This year I have a number of students in Years 5 and 6 who are fluent readers. Their problem is spelling. Typically they may spell a word with all the correct letters that are in the wrong order, e.g., ‘nitgh’ for ‘night’. Children in Years 5 and 6 in the UK are expected to be […]
Read MoreApproaches to Teaching Reading
How to teach children about syllables
Before children can begin to read and spell multisyllabic words they need to get a feel for what a syllable is – for what a ‘mouthful of a word’ is. If they have had systematic phonics instruction they may find it difficult to switch from sounds (phonemes) to syllables and may confuse the two. Some […]
Read MoreCumulative teaching – how to teach children who forget
Many of my students at the Bloomfield Learning Centre have difficulty remembering the complex alternative spellings of sounds in English. The problem is they don’t hold on to what they have learnt. The teacher may teach ‘ai’ and the next lesson ‘ee’ and after that ‘oa’. By this stage ‘ai’ is forgotten. It seems that […]
Read MoreIndependent review of That Dog! series
We have just received this independent review from Teach Primary Magazine. The review is available online. See link below. Phonic Books – That Dog! for catch-up readers across the school. At a glance: • Age appropriate, synthetic phonic catch-up reading books with decodable text for pupils who can read CVC words • Controlled language […]
Read MoreTeaching ‘Silent’ letters
Do you teach ‘silent letters’? Read what the Literacy Blog has to say about them. http://www.thereadingcentre.com/2011/11/26/silent-letters/
Read MoreTop tips for teaching phonics
Teach step-by-step You don’t need to teach the whole alphabet to get reading going. Start with just a few letters, and get children to build words from them. Phonic Books starts with ‘s’, ‘a’, ‘t’, ‘i’ and ‘m’. Work with word-building Word-building is the best way to teach reading and spelling. Write letters on cards […]
Read MoreHow to use decodable books
Decodable books are controlled texts that beginner readers can read independently once they have been taught the spellings in the text. Children learning to read with phonics benefit from reading decodable texts because these texts allow them to practice what they have been taught and experience success. They also help children develop an effective strategy […]
Read MoreComprehension is only as good as one’s vocabulary
Comprehension is only as good as one’s vocabulary. So, is there any point in comprehension exercises? Should we be focusing on building meaningful vocabulary? Read this thought-provoking blog by Solomon Kingsworth. https://medium.com/@solomon_teach/small-is-beautiful-part-two-5fe2cd58f1fc
Read MoreUsing morphology to teach word structure
Do you have children who spell the word ‘jumped’ as ‘jumpt’, and ‘wanted’ as ‘wantid’? This is because they are listening to the sounds at the ends of words. After all, we tell them to listen to sounds when they spell. Sometimes, it is very helpful to bring a bit of morphology into the teaching […]
Read More300 high-frequency word phonic chart
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 […]
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