All About Teaching and Learning Phonics

[GreenQ]

Update...


Hi Charmaine_chong,

Have received ur pm and replied u...

[tamarind]

Spelling


I started to teach my boy phonics and reading since Jan 2008, but I have never made him memorize the spelling of any words. I also did not make him practice writing any words. Since he is only 4 years 8 months old now, I thought I will let him practice writing words when he is older.

Yesterday I thought of testing him. I have a book of 128 high frequency words. I read out each word, then asked him to tell me how to spell the word. I am surprised to find out that he can spell all these words with a tick in the photos below !

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3639/3569583155_cc55a5f518.jpg\">
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3632/3570398804_c58c2a64aa.jpg\">

My boy has a very strong foundation in phonics, and I think that really helps him to spell phonetic words. He has been reading the Ladybird Key Word series everyday, and he has read the common words hundreds of times already, so he can spell many non-phonetic sight words too. Phonics and reading consistently really make spelling very easy

Checkout my blog for more information.
http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2009/05/spelling.html

[tamarind]

[Editor's note: Topic selected for http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/content/1st-100-words.]


Source : http://www.theweeweb.co.uk/public/news_ladybird.php?id=156

Old-style Ladybird books are word perfect
The Peter and Jane stories of the 1960s taught millions of children to read before falling victim to more progressive methods in schools.

Now the Ladybird series may hold a lesson for today's generation after a study found that children need to master only 100 words before they can move on to books.

Academics at Warwick University said that teachers were wasting time getting children to learn more words. Instead, just as in the Peter and Jane books, children should master the 100 most common English words and then learn others by reading a wide range of stories.

The Government literacy strategy requires children to learn 158 words by the age of 7. But the study by Jonathan Solity and Janet Vousden, of the Warwick University Institute of Education, found that only 100 of the most common words were needed to tackle any book, including adult fiction and non-fiction.

The classroom time devoted to learning extra words would be better spent on reading real books. Children would develop a love of reading and build up their vocabulary by seeing words in their context.


The study, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, analysed more than 900,000 words from adult and children's books as well as two reading schemes used in primary schools.

It concluded that only 16 words accounted for a quarter of written English and that children could understand 48 per cent of texts studied by learning 100 high-frequency words.

The extra 58 words set out in the literacy strategy added only between 2 and 4 per cent to pupils' understanding.

Dr Solity told The Times Educational Supplement that this might explain why seven-year-olds who had learnt the 100 most common words appeared to make little progress with their reading after learning the remaining vocabulary.

He questioned the Government's decision to order a back to basics approach to teaching reading in schools from September. Ruth Kelly, the Education Secretary, said last week that teachers must adopt a traditional synthetic phonics method in which children learn to build up words before being introduced to books, fast and first. Dr Solity said real books were likely to be more interesting.

100 you need ...

a, about, after, all, am, an, and, are, as, at, away, back, be, because, big, but, by, call, came, can, come, could, did, do, down, for, from, get, go, got, had, has, have, he, her, here, him, his, I, in, into, is, it, last, like, little, live, look, made, make, me, my, new, next, not, now, of, off, old, on, once, one, other, our, out, over, put, saw, said, see, she, so, some, take, that, the, their, them, then, there, they, this, three, time, to, today, too, two, up, us, very, was, we, were, went, what, when, will, with, you.

... 58 you don't

play, cat, day, dog, mum, no, dad, yes, another, ball, bed, been, boy, brother, can't, dig, don't door, first, girl, good, half, help, home, house, how, if, jump, just, laugh, love, man, many, may, more, much, must, name, night, or, people, push, pull, ran, school, seen, should, sister, than, these, took, tree, water, way, where, who, would, your.


How to use the Ladybird Key Word series
http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2008/12/key-words-with-ladybird.html

[clarabella]

That's an interesting article.

Especially the part about the 58 words that are identified as not needed.
'Dog', 'ball' and 'tree' are in the list, yet these words appear in the very first Ladybird Key Words series (Book 1A).
I guess the author of the article did not read Peter and Jane. :lol:

[tamarind]

clarabella:

That's an interesting article.

Especially the part about the 58 words that are identified as not needed.
'Dog', 'ball' and 'tree' are in the list, yet these words appear in the very first Ladybird Key Words series (Book 1A).
I guess the author of the article did not read Peter and Jane. :lol:

The Ladybird Key Words series certainly teaches more than the 100 words. In fact, when a child completes the entire 12 levels of the Peter and Jane series, he/she will know at least a few hundred words. I think the point that the author is trying to make, is that a child only needs to know the 100 most common words, then he or she can start to read any book. Rather than trying to focus on individual words, like using phonics or flash cards, the child should just start to read books, which is exactly what the Ladybird series is trying to achieve.

[clarabella]

Oh, I definitely agree on how effective the Ladybird series is.

So far, I haven't found any other reader that is as good at introducing and reinforcing the key words. In fact, from personal experience, I find that just by finishing the first few books of the series, a young preschooler would be sufficiently armed with enough words to be able to read many other beginner and even intermediate level books.
I also appreciate the fact that with this series, I don't have to hear sentences such as 'A fat cat with a hat sat on a mat.' over and over again! :lol:

[smurf]

anyoen recommend Dr Seuss books?

[tamarind]

clarabella,

I totally agree with you that just finishing the first few books of the series will enable the child to know enough words to read other books

The Ladybird series are \"learning\" books only, it is very important for kids to be exposed to a wide range of children literature.

smurf,
Dr Seuss books are another \"must read\" books for kids.

http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2008/12/books-for-beginning-reader.html

Personally I think that every child must read \"Green Eggs and Ham\". The entire book of 62 pages are written using less than 50 words. It is very easy to read, and I think most importantly, it shows the child that he/she can actually finish reading a book (with so many words) on his/her own. The child will be more confident to read other books.

[tamarind]

Dear all parents,

I just found this website by the British Council in UK.

There is a very cute little game for learning the letter sounds.

http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/kids/phonics/index.html

Check out the sounds of L and R ! You will find that it is exactly the same as the Leapfrog Letter Factory. (I am bringing this up because another mommy asked me again about the L and R sounds in the Letter Factory DVD) Whether it is American or British, the L and R sounds are the same.

L should be pronounced as \"ULLL\" and not \"LER\". R should be pronounced at \"ERRR\" and not \"RER\".

[cookiecreature]

[quote=\"tamarind\"]Dear all,

Please read the following article. It was published in the Straits Times in Feb 2009.

http://www.asiaone.com/News/Education/Story/A1Story20090209-120517.html

[color=blue]MYTH: 'Buying my child plenty of books will get him into the habit of reading.'

Dear Tamarind, tks for sharing. Very useful website.