In our ‘how to…’ series we are going to delve into all things phonics instruction and give you our expert advice on developing confident readers. *** High-frequency words is another term for common words with tricky spellings, or high-frequency words with “irregular” spellings. The term “irregular” is a bit misleading because while beginner readers might […]
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The verb ‘to dictate’ is not one that teachers warm to. This is because we love to foster creativity in our children and to get them to write their own ideas. BUT when teaching children how to read and spell we need to use all the best tools we have to instruct our beginner readers […]
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English is complex and we need to teach reading in a structured way from simple to complex. Unfortunately, there is no avoiding high-frequency words with spellings the children haven’t learned yet because they are present in even the simplest of sentences, e.g. ‘The cat is on the mat’. In the very first sentences children read […]
Read MoreSo, we are resuming our campaign to change the way teachers send home spelling lists every week using the LOOK, WRITE, COVER, CHECK approach. Why doesn’t it work with so many children? Many children have a poor visual memory and as hard as they try, they cannot remember the shape of the word. This is […]
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Do your children forget spellings from one week to the next? Many teachers issue spelling lists each week only to find that a week or two down the road the children have already forgotten them. At Phonic Books we believe that teaching children the first 300 high-frequency words in a way that links up with […]
Read MoreHigh-frequency words are common words in our language. Many teachers believe that it is useful for children to learn to read and spell these words as soon as possible. The problem is that many of these words have complex spellings. This means that children may find it difficult to read and spell them until they […]
Read MoreThe new year has started and children are sent home to learn to read and spell tricky words by sight, that is by the shape of the word. Does this make sense if they are learning to read with Synthetic Phonics? Read this thoughtful post on the Phonics Blog. http://www.phonicsblog.co.uk/#/blog/4565770755/Common-Exception-Words-and-the-Muddle-over-Tricky-Words/7631625
Read MoreThe Synthetic Phonics approach to reading is to encourage beginner readers to sound out graphemes in a word and blend them together into a word. What to do when they encounter common words with ‘tricky’ graphemes they have not yet been taught? Here is an explantion of how to teach ‘tricky words’ to beginner readers while staying faithful to blending strategies and […]
Read MoreThis week I learned from Susan Godsland www.dyslexics.org.uk that the new term for ‘tricky words’ in the new National Curriculum is ‘common exception’ words. This term that is rather confusing. Firstly, why exception? Exception from what? Secondly, as Susan pointed out – it is not the word that is tricky/complex/ irregular/exceptional. It is the part of the word – the […]
Read MoreThe term ‘tricky words’ is used for some common high-frequency words that a beginner reader may encounter. For example words like ‘the’ or ‘said’. These words have complex spellings (graphemes) that the child may not yet have learned. Because these words are so common, there is need in the early stages of reading to provide children […]
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