PHO·NICS
Phonics is the basic rules for translating written symbols into sounds. Emergent readers and writers should understand that there is a relationship between letter patterns and sound patterns in English (the alphabetic principle), and eventually develop an awareness of the separate sounds in words. Without the recognition of words, there would be an incomplete foundation for constructing meaning. Phonics, along with other the use of context, word parts, syntax, and automaticity enables a reader to recognize words. Learning the basics- relationships between letters and sounds- enables children to decode words they have never seen before. As this process becomes more automatic, it releases children’s attention to the higher-level activities involved in comprehending the text’s meaning.
Children will use phonics along with the context and syntax of the text, the illustrations, and the words they recognize automatically. The most effective and efficient phonics instruction focuses on children’s attention on noticing letter/sound patterns in the major components of syllables: that is, on noticing the letter/sound patterns in initial consonants and consonant clusters and in the rime, which consists of the vowel of a syllable plus consonants, such as –ake, -ent, -ish, -ook. Students should not see the rules as fundamentals but rather as a way to note patterns within words. For example, the silent final e is not always consistent, but knowing about it does help the reader note the pattern. Rules should not be taught for recitation.
When children have a context in which to learn the code system, instruction of phonics is most successful. Children who have been exposed to print during the early child development years have a solid foundation for learning to read. For children lacking this foundation, activities such as listening to stories, shared reading of Big Books, and matching print in nursery rhymes on charts provides them with a context of what reading and writing are and the uses that sound letter knowledge might have.
Phonemic Awareness and Alphabetic Principle in addition to Phonics and Decoding Skills provide students with early skills of understanding letters and words in order to build their reading and writing skills. Students will need to recognize how letters make a sound in order to form a word. While each word has a different meaning to be to format sentences. While reading strategies for Reading Assessment and Instruction, I was able to find three strategies for Phonemic Awareness and three strategies for Alphabetic Principles which will provide advantage for the student in my research and classroom settings.
This activity suits the child’s current stage of oral development will interest them and aid in them progressing in their oral development. Children at this stage of development enjoy listening to stories which is good not only for their receptive skills, but also for their expressive language (Fellows and Oakley, 2014), in all four key components of spoken language. It helps with phonemes by getting the child to focus on the phonological patterns throughout the text (Fellows and Oakley, 214). Syntax knowledge allows them to observe the sentence structure and grammar in the book which allows them to develop a stronger awareness of the syntax. Visual aids in storybooks can aid in the child in the understanding of semantics (Fellows and Oakley’s), as the story is read aloud their receptive skills hear those more difficult words, when paired with a visual cue such as a picture in the book the child understands better and thus they are able to gain a better understanding of how to speak these difficult words. A better understanding of pragmatics can also be gained from storybooks as they understand how people communicate in society such as greetings and asking for things (Fellows and Oakley,
Reading is an integral aspect of succession in life and is required to complete the simplest of tasks. Therefore the teaching of reading, which in England is done mainly through a programme of systematic synthetic phonics, is of great importance in all primary schools. The word phonics, “describes the letters or symbols used to encode a language’s spoken components” (Venezky, 1999. Cited in Mesmer and Griffith, 2006) and the “importance of systematic phonics instruction in relation to the teaching of reading has been increasingly recognised by English-speaking countries” (Wyse and Goswami, 2008). This is most likely due to as Venezky (1999) states, because English as a language is made up of an alphabetic code.
Six principles for early reading instruction by Bonnie Grossen will be strongly enforced. It includes Phonemic awareness, each letter-Phonemic relationship explicitly, high regular letter-sound relationship systematically, showing exactly how to sound out words, connected decodable text to practice the letter phonemic relationships and using interesting stories to develop language comprehension. Double deficit hypothesis which focuses on phonological awareness and rapid naming speed.
... to two different ways a child is taught to read, phonics and whole language. Phonics includes teaching reading to children by requiring them to learn the sounds of each letter before they begin to decipher simple words (Berger, 303). Whole-language teaches reading by encouraging children to develop talking, listening, reading, and writing in learning communication (Berger, 303). I remember learning how to read and how hard it was. I can recall being given a question in first grade, where we had to read about a certain situation. My said something like the firefighters just arrived on the fire truck. What will they do next? I answered that they would sit down and eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I remember my teacher talking to me about my answer because I couldn’t read.
