Phonics

= Phonics =

***What is phonics?* **
Phonics is a useful way of examining the relationship between sounds and letters, which enables children to understand that spoken sounds have written symbols (letters or words). This understanding is referred to as the //alphabetic principle //, a key tool in learning to read or write and one that can be taught by mapping sounds to letters for instance, the sound or phoneme /s/ corresponds with the letter ‘s’, /u/ matches with ‘u’ and /n/ with ‘n’, combine the sounds and they make the word ‘sun’.

Another key element of phonics is phonological awareness which, “…refers to the to sound structure of speech and [the] way the sounds of the language operate and are produced.” (Hill 1999, p.21) Things such as intonation, stress and timing as well as awareness of words, syllables and phonemes, are phonological aspects of language. According to Hill (1999, p.22), phonological awareness is the ability to attend to the sounds of language as distinct from its meaning. So rhymes such as … // “How doth the little crocodile //// Improve his shining tail, //// And pour the waters of the Nile // // On every golden scale!” // (Carroll 1998, p19) involve phonological awareness of intonation, stress and timing and noticing sound similarities (such as tail and scale above) and differences (for instance between look and took). //Phonemic awareness// is a more specific term than phonology as it focuses on small units of sound that affect meaning. It is the awareness that “…every spoken word can be conceived as a sequence of phonemes…” (Snow, Burns & Griffin 1998, p.52) and not simply the ability to produce or discriminate between phonemes (Hill 1999, p.22).

** *Content of phonics* **
  There are different stages within phonics that once mastered progress towards a better comprehension of reading and writing (following stages paraphrased from, Hill 2006). **STAGE ONE,**  The letters of the alphabet  Consonants are all the letters that aren't vowels and can occur at the beginning, end or within words, such as 'K'- __k__eep, see__k__. Some consonants have more than one sound such as 'g' and 'c' that have both soft and hard sounds such as '__g__ate' and '__g__iant'.  The vowels are a,e,i,o,u.   An activity that could help Marmaduke Monkey to learn Stage One is an activity built on rhyming words, asking him to think of words that rhyme with hat for example.  <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)">**STAGE TWO**, <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: rgb(213,35,28)">Onset and Rime <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"> An onset is any consonant or combination of consonants that come before the vowel. For example in the word ‘sock’ ‘s’ is the onset because it precedes the ‘o’ vowel. <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"> The rime is the remaining vowel and consonants that come after the onset. So in the example of the word ‘sock’ the rime is the rest of the word, the ‘ock’ sound. <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"> Onsets and rimes make it easy for Marmaduke Monkey to divide words and is a useful way of familiarising him with word families and individual phonemes. <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)">  <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"> An activity to build on Stage Two knowledge is a word slide where, “You will need a large piece of cardboard with two slots to allow a long rectangular piece of cardboard to pull through easily. Write initial letter sounds on the large card and word endings on the long rectangular card. As children pull the long card through the slots, they sound or write the words they make,” (Hill 2006, p.251). <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"> <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"> **STAGE THREE,**  <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: rgb(216,35,28)">Blends <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"> Blends can be: <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"> 2-letter initial consonant blends <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,107,255)">eg. bl = __bl__ack, __bl__anket, __bl__ue <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"> 2-letter final consonant blends <span style="COLOR: rgb(2,147,242)">eg. pt = lea__pt__, cre__pt__, ke__pt__ <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"> and <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"> 3-letter initial consonant blends <span style="COLOR: rgb(12,104,207)">eg. spl = __spl__ash, __spl__urge

<span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)">  <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"> A helpful interactive website that has games based on blend sounds is [|http://www.genkienglish.net/phonics.ht]m <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"> <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"> **STAGE FOUR**, <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: rgb(216,35,31)">Digraphs and other letter combinations <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"> Digraphs are when two letters coming together result in a single sound. They can either be consonant digraphs, such as ‘t’ and ‘h’ making /th/, or vowel digraphs, such as the pair ‘ai’ making the word ‘paint’. <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"> Vowel digraphs however can sometimes have variations such as the digraph ‘oo’ can be pronounced in two different ways for instance in ‘boot’ or ‘book’. Also, dipthongs occur when vowels make two sounds in the mouth such as in ‘oil’. <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"> <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"> **STAGE FIVE,**  <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: rgb(216,35,28)">Structural Analysis <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"> Stage Five, “Involves making structural changes to a base word” (Hill, 2006, p.221) Syllables, contractions, compound words, prefixes and suffixes are all elements that can change the structure of a word. <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)">  <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"> **Syllables:** Syllables divide between two consonants (except blends) or in front of one. For instance, hap_pen between double consonants, or wa_ter where a single consonant is between two vowels. <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)">  <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"> **Contractions:** are single words that come from two combined words which usually omit one or more letters found in these words substituted by an apostrophe. For example,  <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"> <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"> I am = I’m <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"> They have = they’ve <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"> You are = you’re <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)">  <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"> **Compound Words:** are single words that are made up of two different words. Such as, <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)">  <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"> Some + day = someday <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"> Foot + ball = football <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"> Safe + way = Safeway <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"> <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)">  <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)">   <span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)">Through phonics, I can provide an effective instruction to Marmaduke Monkey who can then in turn begin to solve problems of unfamiliar words. It is a vital part in helping him to read and write.