PHONICS

What is a phonic approach to reading?

What is phonics? Definition

Phonics is a method of teaching beginners to read and pronounce words by learning to associate letters or letter groups with the sounds they represent.

The Role of Phonics in the Teaching of Reading: A Houghton Mifflin Position Paper by Dr. John J. Pikulski

Houghton Mifflin's newly published program, Invitations to Literacy: Phonics is an essential part of a comprehensive approach to the teaching of reading.

Phonics instruction - explicit and direct; incidental and opportunistic approaches to developing phonics are less effective. Phonics instruction must be meaningful, lively, and engaging; phonics should not be equated with repetitious drill or the mindless completion of worksheets.

 When your child is learning to read there are two crucial things to learn: 1. the sounds represented by written letters 2. how to blend the sounds together to make words. Synthetic Phonics is a way of teaching reading.

Explanation

WHY PHONICS?

 Taught in a structured way starting with the easiest sounds Progressing to the most complex Helpful for children aged 57.

 Learn the skills they need to tackle new words. Read any kind of text fluently and confidently, and to read for enjoyment. Tend to read more accurately.

How to teach?
Teaching how sounds match with letters is likely to start with individual letters such as s, a and t and then will move on to two-letter sounds such as ee, ch and ck. encourage your child to sound out unfamiliar words and then blend the sounds together from left to right talk about what it means and help him or her to follow the story. Books with the right level of phonics for your child. Often called decodable readers which made up of the words that have letters your child has learnt. Encourage your child to blend the sounds all the way through a word.

 Children are taught to read letters or groups of letters by saying the sound(s) they represent so, they are taught that the letter l sounds like llllll when we say it. Children can then start to read words by blending (synthesising) the sounds together to make a word. At school, you will probably hear teachers talking about blending, but you might also hear them refer to sounding out or Fred Talk too, depending on which phonic scheme your childs school is using. All these terms focus on the same point synthesising sounds.

ACTIVITIES

HOT TIPS
Saying sounds correctly Linking sounds to letters Sounds represented by more than one letter Practise, practise, practise Putting sounds together to read simple words

Hot Tips
Tricky words Reading books Using pictures Writing letters Common sense ... Lots and lots of books! Praise and hugs!

Reference
http://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/Question/Index/10 http://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/Phonics/phonics.html?i d=ae http://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/Phonics/phonics.html?i d=ws https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderi ngDownload/learning%20to%20read%20through%2 0phonics%20-%20information%20for%20parents.pdf