Synthetic Phonics

1. Synthetic Phonics • Objectives: • To understand how the Primary Framework for Literacy has changed in regard to teaching phonics and spelling. • To understand the teaching strategies that make up a synthetic phonics programme.

2. Why has the teaching of phonics become an issue? • In June 2005 Jim Rose was asked to undertake a review of teaching reading in Early Years settings. • The final report was published in March 2006 and is based three main sources of information: the findings of research and inspection; wide- ranging consultation, including practitioners, teachers, trainers, resource providers and policy makers, and visits to settings, schools and training events. • The report has heavily influenced the objectives and teaching strategies found in the New Primary Framework for Literacy.

3. The Rose Report and the Primary Framework. • The Rose Report not only affects the teaching of phonics in Early Years and KS1 but it has had a “knock on” effect for the teaching of spelling in KS2. • The New Primary Framework for Literacy has higher expectations for phonics and spelling in each year group.

4. What is Synthetic Phonics Synthetic phonics is the systematic teaching of the alphabetic code. It teaches the 44 phonemes (sounds) and graphemes (letter shapes) in conjunction with blending sounds to read and segmenting words into phonemes to spell. It is the building blocks of reading and spelling.

5. How will synthetic phonics progress throughout the school? • Nursery – SALLEY (Structured Activities for Language and Literacy in the Early Years) • Reception – Fast Phonics First • KS1 – Schools own synthetic phonics programme based on the “snappy” lesson structure and syllable division. • KS2 – Schools own programme teaching spelling rules and syllable division based on the “snappy” lesson structure. • SEN and Catch-up programmes will use synthetic phonic approaches.

6. Key Principles of Synthetic Phonics • The programme is systematic – letter sounds and knowledge are taught in a specific order which builds on what has been previously taught. • Blending and segmenting are taught alongside new phonemes. • Only “pure sounds” are taught – this is very important, as it is easier to blend and segment words when sounds are pure. • Letter formation is taught as each new phoneme is introduced (both upper and lower case and joins in the case of digraph). • Letter names are taught as well as letter sounds. • Activities are multi-sensory.

7. Jolly Phonics – how FSU teach “pure sounds” • A – Ant – wiggle fingers above elbow as if ants are crawling on you. • B – Pretend to hit a ball with a bat. • C – Raise hand and snap fingers as if playing castanets. • D – Beat hands up and down as if playing a drum • E – Pretend to tap an egg on the side of a pan and crack it. • F – Let hands gently come together as if an inflatable fish is deflating. • G – Spiral hand down, as if water is gurgling down a plughole. • H – Hold hand in front of mouth panting h, h, h, as if out of breath. • I – Ink (mouse squeaking) - pretend to be a mouse by wiggling fingers at the end of nose and squeak. • J – Pretend to wobble like a jelly on a plate. • K - Raise hand and snap fingers as if playing castanets. • L – Pretend to lick a lollipop.

8. M – Rub tummy as if seeing tasty food and say mmmmm. • N – Hold arms out at side, as if a plane. • O – Pretend to turn a light switch on and off • P – Pretend to puff out candles. • Q – qu – Make a duck’s beak with your hands and say qu, qu, qu • R – Rag – Pretend to be a puppy holding a rag shaking his head from side to side. • S – Snake – Weave hand in an s shape • T - Tennis – Turn head from side to side as if watching tennis • U – Pretend to be putting up an umbrella. • V – Pretend to hold the steering wheel of a van and say vvvv • W – Blow on an open hand, as if you are the wind. • X – Pretend to take an x-ray • Y – Pretend to be eating yoghurt. • Z – Put arms out at sides and pretend to be a bee

9. Digraphs (2 letters that make 1 sound) are also taught. ch – move arms at sides as if you are a train. sh – place finger over lips and say, sh, sh, sh. th – (as in moth) pretend to be naughty clowns and stick out tongue a little bit. (as in this) Stick tongue out further. ng – imagine you are a weight lifter and lift a heavy weight over your head. er – Roll hands over each other like a mixer and say er ar – Open mouth wide and say ah as if at the doctors. ue – Point to people around you and say you, you, you.

10. Lesson Structure – the “Snappy Lesson” • The lessons have a FAST pace. • The lessons are very structured and have the same format – eventually the children know what is coming next. • The lessons are multi-sensory, they consist of many little activities which should keep the children motivated. • The children need to be able to sit and concentrate. Good behaviour management is needed so the pace is not lost during transition phases e.g. giving out whiteboards and pens. • Lessons should last about 30mins.

11. Contents of the Programmes so far • SALLEY consists of 100 lessons. Develops good listening/speaking/sitting skills, phonological awareness. • Fast Phonics First is a 13 week programme.It covers: conventions of text, 44 letters sounds including digraphs, letter names, letter formation (upper and lower case), blending and segmenting cvc, ccvc, cvcc words, irregular high frequency, vowels and consonants, captions, sentences, use of capital letters, use of punctuation marks. • Schools own programme Y1 – 2 terms worth of work. Revises 44 phonemes, vowels + consonants, blending and segmenting. Introduces main vowel alternatives, reading and spelling of irregular high frequency words from NLS list 1, 2 and 3 part syllable division.

12. Further programmes of work to be written • Y2 – Revise common alternative vowel phonemes, introduce less common alternatives, trigraphs, syllable division, read and write medium frequency words. • Y3 - Revise less common vowel phonemes, prefixes and suffixes, medium frequency words, syllable division, morphological rules. • Y4 – Common homophones, morphology rules, etymology, common spelling rules. • Y5 – spelling unstressed vowels, less common prefixes and suffixes, spelling patterns and word meanings. • Y6 – Revise and consolidate vowel choices, pluralisation, prefixes, word endings, high and medium frequency words.

13. How will synthetic phonics be implemented. • Nursery are already using SALLEY. • Reception will start Fast Phonics First in January. • KS1 will use Fast Phonics First as a catch-up and schools own programme to teach vowel digraphs starting this term. • KS2 to use schools own programme to teach vowel digraphs as a catch-up starting this term. • Further programmes of work will be written over the next 2 terms to cover KS2 objectives. • Programmes will be implemented properly next year.

14. Purposeful Assessment • Baseline assessments – in order to identify gaps in childrens’ knowledge and group them accordingly. • Assessment after each unit of work – to clarify attainment. • Types of assessment :– • Identification of phonemes • Writing matching graphemes • reading / writing words at different phonic levels i.e. vc, cvc, ccvc, cvcc, common vowel alternatives, uncommon vowel alternatives.

15. Lessons learnt from the trial • Fast Phonics First worked very well with the higher and medium ability children, but those children who were lower ability (and have since been identified as SEN) the pace was too fast. • From the assessments we need to quickly identify those children who are not progressing and give them an alternative intervention. This could lead us to having evidence to formally identify SEN children sooner.