle vowel phonemes e.g rain will be segmented into r-ai-n . Duncan Introduce another 25 graphemes Move onto harder middle vowel phonemes for e.g. ‘light’ the children are taught ‘I’ sound is represented by the letters ‘igh’ in the middle of words. They are then taught alternative ‘I’ spellings in phase 5, e.g. ‘ie’ (tie) and ‘i-e’ (like).

Expectations Phase 1: majority of children will be confident and achieved this level by the end of Nursery. Most should leave Reception having achieved Phase 3 Reading and writing independently Confident readers and writers Karen

Reading Your child will read at least once a week with an adult at school You should read each book at least 3 times (Once for decoding; twice for fluency and the third time for comprehension). Any reading that you do at home should be logged in the reading diary. In the summer term the children may be given two books to take home, depending on their reading ability. Karen

Words We have a set of the phase 2 and 3 tricky words for you to take home. Practise with your child regularly as this will aide their reading and writing skills. Try to make this as fun as possible! Record this in the reading diary. We incorporate these words into our Phonics sessions. Karen

How to help at home Use the pack we provide with you today- stick the sound mats up on the fridge! Practise isolated sounds at home – possibly display them on the fridge? Challenge the children to find objects that begin with a certain sound. Play ‘I Spy’ with phonemes not letter names. Practise letter formation. Play rhyming bingo, lotto and extend rhyming strings. Play games with word cards. Make sentences with word cards. Duncan

MANY THANKS TO YOU ALL! Any questions?