How Do You Teach Phonics?

How do you teach phonics?

I am one of those teachers who has never really had to teach phonics widely in class. That job was mostly done by those wonderful teachers in Key Stage 1 (K-1). As a Key Stage 2 (2-5) teacher, I only had occasion to teach letters and sounds to children who had missed out for some reason, or who had additional needs. As such, I was not well versed in using phonics programmes, although I had been trained in various methods and programmes until it was coming out of my ears...

All that changed dramatically four weeks ago when I started my new job. As I travelled around schools in the area assessing children's English language ability, I quickly discovered that all of them - even those who were fluent English speakers - had gaps in their phonic knowledge which meant that it was going to be difficult for them to decode and spell unfamiliar words. As such, I have spent the last four weeks giving crash courses in basic phonic to around 100 children...

It's been great! I am having a ball! But I'm also a bit frustrated. Read on to find out why.

There are lots of really worthwhile phonics programmes on the market. I don't know what you have in the US, but over here lots of schools use Jolly Phonics or Letters and Sounds. Letterland was a great scheme for introducing the alphabet and basic sounds, but not digraphs or split digraphs. Some schools use POPAT. They are all very similar. Over the last two years or so, I have been using a scheme called "Read, Write, Inc". I must admit I was sceptical at first, but having used it successfully at a number of schools. I am a convert. Don't get me wrong, I am not on commission for promoting it or anything, but I thought you might like to know what goes down well over here.

                  

The scheme is suitable for all children, from beginners to phonics right up to those who are proficient and need practice with reading comprehension and writing. As I prefer the freedom to be creative with reading and writing in the classroom, I tend to just use RWI's phonics elements. The programme begins by introducing the first set of speed sounds - the basic 31 sounds. Interesting and colourful books support learning as the sounds are introduced. Once the children are secure with set 1 sounds, sets 2 and 3 are introduced - digraph blends such as -ay, -ee, er etc. As the children read through the books (which get progressively more difficult as they become more familiar with the groups of sounds), they encounter different ways of making the same sounds (eg -air, are etc). There are also "Green Words" and "Red Words" words which can be sounded and blended conventionally, and words which are irregular and have to be learned. The scheme is great fun and the children absolutely love it. I have seen some resources on Amazon if anyone would like to give it a go.

            

So I decided to give it a try with my EAL children. All of them. Even those who could speak English fluently. I found loads of fantastic resources on TPT and TN for teaching phonics, but they were all tailored to teaching phonics to children who have English as their first language. Children who start school with English as their first language know, for example, what a map is, so when they sound out and blend, they have a picture in their heads that they can associate with that word for ever and a day. Not so with EAL (ESL) children who are new to English. They do not know what the word "map" means or what a mug looks like, so they sound and blend in a totally meaningless vacuum. It falls on me to try to illuminate the poor mites, and as I don't speak Polish or Portuguese or Tagalog, I have to resort to acting. Believe me, my miming skills are second to none....! Hence my reason for being frustrated.

We all know that EAL children need visual prompts. Wouldn't life be so much easier if everything came with a picture cards..? So last night I decided enough was enough!. I sat down and started to design something to complement the RWI programme that would help my EAL children to understand what on earth it was that they were spelling out and blending. I came up with this:

It's called "Monster Match" and is based on the first 5 Set 1 sounds - M A S D and T. Top of my summer bucket list is to produce one of these for each group of Set 1 sounds, a resource for Set 2 and 3 digraphe blends, and sentence strips to reinforce learning. After introducing the sounds, children use the cards to build CVC words. Blend the sounds using the sound buttons (one sound) and dashes (digraphe blend) and say the word. Then - and this is the useful part for my EAL kids - match the word to the picture.


Initial sound sorting cards



 

Picture cards
















Picture cards

                                                                                                     

The first set is free, so pop along to my TN or TPT stores to download your copy now.

Happy Sunday!



It's here - the dreaded interview. Dun dun dahhhhh

I've been awake all night. Partly due to the horrendously stormy weather outside - it's shaken the house to the core, the contents of the recycling bin have blown around the garden and the cover has flown off the patio furniture. It's all very Wizard of Oz!

But I've been awake for another reason. In my semi-conscious state I've been teaching all night! I do that when I'm feeling a bit stressed. It's my interview today.

Now I don't normally mind interviews - I always look at unpleasant things in terms of moments out of my life, the present that all too soon becomes the past. And what can they do to me anyway - shoot me?

But this one is slightly different. Those of you who followed my earlier ramblings will recall it's for a specialist post. I'll be teaching language to children with little or no English. Don't get me wrong, I love this kind of work, but when I applied for the job the advert failed to mention that I would be teaching secondary (middle) students...

I'm sure it will be fine - I managed to get an interview so they must think I have something to offer. But I've been stressing over teaching the sample lesson. I know it's an artificial environment that's been created just for interview purposes, but there are so many unknowns, like how many kids, what are their ability levels, what does the interview panel want to see?

I decided to approach it in the same way that I teach languages - after all, that's what got me the interview in the first place. The lesson is on tenses, and there we have problems of a different nature:

• I am a strong believer in teaching languages in a fun, accessible way, not by sitting children down and overtly preaching grammar at them.
• tenses is a huge area - how can you do a decent lesson with teacher input and independent/group work in 30 minutes...?
• how do you explain to children what past, present and future is when they have little grip on the target language?

I know I have to keep it simple - after all, 30 minutes won't change the world. I finally settled on the verb "to be". I am going to TRY to set the scene with flashcards (bilingual and visual), then follow it up by modelling "is", "was" and "will be" through a mini weather report. I will get the children to use actions to help consolidate their understanding, then model how each tense is written. They will then have a mini activity to complete using picture prompts and word flashcards. I am crossing my fingers that this will work....

In researching and preparing my lesson I discovered that there was very little out there to help, so I will make my resources available here for anyone who might find themselves in a similar position.

I'll be sure to let you know how it all goes....

Have a good day y'all