Monday 29 November 2010

New phonics reading test for six-year-olds

The government has announced plans to introduce a phonics progress test in all schools throughout England for children in Year 1. A pilot will take place in 2011, with the aim of rolling it out nationally in the summer of 2012.

The purpose will be to identify those children who have gaps in their knowledge of letter-sounds and difficulties with blending them to read words. It will therefore enable the school to target those in need of extra support.

The proposed test will include ‘non-words’ so that children will have to decode the word to read it, rather than relying on their visual memory of known whole words or using clues such as pictures or context to guess the words.

Inevitably, this has already led to criticism from anti-phonics lobbyists, who believe that phonics should be taught alongside other methods, rather than on its own - they argue that it will not test other reading skills such as overall vocabulary or comprehension of what they are reading.

Yes – these critics are correct – it will only test whether the child has reached the required level of phonics decoding – that is the point. Once children can decode properly with phonics early on, they can then move on to higher order reading skills.

Currently, one in six 7-year-olds and one in five 11-year-olds still fail to reach the standard expected of them in reading. Some time ago I read this analogy that sums this up very well:

‘There is an education bus and it stops to pick up passengers all the way to Year Three. After this, the bus accelerates and it gets much more difficult to get on. Unfortunately, many children never manage to get a seat on this bus and get left behind, unable to access the school curriculum properly.’

I think this new test could be an important bus stop to help make sure all our young children get a seat on that bus.

More information on the proposed test can be found on the Reading Reform Foundation (RRF) website and the DfE website.

Monday 18 October 2010

Floppy's Phonics Sounds and Letters






Floppy’s Phonics Sounds and Letters is a brand new synthetic phonics teaching programme that is being launched in January by Oxford University Press.


It is completely matched to Letters and Sounds, which is now used by many schools throughout the UK.

The new programme will provide teachers with all the resources needed to teach Letters and Sounds, including Handbooks, Activity Sheets, Assessment records, Alphabet Code Chart, Flashcards, Frieze and interactive CD-ROMs.

The Sounds and Letters books are not storybooks. They introduce and revise each set of sounds in the context of Oxford Reading Tree scenes.

The new programme has been devised by Debbie Hepplewhite, which is why I am confident about the quality of the content of these resources. Debbie has campaigned over many years for the introduction of synthetic phonics teaching for all children and has offered advice and expertise to many during that time.

Floppy’s Phonics Sounds and Letters will be available to buy on our website as soon as it is published. Details can be found here

Tuesday 10 August 2010

Sonic Phonics Software CD-ROM


Sonic Phonics Software is the most recent addition to our range of phonics resources.

If you are looking for an interactive tool for teaching all the letter sounds in a simple, non-cluttered way, then this CD-ROM, designed in conjunction with early years specialists, is a great option.

The software is very simple to use. The letters and digraphs are organised into levels so pupils can learn letter sounds and how to blend sounds into simple words, progressing at their own pace (the order follows the 'Letters and Sounds' programme).

The CD-ROM teaches all the letter sounds, which are spoken in a very 'pure' way - so important when it comes to blending sounds into words. More difficult levels explicitly teach letters that can make more than one sound and sounds that can be written in different ways.

There is also a video option - the chosen letter or word can be presented as a video clip of a mouth moving and pronouncing the letters, so this is particularly useful for those with a hearing difficulty or with English as a second language.

This great value CD-ROM is ideal for:

* parents / carers to use at home

* teachers (and teaching assistants) to use in the classroom

* student teachers

* tutors (of children or adults)

* speech therapists

Visit our website here for details of how to buy this software as either a Single User version or Site Licence for schools.

Thursday 13 May 2010

Michael Gove – Secretary of State for Education



Michael Gove has been appointed by David Cameron as 'Secretary of state for Education' in the new Cabinet.

Why do I think this is important? This is Michael Gove’s answer to a recent question as to what he saw as one of the main priorities for early years teaching:

“The central priority for the first years of primary schooling must be learning to read. Unless children have learned to read, they can't read to learn. Which is why we will improve teacher training to provide authoritative instruction in the implementation of systematic synthetic phonics. The most detailed academic studies – in Clackmannanshire and West Dunbartonshire – show that in these two relatively disadvantaged Scottish local authorities, systematic synthetic phonics teaching effectively eliminated illiteracy. So we will do everything we can to support teachers in getting reading right so that children can then go on to enjoy a broad, balanced and wide-ranging curriculum”. (The Guardian March 2010).

All those who are passionate about teaching children to read with Synthetic Phonics will be hoping that this new appointment will lead to a guaranteed whole school approach to teaching in this way.

