Phun with Phonics!

1. Phun with Phonics! Wednesday 24th November 2012

2. Aims of the workshop: • To understand what phonics is • To understand how phonics is taught at East Wichel Community Primary School • To understand what is expected at each Letters and Sounds phase • To understand how to help your child at home

3. The Rose Review • An independent review of the teaching of early reading • Carried out in 2005 by Jim Rose, former HMI director at Ofsted • This included the role of synthetic phonics Recommendations: • Best and most direct route to becoming a skilled reader and writer is a systematic approach- synthetic phonics • Phonic work is essential for the development of writing, especially spelling • When teaching young children, they must be taught how reading and writing are related

4. So what is Phonics? Since the Rose Review, phonics has become a widely used method of teaching children to read and decode words. Sessions use a variety of different approaches to engage children and ensure their individual learning styles have been catered for. Phonics is about learning letter sounds NOT the letter names.

5. So what is phonics? (continued) Phonics is a combination of skills and knowledge. Children need to understand the skillof segmentation and blending, and have the knowledge of the alphabetic code. We use two schemes which complement each other – Jolly Phonics and Letters and Sounds As a result of the Rose Review, phonics is now taught in six distinct phases as set out in the Letters and Sounds document.

6. Jolly Phonics is a scheme used in FS1 (Nursery) and FS2 (Reception) classes when children are first introduced to phonics When the children learn each sound, they will hear a ‘Jolly Story’, sing a ‘Jolly Jingle’ or a ‘Jolly Song’ and will learn an action to help them remember it There are actions for individual sounds e.g. /t/ or /s/ and digraphs /ai/ or /sh/

7. Key Vocabulary Children will learn to use the words ‘phoneme’ and ‘grapheme’ confidently A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound e.g. ‘jet ‘has three phonemes /j/e/t/ Graphemes are the letters that represent the phoneme. A grapheme could be one letter, two letters or more than two letters e.g. /ch/, /oa/, /ear/ or /igh/.

8. The Six Phases of Letters and Sounds:Phase 1 (pre-school) Distinguishing between sounds in the environment and phonemes Begin showing an awareness of rhyme and alliteration Exploring and experimenting with sounds and words Discriminating speech sounds in words 7 key aspects – ‘eibravo’

9. Activity 1 Listen to the following sounds. Can you recognise any environmental sounds? Did any of the sounds you heard match the pictures below?

10. Any questions so far?

11. Phase 2 Introduce individual sounds Set 1 – s a t p Set 2 – i n m d Set 3 – g o c k Set 4 – e ck u r Set – h b f ff l llss During the teaching of phonics, phonemes are articulated clearly and precisely An ‘uh’ should not appear at the end of sounds

12. Phase 2 continued During Phase 2, the children are introduced to a new sound each day (four times a week) They are taught the correct formation of each letter sound and where to begin the formation through a number of multi-sensory activities During the fifth session of the week children will be learning to segment sounds (sound out)and to blend (read the whole word)to read words including CVC words (consonant vowel consonant) Children are taught to use soundbuttons or robot talk. Can you read the words below using soundbuttons or Robot Talk? ‘tap’, ‘pit’, ‘sin’, ‘nap’, ‘vop’, ‘mub’

13. Activity 2 The children are taught to use cursive writing. Each letter sound begins with a ‘whoosh in’ and a ‘whoosh out’. We would like you to practise writing the sounds from Sets 1-5 in either the sand, using the chalk and chalkboards or on a whiteboard. If you would like to, you can practise writing them on your partner’s back using your ‘magic writing finger’. Use the phonic mats in front of you to help.

14. Activity 3 Find three pictures around the room that begin with the initial sound ‘t’. Now stand by the sound that your name begins with. Do you already know the action that accompanies that sound?

15. Phase 2 actions We are now going to show you the actions for each of the phonemes in the Phase 2 sets. s a t p i n m d g o c k e ck u r h b f ff l ll ss

16. Pseudo words Children are taught to read real words and pseudo words (nonsense words). For example ‘hep’, ‘vel’, ‘sep’, ‘mear’ and ‘hain’. Dragon's Den Any questions so far?

