Phonics

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  // Phonics  //

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 Phonics, as explained by Susan Hill, is both an ‘approach to instruction and a strategy for word identification and spelling’ (2006, p.209). ======

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 What it deals with, primarily, is the connections between sounds and written words, and the ways in which these can be conveyed, in teaching reading and writing. The alphabetic principle, which is the idea that letters in words usually stand for specific sounds, is drawn on heavily in phonics, and an understanding of this is essential, as shown below. ======

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 Phonics consists of five sequential stages, and this page will focus on two. The first one is titled letters of the alphabet. This stage requires learners to recognise, say and write the names and common sounds of the letters of the alphabet. It looks at consonants and vowels, and the varying sounds made by each. Consonant sounds, for example, are formed when there is an obstruction of air. Some consonants can represent more than one sound, including the letters ‘c’ and ‘g’. Both these letters have ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ sounds, depending on the words they are used in. For example, cool and cinnamon, game and ginger. Vowel sounds are made in the mouth, and also have varying sounds. Words like sit and bob contain ‘short’ vowels, whereas rose and state contain ‘long’ vowels. Upper and lower case letters are also studied. ======

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 The second stage in phonics is titled onset and rime word families, and deals with the recognition of onsets, rimes and word families. Fun games can be used to teach this stage, in order for learners to build on their vocabularies. Onsets are any consonants in syllables which precede vowels, and rimes are the vowels and consonants which come after the onset. These two sections of words can be split up, making it easier for children to learn new words. Children can play around with onsets and rimes, and come up with words previously unknown to them. For example: the word bake can be split up into the onset, b-, and the rime, -ake, and then added to with br-, making brake. Then the onset can even be replaced with sn-, giving snake, and so on. ======

These two videos give a sneak peek at how onset and rime (in phonics) can be useful in teaching reading and writing!
media type="file" key="Soggyslipper1.mov"media type="file" key="Soggyslipper2.mov"  (© Tim Lyons 2008)