Teaching+Phonics

__ Understanding and Teaching Phonics __ When teaching phonics we are introducing an ability to hear and identify the sound letter relationships that are used in both reading and writing. An important step in teaching phonics is to encourage the students to investigate and explore, as some sound letter relationships are not always the same. Knowing these sound letter relationships helps the student identify words that sometimes don’t have the same sound, for the ‘c’ in cat sounds different to the ‘c’ in cent. Sound letter relationships are formed by the child sounding out single letters or a combination of letters. We as teachers show our students the relationships between sounds and letters that are used in words and then they take that information apply it when figuring out words in either their reading or writing. Phonics can be broken down into a number of different terms which consist of the Alphabetical principle, Morphology, Phonemes, Phonemic awareness, Phonics, Phonological awareness, Phonology and spelling (Hill, 2006, p.210). There are 5 stages which make up the content of phonics. __Stage 1 – The letters of the alphabet__ In the beginning students are taught the English alphabet which contains 26 letters that represents 44 sounds or phonemes (Hill, 2006, p. 208). The letters are then broken into consonants and vowels that function differently in different parts of words. For example, with the letter ‘g’ it has a soft sound when representing gym or gem but then it has a hard sound when representing gate or gut (Hill, 2006, p.213). There are also 5 vowels which are harder to work out than the consonants. __ Stage 2 – Onset and rime word families  __ This is where you break the word up into onsets, which is the start of the word or a consonant and rime, which is the ending of the word. For example K being the onset and IND been the rime, which then becomes KIND. You could also then change the K for the letter M. Children find it easier to learn this way than trying to sound out individual phonemes. __ Stage 3 – Blends  __ This is when the letters are combined in twos or threes at the beginning, the end or in the middle. Phase 1 sees a combination of the initial 2 letters, phase 2 sees the 2 final letters combined and phase 3 sees a combination of 3 letters together. For example __bl__ack, bu__lb__, pro__mpt__ and fru__str__ate. __Stage 4 – Digraphs and other letter combinations__ This is when two letters are used together to produce one sound. They can be a combination of 2 vowels or 2 consonants. For example ‘oo’ can be used together to produce the word boot (Hill, 2006, p.220). __ Stage 5 – Structural analysis  __ This sees the children making changes to a base word. It demonstrates how syllables can be found in words for example hap pen, sud den. There is also the use of contractions which sees two words combined and an apostrophe being inserted where a letter has been taken out. For example it is would become it’s. Compound words are also being formed and this is done by adding to words together to make a new word. For example the word some and thing could be used to become something (Hill, 2006, p.223). When teaching phonics a number of different approaches can be taken some include VAKT phonics which is visual, auditory, kinaesthetic and tactile senses. This looks at the individual letters and sounds. Another is word study which sees the teaching of the spelling of the word (Hornsby, Sukarna, Parry, 1990, p.101). Another is making words which show the students in a hands on activity how to look for patterns in words. Phonics is taught in many different ways whether it is through guided reading and writing or modeled reading and writing. The objective for teachers is to support the children in understanding how phonics is an integral part when reading or writing unknown words. I have included links to some websites that would be helpful for teaching [|Teaching Phonics]