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By the end of this session you would have

explored the phoneme-grapheme correspondence the potential of teaching phonics

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HANDOUT 1

According to Jolliffe(2006) children need a clear understanding of the phoneme-grapheme correspondence (that is: how the sounds are represented by the letters) of the English language. However, it must be remembered that one letter can make more than one sound. This session will help you to explore how to teach young readers recognize and relate sounds to letters.
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Activity 1: Understanding the phoneme-grapheme correspondence

Task 1: Getting acquainted with the 44 phonemes Children learn best when multisensory devices are being employed. One way of helping pupils learn the sound system is by helping them associate the phoneme through movement. Given below are some two charts to help you teach pupils sound the phonemes accurately. Work in pairs and try to sound out the phonemes with the suggested movements.

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Some helpful advice:

Ask the pupils to look at the shape of your lips and the position of tongue when you sound the phoneme Get the pupils to place their index and middle fingers at their vocal cords to differentiate a voiceless from a voiced sound Ask the pupils sound the phoneme with the movement

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Note: 1. Handout 1 - Phoneme Pronunciation Chart is a pronunciation guide for children. 2. Handout 2 - Phoneme Grapheme Chart provides suggestions on the teaching order of the phonemes, related actions for children to associate, common spellings and list of other words with most common spellings. 3. Handout 3 A Z motions, provides alternative movements suggested in Handout 2.
Source for Handout 2and 3 Jolliffe,W. 2006. Phonics A Complete Synthetic Programme. Scholastic)

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Some practical considerations

One letter does not always make one sound One of the key causes of confusion in teaching phonics in English is that one letter can make more than one sound. So, for example, the letter s usually makes the sound /s/ as in the word sun, but can make the sound /zh/ as in treasure. The Phoneme-grapheme chart in Handout 3 of this module could be used as a constant reference guide.
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Rules and exceptions As children progress you may find it helpful to teach some rules in order to help them make the correct spelling choice. One example of a rule is for ck: words of one syllable ending in the phoneme /k/ with a short vowel and no other consonant letter before the last /k/ sound, take ck, as in clock, duck, back and so on. (Can you give others: lick, kick, trick, chick, sick, Rick) One exception that can cause difficulty is the phonemes /q/u/, where the /u/ makes a /w/ sound as in square. These two phonemes are always found together in English and represent a blend. It should also be noted that the letter x is not specifically taught as it is a blend of two phonemes /k/ and /s/.
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Consonant blends Another cause of confusion is that some consonant letter placed at the beginning and end of words are blended together. However they consist of separate phonemes. They do not need to be taught separately as it is possible to demonstrate how the phonemes are blended together. Practice at reading consonant blends does help reading fluency and the same applies to vowel rimes, for example ot as in lot, hot, rot, and so on.

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More examples of common blends sp (/s/p/oo/n/) st (/s/t/ar/)

sc
sn grain plum

(/s/c/ar/f/)
(/s/n/a/ck/) (/g/r/ai/n) (/p/l/u/m)

sm
sl frog

(/s/m/u/g/)
(/s/l/i/p/) (/f/r/o/g/)

squash (/s/q/u/a/sh/) string (/s/t/r/in/ng/)

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splash (/s/p/l/a/sh/)

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Letter names and letter sounds Another common cause of confusion is the use of letter names alongside the phonemes. It now commonly recognized that it is important that children learn both early. They will see frequent example of letter names and this need not cause any difficulties while learning the phonemes. The best way to address this is to say that a letter has a name and a sound, so that the letter B has the name B and makes the sound /b/. The use of Alphabet rhyme in Handout 6 alongside with phonological awareness training can help children to learn the letter names better.
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Correct pronunciation It is very important to model the correct pronunciation of phonemes when teaching. The most common error is to add an uh sound to the phoneme (as in r often pronounced ruh). While it is difficult to say some phonemes purely, every effort should be made to do so. One way that might help is to appreciate the some phonemes are sustained or stretched phonemes and can be pronounced purely, as listed below Sustained sounds: all vowel phonemes + /f/l/m/n/r/s/v/z/th/ng/

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The Pronunciation chart (Handout 2) highlight in detail how each phoneme is pronounced, as it is important to say the sounds purely.

