Phonics Workshop How to support your child’s

reading and writing.Thorpe Lea Primary School and Nursery

Monday 21st September 2015Rachel McRae – Early Years Leader

Aims• To develop knowledge and confidence of supporting your child’s

phonetic understanding.

• To have a clear understanding of the terminology related to the teaching of phonics.

• To explore some activities you can use at home to support your child.

Phonics – Developmental Phases

• Phase 1 – developing phonological awareness• Phase 2 – introduction of some phoneme/grapheme correspondence• Phase 3 – one grapheme for each of 44 phonemes• Phase 4 – adjacent consonants• Phase 5 – alternative pronunciation and spellings• Phase 6 – Support for spelling/spelling rules

TerminologyPhoneme – the smallest unit of sound in a wordGrapheme – a letter or sequence of letters that represent a phoneme.

1 2 3

c a t

b ir d

f i sh

kn igh t

These words each have three phonemes (separate sounds). Each of these phonemes is represented by a grapheme. A grapheme may consist of one, two, three or four letters.

Oral blending: Hearing a series of spoken sounds (phonemes) and merging them together to make a spoken word. No text is used.For example, when a teacher calls out ‘b-u-s or c-r-ay-o-n, the children say ‘bus’ or ‘crayon’.

Terminology

Blending • Merging the individual phonemes

together to pronounce a word.• To read unfamiliar words a child must

recognise (sound out) each grapheme, not each letter, then merge the phonemes together to make a word.

Segmentation • Hear and say the individual phonemes

within a word.• In order to spell, children need to

segment a word into its component phonemes and choose a grapheme to represent each phoneme.

TerminologyDigraph:Two letters which make one sound (phoneme) such as: ee oo aiTrigraph:

Three letters, which make one sound (phoneme) such as:

igh dge ear

Teaching phonics - enunciation

• When teaching and supporting phonics it is vital that phonemes are articulated clearly and precisely.

Phase One

• Environmental Sounds• Instrumental Sounds• Body Percussion• Rhythm and Rhyme• Alliteration• Voice Sounds• Oral Blending and Segmenting(see attached sheet)

By the end of Phase 2 children should:• Be able to give the sound when shown, any Phase 2 letter: s,

a, t, p, i, n (19 sounds).

• Be able to orally blend and segment CVC words

• Be able to read the five tricky words: the, to, I, no, go

Strategies at home

• Sound buttons• Initial sounds• Toy talk• Phonic games• Sudo words• Shopping lists, postcards, letters, treasure maps

Phase Three

• Completes the teaching of the alphabet

• Introduces the children to a further 25 graphemes mostly compromising of 2 letters

• To learn one representation for each of the 44 phonemes

Homework files and Phonic Support• Phonic Workbook• Phonic pack• Reading diaries and books• Homework• Wow cards• Reading Eggs