The current controversy involving phonics instruction appears to center on two questions: “How much knowledge of letter-sound connection is necessary for the development of conventional reading and writing?” and “Can sufficient phonological knowledge be acquired by children through informal, indirect instruction,
For toddlers it is a learning process and the first thing they learn about print is through their sight (Cowling, 2012). As an educator we can initiate children in early literacy experiences through conversations and play. Early literacy experiences can include a range and diverse activities such play as an alphabetic sensory table that will make connections to letter recognition, writing and reading and many other pathways of literacy. By putting together a sensory table the children have fun and it involves hands on way for them to become exposed to letters. This resources involves foam shaped letters, a sensory table and some containers and scoops, the short coming of this design and application is the fact that as an educator I do not expect toddlers to know the alphabet, however by exposing them to letters early on through play, I can show them that theses letters having meaning and as they get older, not only can they recognise the letters in their names, but also names of their peers and family
How does an e at the end of a word make the word a long vowel?
As explained phonological awareness develops through a gradual process of refinement of sounds, starting with broad distinctions between general sounds, moving ultimately towards fine gradations of phonemes (Barratt-Pugh, Rivalland, Hamer & Adams, 2005a). Studies David Hornsby and Lorraine Wilson from suggesting that children learn phonic before they learn how to read and write. Children at young ages explore the relationships in sound and letter, this leads there phonics to a graphic symbol.
Four phases of reading development have been established (Ehri 1994, 1995, 1998, 1999) : pre-alphabetic, partial alphabetic, full alphabetic and consolidated alphabetic. These phases has led to the core understanding of children's reading development, apart from the pre-alphabetic phase phonological awareness skills are seen throughout the phases.
Reading is a complex process that’s difficult to explain linearly. A student’s reading capabilities begin development long before entering the school setting and largely start with exposure (Solley, 2014). The first remnants of what children are able to do in terms of reading are built from their parents and other people and object around them as they’re read to, spoken to, and taken from place to place to see new things (Solley, 2014). As kids are exposed to more and more their noises quickly turn into intentional comprehensible messages and their scribbling begins to take the form of legible text as they attempt to mimic the language(s) they’re exposed to daily.
The five key elements are one, Phonemic Awareness. This is when a teacher helps children to learn how to manipulate sounds in our language and this helps children to learn how to read. Phonemic Awareness can help to improve a student’s reading, and spelling. With this type of training the effects on a child’s reading will last long after training is over. The second key is Phonics. Phonics has many positive benefits for children in elementary schools from kindergarten up to the sixth grade level. Phonics helps children who struggle with learning how to read by teaching them how to spell, comprehend what they are reading, and by showing them how to decode words. The third key is Vocabulary. Vocabulary is important when children are learning how to comprehend what they are reading. Showing children, the same vocabulary words by using repetition will help them to remember the words. The fourth key is comprehension. Comprehension is when a child’s understanding of comprehension is improved when teachers use different techniques such as generating questions, answering questions, and summarizing what they are
According to Bursuck & Damer (2011) phonemes are “the smallest individual sounds in words spoken.” Phonemic awareness is the “ability to hear the phonemes and manipulate the sounds” (p. 41). Phonemic awareness is essential because without the ability students are not able to manipulate the sounds. According to the National Institute for Literacy (2007), “students with poor phonics skills prevent themselves from reading grade-level text and are unable to build their vocabulary” (p.5) Agreeing with the importance of phonemic awareness, Shapiro and Solity attempted to use whole class instruction to improve students’ phonological awareness. The intervention showed that whole class instruction assisted not only the students with poor phonemic awareness, but also on-level developing readers.
Reading and writing is a key part of everyone’s life. There has been some encouraging levels of reading development in primary school assessments. According to the National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy report (2015), 95.5% of students achieve at or above the national minimum standard of reading. It is important to know effective ways to teach reading so children can become active problem solvers to enable them to read for meaning or for fun. Over the years, there has been a big amount of research into the most effective ways to teach reading skills to students. There are some systematically taught key skills and strategies that help achieve these levels of reading. Some of these skills include phonological awareness, phonemic awareness,
Experimental studies have been undertaken throughout the years in relation to alphabet letter instruction. The first of these experiments were undertaken with kindergarten and year one students in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The purpose of these early experiments was to examine the hypothesis that letter-name knowledge played a causal role in the relationship between letter-name knowledge and early reading. If knowledge of letter names was a causal factor, then instruction that increased children’s letter-name knowledge should increase early reading performance. It was concluded from these early studies that there was little educational benefit to be gained from letter-name instruction.