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HANDOUT 2

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HANDOUT 3

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HANDOUT 4

(Source: Blevins, W. 2006. Phonics From A to Z A Practical Guide (2nd.) USA:Scholastic

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HANDOUT 5

Activity 2: More Practice with Phoneme Cards

Task a: Have a go with Phoneme Cards
(i) In pairs, try out the Phonic sound practice highlighted in the phoneme cards provided.
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(ii) Now that you have had a go with the Phoneme Cards, be prepared to demonstrate to your colleagues when called upon.

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HANDOUT 6

Activity 3: Developing sound awareness

According to Armbruster et al.(2001) children are aware of the sounds in language.. therefore, as a first step before learning phonics, children must be able to accurately hear and discriminate sounds (known as phonological awareness).

Steps in Developing Phonological Awareness Word awareness (understand that sentences consist of individual words) Rhyme awareness (being able to identify words that have identical final sound segments) Syllable awareness (being able to hear segments of phonemes that comprise the rhythm of the word) Phonemic awareness (being able to identify, and manipulate the sounds that are representative of graphemes in the English language.)
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Task a: Identifying sounds Children recognize the same sound in different words. For example, children will tell you that /toy/ and /tail/ begin alike or that /rain/ and /man/ end alike. To develop that ability to identify sounds, ask children questions like: Do /mop/ and /moon/ begin with the same sound? Do /pill/ and /tail/ end alike? Do /nail/ and /tame/ have the same middle sound? Another way to help children identify sound is to ask them if they hear a particular sound in different words: Do you hear /s/ in /sun/ or /dog/? Do you hear /s/ in /mouse/ or /truck/? Do you hear /s/ in /easel/ or /paper/?
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Popcorn Sounds
Skill: Identifying Sounds In this fast moving activity, children in a small group take turns saying the beginning, middle, or ending sound in picture names. Things You'll Need: Cards with pictures and words on them. Directions: Show children who are sitting around a table a selection of picture-word cards. Point to a card and say, "Popcorn," followed by a child's name, and the position of the sound the child is to identify (beginning, middle, end) in the picture name. For example, in pointing to a picture of a pig you might say, "Popcorn: Annaleise. Beginning sound." Annaleise then says the beginning sound, /p/. Annaleise now passes her turn to another child by pointing to a different picture-word card, saying a child's name and asking for a beginning (middle or ending) sound. The activity continues until everyone has had a turn or until all of the beginning (middle or ending) sounds are identified.
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Task b: Blending sounds Children combine phonemes to pronounce a whole word. Children might, for example, blend /sh/ + /ip/ to pronounce /ship/, or they might blend /sh/ + /i/ +/p/ to ship /ship/. In both cases, children must blend sounds together. In so doing, the sound themselves are somewhat altered. Children cannot simply say it fast because this essentially results in saying one isolated sound after another in close succession. In successful blending, sounds overlap somewhat, something like the shingles on a roof. Children learn to talk just like robot (or any other appealing fictional or cartoon-like character) by saying the sounds in words slowly, one after the other.

As soon as children have mastered a few phonemes, it is important that blending and segmenting are specifically taught
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Some considerations One of the key causes of confusion in teaching phonics in English is that one letter can make more than one sound. So, for example, the letter s usually makes the sound /s/ as in the word sun, but can make the sound /zh/ as in treasure. Refer to the Phoneme-grapheme chart in Handout 3.

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HANDOUT 7

Activity 3: Exploring materials from the text books

For this activity you will need to refer to the soft copy of materials scanned from the Primary 1 and 2 textbooks found in your CDRom. Your task: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Scan the materials Phonics_Appx.doc found in the Folder Session 3. Select one or two phonemes you would like to focus on. Practice reading the text focusing on the phoneme(s) you have selected. Be ready to read aloud the text when called upon. You may work with a partner.
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References Armbruster, B.B., Lehr, F., & Osborn, J. (2001) Put reading first: The research building blocks for teaching children to read kindergarten through grade 3. Washington,DC: National Institute for Literacy. Fox, B.J. (2004) Word Identification Strategies Phonics from a New Perspective. New Jersey: Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall Jolliffe, W. (2006). Phonics A complete Synthetic Programme. UK: Scholastic

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