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 learnt 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 More
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 the English 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 […]
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 […]
Read MoreFluent readers may find it difficult to understand why beginner readers find some words difficult to decode. These are often called ‘tricky words’ – but what’s so tricky about them?
Read MoreThese days, we hear a lot about ‘tricky’ words, phonically ‘irregular’ words, ‘sight’ words and ‘high-frequency’ words. Do all these terms mean the same thing?
Read MoreWouldn’t it be great if we could teach those high-frequency words strictly within the phonic progression of our programme?
Read More
