Phonics

These slides are available on our school website (www. barnfieldschool These slides are available on our school website (www.barnfieldschool.co.uk):

“The biggest single indicator of whether a child is going to be successful at school and in work is whether or not they read for pleasure.” UNESCO

We love reading! Being able to read is the most important skill children will learn during their early schooling and has far-reaching implications for lifelong confidence and well-being. Shared reading Guided reading 1:1 reading with an adult Silent reading after lunch (from Year 1 upwards) Reading in the library Story time at the end of the day

The Rose Review The independent review of early reading conducted by Jim Rose confirmed that ‘high quality phonic work’ should be the prime means for teaching children how to read and spell words. The review also highlighted the importance of developing, from the earliest stages, children’s speaking and listening skills – ensuring that beginner readers are ready to get off to a good start in phonic work by the age of 5.

What is phonics? Phonics consists of: Knowledge of the skills of segmenting and blending Knowledge of the alphabetic code An understanding of the way the code is used in reading and spelling. At Barnfield, phonics is taught every day in the Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1.

Letters and Sounds The “Letters and Sounds” programme supports the teaching of how the alphabet works for reading and spelling. It can be downloaded from https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/190599/Letters_and_Sounds_-_DFES-00281-2007.pdf

Phonemes and Graphemes A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a word. Most varieties of spoken English use about 44 phonemes. In English, phonemes are represented by graphemes. A grapheme is a symbol of a phoneme. It is a letter or group of letters representing a sound. Examples of graphemes are “t” (tap), “sh” (shop) and “air” (hair). The alphabet consists of only 26 letters but we use it to make all the graphemes that represent the phonemes of English.

Phonemes and Graphemes These words each have three phonemes (separate sounds). Each of these phonemes is represented by a grapheme.

Grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) We convert graphemes to phonemes when we are reading aloud. We convert phonemes to graphemes when we are spelling. To do this, children need to learn which graphemes correspond to which phonemes and vice versa. In order to read an unfamiliar word, a child must recognise (“sound out”) each grapheme, not each letter (e.g. r-ai-n not r-a-i-n), and then blend the phonemes together to make a word.

Segmenting and blending Segmenting – Breaking words down into their phonemes, in order to spell them, e.g. cup → c-u-p. Blending - Building words from their phonemes, in order to read them, e.g. c-u-p → cup.

Digraphs and trigraphs (and four-letter graphemes) A digraph is a two-letter grapheme where two letters represent one phoneme (e.g. “ea” in bead and “oo” in book). A split digraph has a letter that splits the two letters in the digraph (e.g. “a-e” in snake and “i-e” in slide). A trigraph is a three-letter grapheme where three letters represent one phoneme (e.g. “ear” in beard and “air” in chair). A four letter grapheme uses four letters to represent one phoneme (e.g. “eigh” in weight).

Letters and Sounds – Phase 1 Phase 1 helps develop children’s speaking and listening skills. The more words children know and understand before they start systematic phonics, the better. There are seven different strands of activities: General sound discrimination – environmental sounds General sound discrimination – instrumental sounds General sound discrimination – body percussion Rhythm and rhyme Alliteration Voice sounds Oral blending and discrimination Children practise tuning into sounds, listening and remembering sounds, and talking about sounds.

Letters and Sounds – Phase 2 In Phase 2, children are taught 19 letters. Children are moved on from orally blending and segmenting words, to blending and segmenting with letters. Children practise reading vowel-consonant (VC) words (e.g. at, it) and consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words (e.g. cat, sun). They begin to read two-syllable words (e.g. rabbit) and simple captions (e.g. a run in the sun). They also learn to read some high-frequency “tricky” words: the, to, go, no, I.

Letters and Sounds – Phase 3 In Phase 3, another 25 graphemes are taught (look at your child’s “sound mat”!). Children continue to practise blending and segmenting words (e.g. feet, light, soil). They begin to read and spell simple two-syllable words (e.g. farmyard, dinner) and captions (e.g. boats on the river). They learn more “tricky” words, e.g. he, she, we, me, be, was, my, you, they, her, all, are.

Letters and Sounds – Phase 4 In Phase 4, children practise reading and spelling words with adjacent consonants (e.g. crisp, paint) and polysyllabic words (e.g. windmill, sandwich, printer). They practise reading sentences (e.g. We had sandwiches for a snack.). They learn more “tricky” words, e.g. said, so, have, like, some, come, were, there, little, one, do, when, out, what.

Letters and Sounds – Phase 5 In Phase 5, children learn new graphemes and alternative pronunciations for graphemes they know (e.g. “ow” is pronounced differently in cow and grow). Look at your child’s “sound mat”! They practise reading sentences (e.g. Cows and sheep may graze in a meadow.). They learn more “tricky” words, e.g. 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. Children should be able to read phase 5 words by the end of Year 1 (e.g. replied, statue, monkey, show, bread, crunchy, school, knight, cheer, world, etc).

Letters and Sounds – Phase 6 In Phase 6, children become fluent readers and increasingly accurate spellers. Spelling strategies are taught (e.g. suffixes such as “ed” in helped).

Phonics session structure Revisit and review Teach Practise Apply An example lesson…

Year 1 Phonics Screening Check In June, all Year 1 children undertake a statutory phonics check. The paper is carried out 1:1, with a familiar teacher. Children read 40 words (20 real words and 20 pseudowords). Past examples can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-curriculum-assessments-practice-materials#phonics-screening-check-resources

Useful websites Espresso – www.espresso.lgfl.net (use your child’s log-in card) BBC Phonics - http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks1/literacy/phonics/play/ PhonicsPlay - http://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/freeIndex.htm

Remember… Phonics is the step up to word recognition. Automatic reading of words is the ultimate goal.

Thank you for coming today!