17. Phase 3 Children continue to learn individual letter sounds and a range of digraphs and trigraphs. Digraphs are a pair of letters that form one phoneme (sound). Trigraphs are a group of three letters representing one phoneme (sound). For example, ‘igh’, ‘air’ and ‘ure’.

18. Phase 3 continued The children continue to segment and blend words but these may contain digraphs and trigraphs. For example, ‘rain’, ‘deep’, and ‘chop’. Activity 4 Phoneme Frames

19. Phase 3 actions We are now going to show you the actions for each of the phase 3 phonemes. j v w x y z zz qu ch sh th ng ai ee igh oa oo ar or ur ow oi ear air ure er

20. Phase 4 This is a consolidation unit where children will revisit all of the phase 2 and phase 3 sounds. There is an emphasis on reading cvcc and ccvc words (consonant and vowel)and writing captions containing these words. Children begin to read captions containing cvcc and ccvc words, as well as words containing digraphs and trigraphs.

21. Activity 6 With a partner (or by yourself if you would prefer), sound out the words below to read the sentence. This has been written phonetically and will show you how children begin to decode, through a segmentation and blending process, the words in the texts they are reading. Write the sentence below correctly on your whiteboard. ai hors dus not haffngrsVayhafteefwicheetgrars . Yoo can riedhorszfrooforsts.

22. Phase 5 During phase 5 children learn the alternative spellings to a range of sounds. They learn to recognise split digraphs such as ‘a-e’, ‘e-a’ and ‘i-e’. This describes a letter that splits – during pronunciation. An example of this is ‘a-e’ which when used in words such as ‘cake’ and ‘take’, the k letter separates the digraph ‘ae’, resulting in an ‘ai’ sound being formed.

23. Activity 7 Can you put the pictures into the correct column?

24. Phase 6 Children should: • Learn about past tense • Learn about rules for adding suffixes (word endings) • Develop strategies for spelling ‘tricky words’- ones that are not phonetically decodable

25. Activity 8 A spelling strategy that the children enjoy is making up mnemonics. For example: People – people eat orange peel like elephants Have you used a mnemonic to remember how to spell a word? Can you think of one for the word ‘because’?

26. Year 1 Screening Test • A test of 40 words made up of real and nonsense words • Designed to see which graphemes children recognise and well they can segment and blend • Last year was the first year that the phonics screening test has taken place in all Year 1 classes • There is a specific week that the tests will be carried out (June 2013). • It is up to the school to decide how and where the tests will be administered • Results are sent to the Local Authority • The school will report to parents whether or not their child has met the required standard • There is an opportunity to retake the test in June of Year 2 for any child who has not passed the test during Year 1.

27. Year 1 Screening Test continued... We will now watch a short video clip designed for teachers – this will show you what the test will be like for the children. http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/assessment/keystage1/a00200415/year-1-phonics-screening-check-materials

28. How can you help at home? • FS1 – expose your child to a range of sounds. These can include musical and environmental. Allow children to develop their speaking and listening skills. • FS2 – continue to complete ‘Snazzy Sounds’ activities. Allow opportunities for your child to segment and blend cvc words using the sounds they have already learnt. Practice recognising and reading ‘tricky words’. E’g. cut out words from a newspaper or write these out using magnetic letters on your fridge. Have a look at our activity table for ideas.

29. How can you help at home? Year 1 – • Encourage your child to read a range of familiar and unfamiliar words confidently by applying the skills they have learnt in phonics. • Practise recognising digraphs, trigraphs, single sounds and tricky words. • Support your child in spelling familiar and unfamiliar words. • Encourage your child to practise their phonic skills using some of the online games that we have recommended (see our website). Have a look at our activity table for ideas.

30. Any questions? Thank you all for listening. Please could you spare five minutes to complete the evaluation forms on your tables? Thank you! We hope you have found this workshop useful? If you have ever got any concerns, please don’t hesitate to speak to either one of us.  Miss Drewitt and Miss Singh