All About Teaching and Learning Phonics

[tamarind]

siak:

Tamarind, I am not a systematic person, though I find systematic approach can produce a better result. May you share after P&J series, what is the next series that can be suitable for my elder daugther?

After the Peter and Jane series, my boy has read :
The enormous crocodile
The giraffe, the pelly and me
The minpins
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

All these are by Roald Dahl. The first 2 books are funny, the last book has a scary monster so you may want to read the book first before buying. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a more difficult compared to the first 3 books, I would suggest that you let her watch the movie(by Johnny Depp) first, then read the book, so that she can visualize the story better.

I highly recommend \"My Father's Dragon\" by Ruth Stiles Gannet. This is a wonderful book about a boy and a dragon, very exciting but not scary, and very suitable for 4 to 5 years old who are reading very well. Lots of words but also lots of pictures.

You can see pictures of these books in my blog. Click on the photos to read the pages in the books :
http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2009/09/books-they-love.html

My boy has also finished reading Winnie-the-pooh by A.A. Milne.
http://www.amazon.com/Winnie-Pooh-Milne/dp/0525477683/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265598968&sr=8-8
Make sure you get the original version, not the Disney one. The original has lots of words, but the words are very simple compared to Roald Dahl's books. This book is not as exciting as My Father's Dragon, but the stories are very suitable for 4 to 5 years old.

All these books are available at the National Library.

I would advise you to let your girl read these books out loud to you, so that you can help her if there are words that she does not know.

Remember that a child may be reading very well at a very young age, but he/she may not completely understand what he/she is reading. So we should try to let them read books with pictures on every page, because pictures are very helpful for kids to understand the story.

Also take a look at the Rainbow Fairy series, available at all Popular bookshops. These are not great classics, but most young girls will be attracted to the books and you can let your girls read these books silently on their own.

As for my girl, the first book after she completed Peter and Jane, is Charlotte's Web by E.B. White. This book is considered by many as one of the best children's book ever written. It was my literature textbook at Sec 1, and I heard that this book is now used in GEP classes. But I don't recommend this book for children who are too young, because they may not be able to understand the beauty and meaning of the story. And I have heard of mommies who said that their kids think it is boring

My girl finished reading the book when she was 5 years old, but I don't really know how much she really understood, though she can still remember the story very well now. She did not complain that it is boring, and she was willing to finish reading the entire book out loud That time I only asked her to read one or two pages a day.

[tamarind]

Phonics – What is the New Approach?

How Schools Teach Reading and Spelling Using Synthetic Phonics

http://primary-school-curriculum.suite101.com/article.cfm/phonics_what_is_the_new_approach

The main approach to the teaching of reading and spelling in English schools is that of systematic or synthetic phonics.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF in UK) currently encourages state maintained schools to adopt a systematic approach as outlined in the 2007 guidance “Letters and Sounds: Principles and Practice of High Quality Phonics”.
Best Practice in Phonics Teaching

The DCSF advises schools to:

* Carry out short, daily phonics sessions (15 to 20 minutes);
* Make teaching active and multi-sensory;
* Follow a structured teaching sequence (groups of sounds introduced in a set order);
* Brisk teaching of 44 key sounds (phonemes) within the first year of statutory schooling (the reception year);
* Explicitly teach children to blend sounds together for reading, and segment them for writing;
* Set phonics work within a broad, language-rich curriculum which takes account of the four interdependent strands of language: speaking, listening, reading and writing, and vocabulary.

Good phonic skills help children to become better readers and spellers, so it makes sense to help them develop a secure grasp of the essential sound and spelling patterns that words are composed of. There are 44 key phonemes in the English language – the smallest units of sound that can change words. Some of these are single alphabet sounds such as s-a-t-p-i-n, but others may be combinations of letters like sh, ck or ie.

[tamarind]

A systematic review of the research literature on the use of phonics in the teaching of reading and spelling

http://publications.dcsf.gov.uk/default.aspx?PageFunction=productdetails&PageMode=publications&ProductId=RB711&

http://s1.postimage.org/btA49-23f8f41b6170e42f59a53873b28e6911.jpg\">
http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/

[pea]

tamarind:

pea:

I really want to say thank you to Tamarind for her inspiring posts. They were a great starting point for my attempts to teach my boy phonics at home. However my boy (almost 3.5yrs old now) still struggles with phonics... He prefers to sight read and does not like to slow down to decode a new word using phonics. Just wants me to tell him what the word is, memorise it, and move on. So impatient :roll: .


