Phonics - Mrs Badcock
Literacy-The Big 6
PHONICS
Research has shown that there are six key components that contribute to successful reading and because of the importance of these components, they have become known as the 'Big Six’: oral language, phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. The reading components of our school reading program focus on the Big Six.
Phonics (Letter-Sound Knowledge)
Phonics is the method for teaching people how to read and write using an alphabetic language. It is done by demonstrating the relationship between the sounds (phonemes) and the letters or groups of letters (graphemes) of the written language. In the English language there are 26 letters of the alphabet and approximately 44 sounds(phonemes). There are not enough letters to represent the sounds and some sounds are represented by more than one grapheme which can make reading and writing challenging.
How does phonics contribute to reading success?
Phonics instruction helps the reader to map out sounds when spelling. This ability enables readers to decode words. Decoding helps in the development of and improvement in word recognition.
Phonics at school
Instructional approaches to develop phonological awareness at school include the following:
- Systematic and explicit teaching of letter-sound relationships.
- Clear articulation of letter sounds.
- Multisensory approaches including visual, auditory and kinaesthetic
- Teacher-led group and individual decoding activities.
- Blending letters to write words.
- Segmenting words into individual sounds and representing these with alphabet code.
- Segmenting-stretching out the sounds heard in words.
- Blending-converting sounds to words.
What can parents and caregivers do at home to encourage phonological awareness?
In early childhood children typically develop an awareness of phonics as they notice and emulate print in their environment such as names. Strong phonemic awareness skills assist children in their application of phonics.
Here are some ways parents and caregivers can encourage phonics:
- A child’s name is a great resource for learning letters.
- Play with magnetic letters/tiles to build words.
- Make alphabet books that include names of family members, pets, hobbies, sporting interests.
- Play letter/sound/picture bingo games.
- Play Snap and Memory games.
- Read to and with children.
- Making letters with playdough.