Synthetic Phonics programmes now talk of ‘consonant blends’ or ‘adjacent consonants’, but what are they? Why is it that the letters ‘bl’ in the word ‘black’ are adjacent consonants while ‘ck’ are not? Speech and language therapist, Hema Desai explains the difference and suggests fun, multisensory activities to embed learning. As a speech and language […]
Read MoreI read this post and thought it was really worth reposting. It explains in simple and sympathetic language why decodable books have an important role to play in learning to read. New Zealand has been slow in adopting Systematic Synthetic Phonics, but things are changing for the better. This is a really worth a read! […]
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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 MoreRead here a the recently published report by Dr Marlynne Grant: Longitudinal Study from Reception to Year 2 (2010-2013) and Summary of an earlier Longitudinal Study from Reception to Year 6 (1997-2004) The Effects of a Systematic Synthetic Phonics Programme on Reading, Writing and Spelling – with whole classes of children who started with the […]
Read MoreHere is our latest tutorial explaining the term ‘grapheme’. This tutorial is aimed at teachers, teaching assistants and parents helping children learn to read with phonics. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsWtyKqpHko
Read MoreMany schools are having to choose a phonics programme to use in mainstream classrooms or with their catch-up pupils. How can they tell which programmes are of high quality and that they adhere to the principles of Synthetic Phonics? Debbie Hepplewhite has written a really useful list of criteria. Click on the link below: http://www.syntheticphonics.com/pdf%20files/Criteria%20for%20evaluating%20a%20phonics%20programme.pdf
Read MoreTeachers and parents interested in the phonics debate will want to see this You Tube video clip by Alison from spelfabet. Informed, measured, amusing and true! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e8SJFuGRFM
Read MoreCritics of synthetic phonics have claimed that the language of phonic reading books (decodable books) limits children’s vocabulary. Instead of enriching their vocabulary, they read about a ‘cat’ that ‘sat on a mat’. To this, I would say, “Have you seen the variety of decodable books that publishers have produced in recent years? Many of them […]
Read MoreThe Boomfield Learning Centre in London Bridge will be running two Synthetic Phonics hands-on workshops this term for TA’s and parents. Synthetic Phonics 1 on Monday 19th November 9.30-12.30 The workshop will cover the English Phonic Code, blending and segementing, precise pronunciation and using decodable texts. Synthetic Phonics 2 on Wednesday 5th of December 9.30-12.30 The workshop will […]
Read MoreWhat is the difference between ‘a blend’ (‘blend’ as a noun) and ‘to blend’ (as a verb)? Now that most schools are getting used to using synthetic phonics programmes, some old terms are being dropped and new terms are introduced. So, how do we now use the word ‘blend’: as a noun or a verb?
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