All About Teaching and Learning Phonics

[sean wife]

Hi Tamarind,


Thanks for your reply. Actually they are far from fluent when reading the P&J now, each page can take 2-3 minutes. And they ‘read’ without much consideration to the punctuation and tone etc. They have enjoyed Curious George since babies and that were probably the longest stories they can sit through when they were young…I also borrow Dr Seuss from the library, but must say that some of the stories are really long and it is difficult to make them read through the whole book at one sitting…Usually they are only willing to read the first few pages and I will have to finish the rest of the book. And as they read really slow now, it’s really hard to have the patience to listen them read for long…I like the suggestion of introducing spelling through sounding out the words, will try that out and see if I have any success…

[mummy of 2]

DS1 has been reading \"Room on the Broom\" by Julia Donaldson after watching the play. He can read about 80% of the book from memory. It may be good to watch plays/cartoon/DVDs adapted from books, and then ask the child to read the book. They are more likely to be interested and can understand the story better

[pea]

tamarind:

pea,
Where can we find the Sesame Street DVDs in Singapore ?

I was worried that my girl will feel bored in school, but she has not complained. She likes the music, arts, and sports lessons very much, so she likes going to school.

I spoke to my girl's English teacher, she said that although the books are very easy for my girl, she still pays attention, and spends her time quietly observing the other classmates. I let her read more interesting and challenging books at home so she can continue to learn more.

Hi Tamarind.

You can find Sesame Street DVD's at Popular.

Your girl is very guai leh. Yes, you should continue to challenge her at home yourself.

[starz]

hi tamarind,


Another thing, u suggest we teach spelling using phonics, how about other words like girl, farm, tree which is not under phonetics? how to teach spelling of these words?

Thank you.

[tamarind]

starz:

hi tamarind,


Another thing, u suggest we teach spelling using phonics, how about other words like girl, farm, tree which is not under phonetics? how to teach spelling of these words?

Thank you.

starz,
There are many words in English that are not phonetic. So we cannot teach kids to spell every word entirely using phonics. But phonics can at least help them remember the beginning and ending, so there is less to remember. Kids who knows phonics very well, especially how to join 3 letters and 4 letters to form words, will naturally know how to use the technique to help them spell these words.

For example, the word \"girl\", my boy knows that it starts with \"g\" and ends with \"l\", all he has to remember is \"ir\" in the middle. It helps 50% and that is already very good because he does not have a good memory. I don't need to teach him how to remember it.

In phonics, \"ir\" is taught as a sound and kids will learn how to read all the words which have \"ir\" in the middle, like \"dirt\", \"shirt\", \"skirt\", etc. Take a look at this page :
http://www.atozphonics.com/phonograms.html

The problem is that few kids can remember all those phonics rules. If we try to teach them too complicated rules, they cannot understand anyway.

Personally I think that knowing how the basic technique of joining 3 letters to form words, and also 4 letter words containing \"br\", \"cr\", etc are good enough to help kids tremendously in spelling.

[tamarind]

pea:

Hi Tamarind.

You can find Sesame Street DVD's at Popular.

Thanks pea

[tamarind]

mummy of 2:

DS1 has been reading \"Room on the Broom\" by Julia Donaldson after watching the play. He can read about 80% of the book from memory. It may be good to watch plays/cartoon/DVDs adapted from books, and then ask the child to read the book. They are more likely to be interested and can understand the story better

I agree. My kids watched the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie before they read the book. They can relate the book to the movie and it really helps with their understanding.

[buds]

tamarind:

The problem is that few kids can remember all those phonics rules. If we try to teach them too complicated rules, they cannot understand anyway.

Errrm.. not true. Sorry, beg to differ on this one.

It's how the rules are taught to them. My girls &
students love the challenge of remembering the
rules. This way they don't even make mistakes in
their spelling work. It is not complicated and they
do understand.

Phonics rules help children categorize the words
that they read, hence helping them to remember
how it is written.

Just my honest endorsement. :hugs:

[tamarind]

sean wife:

Hi Tamarind,


Thanks for your reply. Actually they are far from fluent when reading the P&J now, each page can take 2-3 minutes. And they ‘read’ without much consideration to the punctuation and tone etc.

My boy was the same. At 3 years old, he could take more than 5 minutes to read one page because he kept losing his concentration and tried to run away.

By the time he reached book 10a, he was reading much more fluently, but still not very fast.

Now after finishing 4 Roald Dahl books, the 3 tales of My Father's Dragon, the original Winnie the pooh, he is reading the original Wizard of Oz very fluently for his age And with consideration to punctuation and tone too.

So kids need to read many books out loud before they can read really well, and it may take years, depending on the ability of the child. My boy took more than 2 years (reading everyday even when we were traveling overseas).

But do note that not all kids are good at oral reading. My older girl reads so fast that she sounds like a bullet train. But she understands the story very well

BTW, my boy learns his punctuation and tone by watching the Leapfrog DVD : Learn to Read At the Storybook Factory

[tamarind]

buds:

tamarind:

The problem is that few kids can remember all those phonics rules. If we try to teach them too complicated rules, they cannot understand anyway.

Errrm.. not true. Sorry, beg to differ on this one.

It's how the rules are taught to them. My girls &
students love the challenge of remembering the
rules. This way they don't even make mistakes in
their spelling work. It is not complicated and they
do understand.

Phonics rules help children categorize the words
that they read, hence helping them to remember
how it is written.

Just my honest endorsement. :hugs:

Yes you have a very good point It certainly depends on how the rules are taught.

But I think it also depends on the ability and the age of the child