If you are new to education or teaching in the UK, you will have heard the word Phonics being thrown around! Phonics is the way in which children in the UK are taught to read and write. All children are taught phonics from Early Years to Year 2.
It breaks down letters into sounds which are then taught in the context of different words.
Teachers in all year groups (should be) phonics trained so they understand how their students have learnt and can support those who are not meeting year group expectations.
Schools often follow different programs, the most popular are:
- Read, Write, Inc.
- Little Wandle
- Letters and Sounds
- Jolly Phonics
Familiarise yourself with your school’s program as they can have very specific methods of teaching phonics.
Phonics Screening Check
In Summer of Year 1, all children are required to take the statutory Phonics test, unless exempt.
If the child fails, they can retake in Year 2. The pass mark is around 32/40, but is subject to change each year.
The phonics test has 40 words for children to decode and read. There is a mixture of real words and fake (alien) words, and they get increasingly difficult in the test. Alien words are included as they show that children can read different words even if they’re unfamiliar.
The test is a means to measure how well children can read and how effectively phonics has been taught.
Schools will do practise tests throughout the year.
In Summer of Year 1, the official paper comes through. Teachers administer the test on a 1-1 basis and mustn’t help or give clues to the correct pronunciation.
Expectations
Phonics groups can sometimes be split according to ability. There are also interventions (groups) run to help students catch up with learning if they need.
As a teacher, you’ll be expected to:
- Lead whole class/ groups for explicit phonics lessons
- Teach guided reading which is based on phonics teaching
- Record and track data
- Create resources
- Administer phonics screening check
Vocabulary
Decoding – segmenting and blending a word to figure out what is says
Segmenting – breaking up a word into its known sounds
Blending – putting the sounds in the word altogether
Phoneme – the sound a letter or more than one letter makes
Grapheme – a written sound
Digraph – two letters that make one sound
Trigraph – 3 letters that make one sound
Split Digraph – 2 letters which make one sound but are separated within a word e.g. Cake
The Sounds
Sounds are taught in a sequence, beginning with an understanding of letters and the alphabet it goes up to phase 6. By phase 6, children are in year 2 and developing fluency in their reading.
The main phases which teachers need to be aware of are phase 2-5.
Phase 2 –
Phase 3 –
Phase 4 is combining two consonants together, these aren’t taught explicitly e.g. felt, brick
Phase 5 –
For support and advice on how to teach phonics and where to find resources, speak to your school. Remember to find out what program your school follows and familiarise yourself with this.