Siak, are your girls in K1 and N2? So close in age, must be fun for them.

pea,
You are welcome
There is no need to ask your boy to slow down to decode a new word using phonics if he does not like to. If he can remember it by sight, then let him read by sight. In fact, I do not ask my kids to decode the words in the Peter and Jane series at all

Kids may be able to read by learning sight words alone, but when it comes to spelling, they will need to put in a lot of effort if they don't know phonics.

Phonics helps not only in reading, it is also a very important skill to help a child to spell words.

My P1 girl has hanyu pinyin, english and maths spelling every week. Since she has a good foundation in phonics, she does not feel stressed at all.

You only have to make sure that he knows how to spell any 3 letter word by listening to the sounds. Also get him to understand the technique of blending 4 letter words like :
http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2008/08/bl-cl-gl-fl-pl.html

In fact, that is all that my boy knows about phonics. He does not really understand about the silent E. But that is good enough to make spelling so easy for him.

So long as you have practiced phonics sufficiently with your boy, he already knows the technique, and he is actually using the technique to help him remember new words even though he is not showing you

Phonics and sight words should be taught at the same time, and it is perfectly OK if kids like one method better than the other. Just make sure that they know both

Thanks, Tamarind, for your encouragement.

My boy also does not understand the silent E thingy. I also think it's not necessary as I did not realise there's such a rule till I watched Leapfrog's Code Word Caper with him! Nevertheless, he enjoys watching Code Word Caper very much!

I would also recommend the Sesame Street dvd's. Very catchy tunes and also educational.

Tamarind, isn't your girl going to be bored with the Stellar books since she is already such an advanced reader? :lol:

Siak, your younger girl is about the same age as my boy.

[mummy of 2]

I think I also don't quite get the slient E thingy


I'm a bit more laid-back, in the sense that I only get my kids to learn the sounds for each letter. Beyond that I leave it to the school teachers as I'm not conifdent that I'm teaching it correctly.

I admire parents like Tarimand who really dedicate time to teach their kids phonics. :udawoman:

[tamarind]

[quote]
I would also recommend the Sesame Street dvd's. Very catchy tunes and also educational.

Tamarind, isn't your girl going to be bored with the Stellar books since she is already such an advanced reader?[/quote]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.

[tamarind]

[quote]
I admire parents like Tarimand who really dedicate time to teach their kids phonics. [/quote]mummy of 2,
The fact is that even when I put in a lot of effort to teach at home, my boy still cannot fully understand 100% of what I teach. But so long as he knows about 70%, I am happy enough

[mummy of 2]

Hi tamarind


At least your kids can read on their own

I hope to achieve that, but as I have just started on readers with DS1, I think it will be a long time before he can read books by Roald Dahl, though I have already bought them in advance

[starz]

Hi Tamarind,


My girl is still reading Ladybird Level 4a, its been a slow progress as my schedule is real busy. When is the best time to get the Roald Dahl book? as in must reach a certain level of ladybird level?

btw my girl has just started her phonics lesson at montessori. check w u. due to she is not feeling well, she has missed 2 lessons. is there any makeup or teacher will revise? not sure she will lag anot?

[tamarind]

starz:

Hi Tamarind,


My girl is still reading Ladybird Level 4a, its been a slow progress as my schedule is real busy. When is the best time to get the Roald Dahl book? as in must reach a certain level of ladybird level?

btw my girl has just started her phonics lesson at montessori. check w u. due to she is not feeling well, she has missed 2 lessons. is there any makeup or teacher will revise? not sure she will lag anot?

starz,
I don't think they allow make up lessons. You can check with the teacher.

Kids who complete level 10 or 11 of the Ladybird series, will be able to read any Roald Dahl books. Though there will be about 5 to 10% of the words that they don't know, so it is best that we ask them to read out loud to us so that we can help them. Otherwise, they may not understand the stories at all. Also, start with the shorter ones like the Enormous Crocodile.