Thursday, May 18, 2017

Phonics awareness - a great place in setting students up for literacy

I've always incorporated Phonics into my literacy programme, but as I am constantly reflecting on my teaching and how it can be improved, I jumped when the opportunity to attend the 'Yolanda Soryl workshop' arose.

Yolanda confirmed the view I have that students need a range of basic phonics strategies so they can easily work out new words in reading and spelling.

Teaching tips and pointers
  • Allow only lower case letters to be written in phonics
  • Only have a reason for a capital letter like writing your name. When they write a capital letter in writing ask what the reason was for writing letter in capital - if no reason, rub out.
  • Only teach capital after lower case is secure

Summary:
  • Blending important for reading: d, d-o, d-o-g = dog
  • Break up word to write- segmentation
  • Some students know their sound, but don’t know how to break it up
  • Teach kids how to hear
  • The aim is to look at work and recognize it instantly
  • Read name before school - this is recognition of graphic knowledge
  • Teach high frequency words fast
  • Phonics is for low reading learners
  • Grammar - does it sound right. Get them to read their sentences back
  • Ingrain a sense of a sentence - repetitive reading
  • Teach students to re-read their writing, to check if it sounds right. 
  • 3 levels that students use to connect (sounds, words, sentences). Students that struggle don’t connect these three
  • Important to decode to enable them to comprehend
  • Book introduction important - look and introduce unfamiliar words
  • Teach fluency at word level - then you have chance to read page
  • Dyslexic kids tend to use both sides of the brain
  • Hear low level reader read out loud every day to improve reading outcome
  • Phonics is about using sounds, not only knowing sounds

I am also looking forward to the release of the Phonics App which can be used to learn/revise the alphabet sounds. It also follows a Phonics 'Hear, Read, Write' lesson plan and can stand alone or be used to revise a lesson. The App features a New Zealand accent which is so important for helping students learn the short vowel sounds.




~ "It shouldn't matter how slowly a child learns, as long as we are encouraging them not to stop" - Robert John Meehan ~

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