PHONICS & EARLY

READING
PD Day Friday 17th July
PHONEME
-phon-, root. -phon-
THE SMALLEST UNIT OF SOUND IN A comes from Greek, where
WORD it has the meaning
"sound; voice. '' This
There are four principles: meaning is found in such
•Sounds/phonemes are represented by letters words as: cacophony,
homophone, megaphone,
microphone
•A phoneme can be represented by one or more letters
e.g. sh, th, ee, air

•The same phoneme can be represented/spelled in more than one way

e.g. rain, may, lake

•The same spelling can represent more than one sound

e.g. bread ,heal
GRAPHEME
A LETTER OR SEQUENCE OF LETTERS
THAT REPRESENTS A PHONEME
A digraph is a two-letter grapheme where two letters represent one
phoneme.
Greek root graph which
means ‘to write’
• geography: Earth
•A consonant digraph contains two consonants. ‘writing’
e.g. sh, ck, th, ll • biography: ‘writing’ of
someone’s life
• bibliography: ‘writing’
about books used
•A vowel digraph contains at least one vowel. • calligraphy: beautiful
‘writing’
e.g. ai, ee, ar, oy • choreography: the
‘writing’ of dance steps
CONT.

•A trigraph is a three-letter grapheme where three letters represent one

phoneme.
night hair catch

•A four-letter grapheme uses four letters to represent one phoneme.

w eight

•A split digraph has a letter that splits (comes between) the two letters in the
diagraph
Make scene like bone cube type
ABBREVIATIONS
These abbreviations are used to describe the order and number of graphemes
in words

VC vowel-consonant
CVC consonant-vowel-consonant
CCVC consonant-consonant-vowel-consonant

•am each VC
•Sam beach CVC
•slam bleach CCVC
(Be aware when writing targets for PCPs)
Oral blending consists of hearing a series of spoken sounds and merging
them together to make a spoken word. No text is used.

When a teacher calls out ‘b-u-s’, the children say ‘bus’.

This skill is usually taught before blending and reading printed words.

Blending consists of building words from their constituent phonemes to

read.
Floccinaucinihilipilification
Children recognise the letter-sounds in a written word, for example c-oa-ch,
and merge or synthesise them, in the order in which they are written, to
pronounce the word ‘coach’.
KEY STAGE 2 – DEBBIE
HEPPLETHWAITE
For longer term reading and increasing vocabulary, the ability to phonically
decode new and unknown words is essential.
If a printed word is new to the reader, it is sometimes possible to deduce its
meaning according to its context.
If the reader is not able to come up with a pronunciation for that word –
either aloud or silently – it cannot be added to spoken language.

Competent readers may habitually skip more challenging new words but there
is a big difference between readers who can phonically decode virtually any
word, enabling them to add it to their spoken language, and weak decoders
who cannot apply alphabetic code knowledge to new words well enough to
come up with a pronunciation.
Segmenting consists of breaking words down into their constituent phonemes
to spell.

Children identify the individual sounds in a spoken word, for example s-t-or-k,
and write down letters for each sound (phoneme) to form the word ‘stork’.

How is your orthography?

Minuscule
Acquiesce
Nauseous
Paraphernalia
Sesquipedalian
KEY STAGE 2 – DEBBIE
HEPPLETHWAITE
We only need letter names in spelling to relay a correct spelling
from one person to another – letter by letter.

The skill of oral segmenting for spelling (starting with syllable

chunking in multi-syllable words) should continue in KS2 – including
making it explicit that this spelling skill is an adult skill, not just ‘baby
stuff’.
This understanding is for children’s intellectual development and self
esteem – especially important for those receiving a phonics
intervention beyond the main class.
GRAPHEME-PHONEME CORRESPONDENCES (GPCS)
•To read an unfamiliar word, a child must recognise (‘sound out’) each
grapheme, not each letter and then merge (blend) the phonemes together to
make a word.

•To spell an unfamiliar word, a child must segment a word into its component
phonemes and choose a grapheme to represent each phoneme.

