An introduction to the
teaching of Phonics
Holmes Chapel Primary School – 2014
Phonics
The link between sounds and
how we write them.
• Phoneme = sound e.g. ‘e’
• Grapheme = way we write
the sound e.g. /ee/
• e.g. cheek
Digraphs/Trigraphs
• 2 letters to make 1 sound e.g. ch
• 3 letters to make 1 sound e.g. igh
Split digraph
• 2 letters to make 1 sound but
either side of a letter, e.g. make
& take where a_e makes the
sound.
How many phonemes?
in cat light crash street
in
2 phonemes
i-n
cat
3 phonemes
c-a-t
light
3 phonemes
l-igh-t
crash
4 phonemes
c-r-a-sh
street
5 phonemes
s-t-r-ee-t
Don’t add “uh”
• Avoid adding ‘uh’ to letter sounds – it makes it
hard for the children to blend and segment.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J2Ddf_0
Om8
Blending
• Putting sounds together to speak the
word.
Segmenting
• Separating the sounds to write the word.
Nonsense words
Robot talk
•
•
•
•
•
•
Talk like a robot to segment sounds:
h-ea-d
Count the
ar-m
sounds on your
b-r-ea-k
fingers
s-p-l-a-sh
b-l-ue
Alternative Spellings
• When children learn more than one way of
writing each grapheme they will need to use
letter names for spelling.
e.g. street and stream
High Frequency Words
• Decodable:
–had, see, but
• Tricky (not easy to decode):
–the, go, was
Daily Phonics
• Every day – 11:35 – 12:00
• Assess at the end of each half term.
• Children taught in ability groups, which
may include children from other year
groups.
• End of Year 1 Phonics screening – results
reported to parents and DfE (w.c. 16/06/14)
Reception
• Learn single letter graphemes plus ss ck, ff, ll,
ss
• Orally blend and segment CVC words (CVC =
consonant vowel consonant e.g.. cat)
• Read and spell VC words (e.g. if, up)
• Be able to read some tricky words, e.g. the, to,
I, no, go.
The next steps
•
•
•
•
•
Learn two letter and long vowel phonemes
Read and write CVC words
Be able to read more tricky words
Learn the names of letters
Write each letter correctly following a model
The next step, usually Year 1
• Use split digraphs (a_e as in cake for example)
and different ways to spell phonemes.
• read and spell some two and three syllable words
• read automatically all words in the 100 high
frequency list
• spell the words in the 100 high frequency list
• form each letter correctly
• Know some alternative spellings
The next step, usually Year 2
• Apply phonic skills
• Consolidate alternative spellings
• Recognise and spell increasingly complex
words
• Develop an understanding of spelling rules
• Use the past, present and future tense
Activities to reinforce learning
• Word games - verbal (e.g. Phonic “I spy”,
finding rhyming words)
• Hand movements from Jolly Phonics
• Robot talk - with or without fingers to count
sounds
• Phoneme flash cards - phonemes to learn and
to put together to make words
Activities to reinforce learning
• Objects/pictures and list of words - can they
match them?
• Key word snap - make 2 cards for each word
• Speed write - how many can you do in the
given time?
• Board/card games
• Computer games - VLE
Useful Websites
• Phonics Play
www.phonicsplay.co.uk
• ICT games
www.ictgames.com/literacy.html
• BBC
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/phonics/
• Communication 4 all – useful charts
www.communication4all.co.uk/http/PhonicsWeb.htm