Phonics Workshop: WHAT IS PHONICS?

Phonics Instruction refers to the teaching of the alphabetic code to English or what is the same, the letter-sound relationships that allow readers to decode words.

Words are made up from small units of sound called phonemes. Phonics teaches children to be able to listen carefully and identify the phonemes that make up each word. This helps children to learn to read words and to spell words.

All in all, with a systematic synthetic phonics method children can decode approximately 90% of words and develop the 4 language skills:

Listening
Speaking
Reading
Writing

What are the objectives set for my students?

My students will be able to...

1- Learn the 42 sounds of English Language.

They are taught the 42 main sounds, not just the alphabet sounds. I use "Jolly Phonics" songs to introduce them and the action to help memorise it.

2- Identify sounds within words

It is essential to teach them to hear and identify the sounds in words. They have to identify sounds in different positions (initial, medial and final). After a few weeks, they will also be able to write simple words such as HAT, PIG, JUMP, etc. by listening for the sounds and writing the relevant letters.

3- Count sounds in words

4- Read "Tricky Words"

Tricky words are irregular keywords.

5- Enjoy and get motivated!

In phonics lessons children are taught three main things:

1- GPCs

They are taught GPCs. This stands for grapheme phoneme correspondences. This simply means that they are taught all the phonemes in the English language and ways of writing them down. These sounds are taught in a particular order. The first sounds to be taught are s, a, t, p.

2- Blending

Children are taught to be able to blend. This is when children say the sounds that make up a word and are able to merge the sounds together until they can hear what the word is. This skill is vital in learning to read. (Speaking and Reading)

3- Segmenting

Children are also taught to segment. This is the opposite of blending. Children are able to say a word and then break it up into the phonemes that make it up. This skill is vital in being able to spell words. (Listening and Writing)