•To do this, to do this children need to learn which graphemes correspond to

which phonemes and vice versa.
BEGINNER READERS SHOULD BE TAUGHT:
•grapheme–phoneme correspondences in a clearly defined, incremental
sequence;

•to apply the highly important skill of blending (synthesising) phonemes in the
order in which they occur, all through the word to read it;

•to apply the skills of segmenting words into their constituent phonemes to
spell;

•that blending and segmenting are reversible processes.

Phase 1
•Speaking and listening skills
•Phonological awareness
•Oral blending and segmenting

Phase 2 (up to 6 weeks)

The purpose of this phase is to teach at least 19 letters, and move children on
from oral blending and segmentation to blending and segmenting with letters.
•Read and spell some VC and CVC words
•Be introduced to reading two-syllable words and simple captions
•Learn to read some high-frequency ‘tricky’ words
Phase 3 (up to 12 weeks)
The purpose of this phase is to teach another 25 graphemes, most of them
comprising two letters (e.g. oa), so the children can represent each of about 42
phonemes by a grapheme.

•Continue to practise CVC blending and segmentation

•Apply their knowledge of blending and segmenting to reading and spelling

simple two-syllable words and captions

•Learn to read some more tricky words and also begin to learn to spell some
of these words
Phase 4 (4 to 6 weeks)
The purpose of this phase is to consolidate children’s knowledge of graphemes in
reading and spelling words containing adjacent consonants and polysyllabic
words.

Phase 5 (throughout Year 1)

The purpose of this phase is for children to broaden their knowledge of
graphemes and phonemes for use in reading and spelling.
•Learn new graphemes and alternative pronunciations for these and graphemes
they already know.
•Become quicker at recognising graphemes of more than one letter in words and
at blending the phonemes they represent.
•When spelling words they will learn to choose the appropriate graphemes to
represent phonemes and begin to build word-specific knowledge of the spellings
of words.
MAKING SECURE JUDGEMENTS
ABOUT ‘SECURE AT PHASE 2 TO 5’
Which graphemes do children need to be able to read to be secure at Phase 5?

•Children should be able to give the sound for the graphemes on page 134 of
Letters and Sounds and the alternative pronunciations on page 136.

Do children have to spell correctly to be secure at Phase 5?

•Children’s spelling should be phonemically plausible by the end of Phase 5, for

example, ‘a noyzytraneat the stayshun’ for ‘a noisy train at the station’. Some
unconventional spellings are to be expected while children are learning the
correct spellings for an ever-increasing number of common words.
PHASE 6 (THROUGHOUT YEAR 2 AND BEYOND)
By the beginning of Phase Six, children should:

•know most of the common GPCs

•be able to read hundreds of words:
•reading the words automatically if they are very familiar
•decoding them quickly and silently because their sounding and blending routine is now
well established
•decoding them aloud

Children’s spelling should be phonemically accurate, although it may still be a little

unconventional at times. Spelling usually lags behind reading, as it is harder.
During this phase, children become fluent readers and increasingly accurate spellers.
PUPILS CAN ONLY
BE SECURE IF
THEY CAN USE
THEIR PHONICS IN
ALL ASPECTS.
PHONICS ASSESSMENT
Frequent assessment using booklet which is passed onto the next teacher.
Assessment tasks can be allocated to a pupil using Bug Club Phonics.
Use of Phonics Play interactive games.

GRAMMAR & PUNCTUATION ASSESSMENT

Please highlight what you have covered* with your current class and pass on to their new
teacher so that gaps can be identified.
Hopefully this will correlate with assessment results in September ;)

*they will not have had the opportunity to apply the skills and knowledge covered.
SOME CONSIDERATIONS…
•Easily manageable –not long spent explaining
•Active and engaging
•All children engaged in learning
•Can be adapted to address different learning focuses or be used in a different
section
•Can be differentiated to meet a range of needs
•Provide assessment opportunities
•Provide opportunities for children to apply learning Phonics needs
Daily timetabled sessions:
EYFS & KS1 8.45-9.10 Individual Reading
to be
9.10-9.30 Phonics constantly
9.30-10.10 Writing referred to!
10.10-10.30 Shared/Guided Reading
IF YOU UNDERSTAND IT,
YOU CAN TEACH IT!