Phonics

What is Phonics? Highlight this definition in your

glossaryKnowledge of sounds and letter

relationships and how they are used in reading and writing.

With phonological awareness, there was no talk of letters. Now, the letter is connected to the sound.

Why Is Phonics Difficult???The next few slides show why letter learning can be

difficult for students. Initial Sound of Letter Name

B PC (soft) TD VG(soft) ZJK

These letters tend to be simple to

learn. The name of the letter is similar to the

sound it makes. For example say B. Now say /b/.

Notice the similarity?

Letter Associations Ending Sound of Letter Name

F XLMNRS

These letters get a little more

difficult because the sound is like the ending of the

letter name. When I say m, I hear /e---m/.

When I make the sound of m, I hear

/m/.

Letter Associations No sound related to letter name

H /ach/Q /kw/W /dubya/ or /doubleyou/Y /wi/

Now it gets tricky! Because the sound of these letters are not related to the sound of the name at all. Y

makes a /y/ sound but we say it /wi/. This is why students often write went like ynt. They confuse the y

and w sound.

Letter Associations One Sound Included in Name

C /s/ not /k/G /j/ not /g/ English can be crazy!

These letters make 2 sounds. You can see

how this might be difficult for a 5 year old or a student just learning the English

language!!

Why is Phonics Difficult? When learning letters and sounds,

students also learn the difference between consonant and letters.

And the difference between letters and words.

So how should phonics be taught??

Go back to theory and think about what you saw on Slide 11. Students need to be active not just filling out a worksheet. Letters can be taught by doing these things daily: Connect to the name chart hanging in your

room (see next slide) Engage students in Interactive Writing

daily! (module 2) Sing songs that connect letters and

sounds. Make class charts that the students can

refer to.

Name Puzzle

Directions: This activity is to be used with children just learning the alphabet and sounds. Write the child’s name (begin with first, later add last name) and cut apart the letters. Ask the child to build his/her name. Then ask them to identify specific letters and/or sounds from their name.

Doing this activity daily with students who need it is guaranteed to help with letter identification and sounds too! It works because it is connecting new knowledge (letters) to something meaningful to the student (their name!). Once the student knows their first name add their last or give them a friends name!!

 

A l y s o n

Teaching Phonics with a Name

Chart…

Teaching Phonics with Interactive Writing

Once children know their letters, then

what do you teach?

Consonant blendsOnce students can identify most letters and sounds, you can begin to work on letter combinations.

Find the definition of consonant blends in your glossary and highlight. Two or more consonant letters that appear together in words and represent sounds that are smoothly joined. Each sound

can be heard in the word.

Consonant blendsThis chart shows

common blends. The key here is when you

break apart the phonemes you can

hear each sound. So with float, you hear /f/ and /l/ separately but they blend together.

Float has 4 phonemes /f//l/o/t/.

Be sure to add an example of a blend to your glossary!

DigraphsFind the definition of digraphs in your glossary and

highlight. Two consonant letters that appear together and represent a single

sound that is different from either letter.

ch as in

th as in

sh as in

ph as in

Digraphs are different than blends because

they make one sound. C and h come

together to make /ch/.

Be sure to add an example of a digraph to your glossary!

Vowel DigraphsHighlight: Two vowels that appear together

in a word and represent a single sound. Some Examples are… ai like in rain ea like in eat ay like in day oo like in boot ie like in pie

Be sure to use these to add an example of a vowel digraph to your glossary!

DipthongGo to your glossary and highlight this definition: Combination of two vowel sounds that produce a new unique sound.

One teacher I have seen, taught this sentence to her students to illustrate dipthongs. The thing to know is that two letters (usually vowels) come together and make a crazy sound (not related to the

letters). Ou is a great example. Together it makes the /ou/ sound like in out.

The boy pointed at the loud cow chewing straw.

Onset and RimeDo you remember these terms from

phonological awareness. They are the same for phonics but now you are

talking about how it is spelled along with the sounds.

Highlight the definitions for…Onset: In a syllable, the part that comes before the vowel. Rime: The ending part of a word containing the vowel. Word Family: A term designate for words that are connected by rimes

Word Families (Onset/Rime)

Here is an example from a

kindergarten class. The child is

using the word family (or

sometimes called a phonogram) –ar

and building other words. This teaches children to be flexible and

use what they know to get to

unknown words.

Onset/Rime in 1st Grade

Un- Re- Dis- Mis-

unopened repackaged discontinue misfortune

mislead distrust reinstall unheated

misconduct misplace disclose reconsider

unglued mistake reform unattached

disease unread misstep unplanned

Phonics in the older grades…

Phonological Awareness versus PhonicsEarly Development Later

Development

Phonological awareness instruction Phonics instruction

As this figure shows, in early development (pre K/ kindergarten or for a new English learner) there is a lot of phonological awareness and a little phonics. Later as students progress, there is more phonics and less phonological awareness.

Assessing Phonics TPRI…Texas Primary Reading

Inventory Anecdotal Records…what we see Products Writing Samples

Sample from 1st Grade Saxon Phonics worksheet

Sample First Grade TPRI assessment

What is the goal? Reading is a message getting activity which

increases in power and flexibility the more it is practiced. (Marie Clay)