Logically, this will also hopefully mean a re-think of the way that millions are spent on Reading Recovery intervention for struggling readers. Although this programme does include phonics, it is a mixed method approach that is at odds with good synthetic phonics teaching. It is true that there are many success stories, but that is not surprising given the intensive one-to-one tuition received by the children. If that same one-to-one time could be spent on additional phonics catch-up, I believe the results would undoubtedly be much better for a fraction of the cost.

Michael Gove has vowed to eliminate illiteracy in schools in England by the time he leaves office – I wish him every success.

Thursday 18 March 2010

Usborne Very First Reading Series


I have been debating the merits of a shiny new series that is due to be published by Usborne this month called 'Very First Reading'.

It is a series of 15 books, based on synthetic phonics, that has been developed to tie in with the Letters and Sounds programme now being used in many primary schools.


In the first seven books, the adult and child take turns to read - the text that the child reads is decodable, based on the sounds they will have learnt. From book 8, the child reads the whole story, with the adult providing help when needed.

On the face of it, this series sounds great - we all know that Usborne publish excellent quality books with lovely illustrations. I do, however, have one or two concerns about the series.

Firstly, the cost - at £4.99 a book, this makes the series unaffordable for many.

Secondly, when children are learning to read, they need a lot of practice at each level, and should only be asked to read text containing sounds they have been taught. There is only one book for each set of sounds, and if these are to be used in a serious way to support reading, parents would have to know exactly which sounds are known, and when to introduce the next book.

Thirdly, I am not convinced that when a young child is having a lovely story read to them, they will be interested in stopping to read their bit (which can be a painfully slow process when at the initial stage of blending).

I would be very interested to hear feedback from anyone using the series once it is published.

If you are interested in learning more about the Very First Reading series, you might like to watch this YouTube video of Peter Usborne - it has some interesting information about how and why children learn to read with phonics, and how decodable books are written:

Wednesday 3 March 2010

High Frequency Words & Tricky Words

High Frequency Words (HFWs) are the words that appear most often in printed materials.

Schools used to expect children to learn 45 HFWs by the end of their first year of school. These have now been replaced by a list of 100 most common words that are taught during Reception Year and Year 1:

1

the

21

that

41

not

61

look

81

put

2

and

22

with

42

then

62

don’t

82

could

3

a

23

all

43

were

63

come

83

house

4

to

24

we

44

go

64

will

84

old

5

said

25

can

45

little

65

into

85

too

6

in

26

are

46

as

66

back

86

by

7

he

27

up

47

no

67

from

87

day

8

I

28

had

48

mum

68

children

88

made

9

of

29

my

49

one

69

him

89

time

10

it

30

her

50

them

70

Mr

90

I’m

11

was

31

what

51

do

71

get

91

if

12

you

32

there

52

me

72

just

92

help

13

they

33

out

53

down

73

now

93

Mrs

14

on

34

this

54

dad

74

came

94

called

15

she

35

have

55

big

75

oh

95

here

16

is

36

went

56

when

76

about

96

off

17

for

37

be

57

It’s

77

got

97

asked

18

at

38

like

58

see

78

their

98

saw

19

his

39

some

59

looked

79

people

99

make

20

but

40

so

60

very

80

your

100

an


The problem is that many of these common words have complex spellings, so that children will not be able to read them in the early stages of reading by using their phonic decoding skills learnt, so they have to learn them by heart.

Tricky words
A ‘tricky’ word either contains letters (or letter combinations) that the child has not yet been taught (and will become fully decodable for them later on) or contains an irregular part that does not follow phonic rules (such as ‘here’, does’, ‘one’). Children do have to learn these words, but even with these words, an understanding of letter sounds helps, as it is only part of the word that is irregular.

A lot of words that are said to be 'irregular', or 'not decodable' are in fact perfectly decodable - they just have to be introduced at an appropriate stage. The majority of HFWs do follow decoding rules and can be sounded out once children have knowledge of how the sounds are represented in alternative ways.

Reading schemes such as the Oxford Reading Tree (Biff, Chip and Kipper stories) are written deliberately to include and 'learn' the HFWs. Good decodable reading schemes keep the HFWs to an absolute minimum in the early stages, giving children a chance to practise their blending skills using the sounds they have been taught.

If your child is following a good synthetic phonics programme, you will be very pleased to hear that they should not be bringing home lists of random, complex words that need to be learned by memory – a nightmare for both children and their parents! This is because phonic skills are established with regular words before trickier words are introduced slowly and systematically. These skills allow them to READ any word they come across (and understand it if it is in their spoken vocabulary).

“Of course English is not a simple phonetic
language, it’s very complex – that’s the problem –
but it does have a code. It has to be taught step by
step, gradually adding the irregularities. English has
a million words and you can’t teach them all one by
one” (Ruth Miskin).