All About Teaching and Learning Phonics

[tamarind]

laughingcat:

Hello Tamarind,


Need your advise. My boy knows how to decode the phonics sound and also knows how to do blending for the sight words.

But he has some difficulty in remembering the High Frequency Words especially when they can't be decodeable.

Now how can I help my boy in this aspect? :scratchhead:

Hi laughingcat,
Peter and Jane are the best books for teaching high frequency words. Please read my blog :
http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2008/12/key-words-with-ladybird.html

Any word that can be read by breaking up into phonics sounds are phonetic words. Any words, including high frequency words that cannot be read by phonics are sight words. It is very important to teach both phonics and sight words at the same time. Read my blog for more information.

Phonics is important for spelling but will not help a child to read fluently. The Peter and Jane books will enable kids to read very fluently.

[tamarind]

Dear all,

Another parent asked me how do we know whether a word is a sight word ?

Here is the list of 9000+ phonetic words :
http://www.alphabeticalist.com/phonetictablea2.html

Here are the phonics rules :
http://www.alphabeticalist.com/rulesummary.html

Any word that is not in the list are sight words

Note that it is not necessary to teach a child every word in the phonetic list. It is more important to let the child learn by reading story books regularly, then kids will also learn grammar and vocabulary.

[laughingcat]

Hello Tamarind,


Thanks for the reply. I have used the Peter and Jane books. In fact he is reading book 3 series now. But I noticed he can decode those phonetic words easily.

But when comes to high frequency words that cannot be ready by phonics such as and, here, the…he tends to forget. So how do I help in this area?

[tamarind]

laughingcat:

Hello Tamarind,


Thanks for the reply. I have used the Peter and Jane books. In fact he is reading book 3 series now. But I noticed he can decode those phonetic words easily.

But when comes to high frequency words that cannot be ready by phonics such as and, here, the....he tends to forget. So how do I help in this area?

These words are repeated throughout all the levels of Peter and Jane, by level 5 or 6, he should know the words very well.

I used to write the words on cards, then use it to play games with my boy For example, I put the words on different corners of the room. Then I called out a word, and my boy had to run to get the correct card. You can also think of other games.

Basically the child has to keep repeating the same words everyday, practice makes perfect. Kids like my boy requires many repetitions in order to remember new words, it took him many weeks to remember some words.

[laughingcat]

Thanks Tamarind.


I guess I need to be patient and plays lots of game. That means scratching my head for more ideas. :idea:

I guess that is the way for not easily decodeable sight words. Sometime he can remember but sometime he just can't. And that can be demoralising for me lah. Not so much on him....just need to be patient then.

[tamarind]

laughingcat:

Thanks Tamarind.


I guess I need to be patient and plays lots of game. That means scratching my head for more ideas. :idea:

I guess that is the way for not easily decodeable sight words. Sometime he can remember but sometime he just can't. And that can be demoralising for me lah. Not so much on him....just need to be patient then.

Don't be demoralized. My boy can take many weeks to remember some words How old is your child ? If he is less than 5 years old, you still have lots of time so you can take it easy.

[kids_r_innocent]

Hi,


Appreciate advise on the following:

I have juz started coaching my gal to spell. I realised that she may be good at breaking new words into parts to pronounce, however, she doesnt use/know how to use phonics to learn spelling. I am wondering what is the problem, and how to get tackle it (personally i am not good at using phonics to spell oso).

Thank you!!

[tamarind]

kids_r_innocent:

Hi,


Appreciate advise on the following:

I have juz started coaching my gal to spell. I realised that she may be good at breaking new words into parts to pronounce, however, she doesnt use/know how to use phonics to learn spelling. I am wondering what is the problem, and how to get tackle it (personally i am not good at using phonics to spell oso).

Thank you!!

Hi kids_r_innocent,
A very important part when teaching phonics, is to say a word, then ask the child to pick up the correct word. We must train the child to listen and then think about the letters associated with the sounds.

My methods are described in this page :
http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-to-teach-phonics.html

In Montessori phonics classes, teachers say a word, then the child have to circle the correct letters in their worksheets.

This is very different from just pointing to the word, breaking it up, and asking the child to repeat after us. By training them to listen to the sounds and then pick up the correct word on their own, we are training them to spell by listening to the words.

You can teach her by helping her to break up the words. For example, when you ask her to spell cat, say c-a-t and tell her to write down the letters. For long words like \"interesting\", when you say the word, break it up and pronounce the sounds slowly : in - ter - es - ting. Ask her to write down the letters associated with the sounds. After more practice, she should be fine.

[kids_r_innocent]

tamarind:

Hi kids_r_innocent,
A very important part when teaching phonics, is to say a word, then ask the child to pick up the correct word. We must train the child to listen and then think about the letters associated with the sounds.

My methods are described in this page :
http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-to-teach-phonics.html

In Montessori phonics classes, teachers say a word, then the child have to circle the correct letters in their worksheets.

This is very different from just pointing to the word, breaking it up, and asking the child to repeat after us. By training them to listen to the sounds and then pick up the correct word on their own, we are training them to spell by listening to the words.

You can teach her by helping her to break up the words. For example, when you ask her to spell cat, say c-a-t and tell her to write down the letters. For long words like \"interesting\", when you say the word, break it up and pronounce the sounds slowly : in - ter - es - ting. Ask her to write down the letters associated with the sounds. After more practice, she should be fine.

Oh... Listen to the sounds, break up the words. I will try this method, thks Tamarind.

[sean wife]

Hi Tamarind,


Like to check with you…in the leapfrog DVD, the sounds of ‘a’ and ‘u’ sounds the same? How do you differentiate that?

How does Montessori teaches the sound ‘a’? I know that some teaches it as ‘eh’, almost the same as the sound for ‘e’, except that it is a longer sound. And when it comes to blending, it seems like ‘eh’ sounds more logical. If we say ‘a’ as ‘ah’, then the word ‘at’ will sound like ‘ut’ right?

:?: