Fun with Sounds & Letters:

THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF LITERACY Fun with Sounds & Letters: Making the link from P.A. to Phonics & Literacy Presented by Shelley Blakers and Deborah Silverlock

In today s session Sound to print connection Synthetic Phonics Reinforcing the code

What do we know The written language system evolved from sound Teaching Phonological Awareness supports students to tune in to sound Tuning in to sound helps to connect to print Identifying, blending and segmenting individual sounds (phonemes) is most critical for connecting to print

How do we get there? Oral Highly Literate Still Learning to Talk Oral Language PA Focus Moving towards Talking to Learn PA & Synthetic Phonics Focus Talking to Learn Synthetic Phonics

Levels Discrimination Judgement Generation Identification Blending Segmenting Categorisation Detection Manipulation Phonological Awareness Components Phoneme Onset- Rime Syllable Word

Is P.A. enough? NO because P.A. is only the first step on the journey to literacy Students need to be taught the visual code for sound Written language has evolved beyond simple sound-letter connections

Understanding the Sound to Print Connection

What is a Sound (phoneme)? Sounds are what we hear and say Sounds are made using lips, tongue, teeth and voice box in various ways

What is a letter (grapheme)? p What we see and write A standard symbol used to represent sounds

What do you know about the code? What is a consonant? A sounds created with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract using tongue lips or teeth. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/consonant)

What is a vowel? A sounds made without closing your mouth or throat

What do you know about the code? What is a digraph? Two letters that represent one sound What is a blend? Two or more consonants together each representing a sound

Expectations

Suggested Expectations

Phonological Awareness Oral Skills

Phonics

Alternative Order

Is it Phonics or Spelling? Why reinvent the wheel? P.A. Phonics Phonics Spelling Spelling Grammar

Teaching Students to Crack the Code

Principles of Synthetic Phonics Moves quickly 3 or more letters a week Order of letter-sound introduction based on functionality for decoding and encoding (spelling) Emphasises sound to print connection Teaches the sound in all positions in a word from the beginning Decoding skills taught before high frequency sight words Explicitly teaches segmenting blending Applied to real context immediately

A Sample LESSON

Review Session Structure Identifying sounds connecting to print Blending/Reading (word and sentence level) Segmenting/Spelling (word & sentence level)

Review Activities Show Me -Tell Me! Students given letter cards. Students asked to Show me the letter/grapheme for sound. a s n Letters are written on the board and student asked to Tell me the sound/phoneme for this letter. p t i

a t i p ch s n

Other Review Activities Was It? Stepping Stones Memory Sound Bingo Fish SOUND-LETTER BINGO s f n g a m p i t sat mat fat SOUND-LETTER

Identifying & Connecting to Letters Activity Sound Pocket-Isabel Beck Provide students with a letter corresponding to a target sound Call out words and students move the letter card according to where they hear the sound in the word t

Identification Sound Sort Feely Bag* T C Show a picture Have students identify the beginning, middle or end sound Have them place the picture with the corresponding letter

Blending & Reading Present the words Activity Say-It-and-Move-It Ref: Blachman et al. (2000) Students touch each letter/letter pattern and say the sound Student return to the beginning. Point to each letter and draw out the sound as they move their finger under the letters and transition to the next letter sound without stopping. Students say the word

Alien Talk nap n a p

Other Blending Activities Flip Charts Flip Books Flip Sheets Sound People Stretch and Snap Decoding Bingo Go Fish Board Games Cube Toss Tea Party Pinterest for great activities

Other Blending Activities Stretch & Snap

Other Blending Activities Sound Letter Flip Chart

http://fairydustteaching.com/2011/12/all-about-vowels.html Retrieved 17/1/14 http://kidsactivitiesblog.com/2543/phonic-flip-chart, retrieved on 17/1/14

Other Blending Activities

Blending for Reading Use sentences or books with words that can be decoded using the knowledge students currently have. Decodable texts for early decoding and those who struggle Dandelion readers (for older students- Talisman Series) http://www.phonicbooks.co.uk/talisman.php http://www.phonicsaustralia.com.au/index.php?option=com _virtuemart&view=category&virtuemart_category_id=21 Oxford Press- Reading Tree Debbie Hepplewhite Phonics International Bug Club-Pearson Publicsations Fitzroy Readers

Segmenting and Spelling Place the counters on the treasure box. Call a word. Student move one counter for each sound from the treasure box into Elkonin boxes. The Treasure Box Students identify what sound they hear first next last and then record how each is represented with letters S T O P

A Twist on Have-A-Go-Pads Gets the children to think about how many sounds they need to represent in a word. Set up a grid in your have-a-go pads. Student identifies how many sounds there are in the word. shipwreck Student has a go at representing each of the sounds he/ she hears. Teacher just needs to correct the sound representation/s the student gets incorrect. sh i p wr e ck

For older students try using graph paper for a have a go pad.

So u nds in m y He a d Other Activities ure for Segmenting ough Using whiteboards air Using letter tiles and blocks to spell out words Phonics Clouds ain Created by Deborah Silverlock

Manipulation with letters Sound Manipulation p a t o c Provide students with 3-5 letters Call out a word for students to make with their letters (e.g. pat) Call out another word for students to make which only requires students to change one letter (e.g. pot) at a time

Make it fun Sound String Metal Tray Magnetic letters

Make it fun

Slide from UK Education Department Teaching the higher levels of phonics: UK Phonics Site Idea : When teaching the split digraph, think about Ask two children to hold hands to represent the grapheme - the pair is split by another child who represents the phoneme between them.

Fairy e Wing Fun Materials Required: Plastic shopping bag Permanent pens Streamers Scissors Procedure Lay bag flat Cut the bag up the middle from open end between the 2 handles, stopping 10 cms from bottom of bag. Gather the middle of bag and tie a ribbon around it. The two handles become arm holes, wings are formed for fairy. Write fairy on left wing and e on right wing. Make a wand to go with your fairy wings e

Writing Sentences Dictate a short sentence or two using the words with known sound-letter correspondences Dictation should be done from PP.

Differentiating

Making it Stick: Having fun and reinforcing the phonics (visual code)

Phonics Folder Challenge: reduce the focus on worksheets. Keep it interactive. Nice activity but.. E.g. How much of the activity is colouring in versus PA? If mostly colouring is the lesson about PA? Phonics Folder reduces the need for worksheets.

Mini Offices

Reinforcement Integrate into other curriculum areas Be creative & have fun Don t miss incidental opportunities Get students involved

Choose book to match phonics oa as in boat or sh as in ship Who sank the boat By Pamela Allen Courtesy of Deborah Silverlock

Turn phonics into characters

Courtesy of Deborah Silverlock Make it Concrete

Week 6 Beachlands Primary Pre Primary After explicit synthetic phonics instruction. Week 7 Synthetic Phonics Works! i