phonics

1. Phonics

2. What is Phonics?
 Highlight this definition in your glossary
Knowledge of sounds and letter
relationships and how they are used in
reading and writing.
With phonological awareness, there was no talk of letters.
Now, the letter is connected to the sound.

3. Why Is Phonics Difficult???
The next few slides show why letter learning can be
difficult for students.
 Initial Sound of Letter Name
B P
C (soft) T
D V
G(soft) Z
J
K
These letters tend to
be simple to learn.
The name of the
letter is similar to
the sound it makes.
For example say B.
Now say /b/. Notice
the similarity?

4. Letter Associations
 Ending Sound of Letter Name
F X
L
M
N
R
S
These letters get a
little more difficult
because the sound
is like the ending of
the letter name.
When I say m, I
hear /e---m/. When
I make the sound of
m, I hear /m/.

5. Letter Associations
 No sound related to letter name
H /ach/
Q /kw/
W /dubya/ or /doubleyou/
Y /wi/
Now it gets tricky!
Because the sound of
these letters are not
related to the sound of
the name at all. Y
makes a /y/ sound but
we say it /wi/. This is
why students often write
went like ynt. They
confuse the y and w
sound.

6. Letter Associations
 One Sound Included in Name
C /s/ not /k/
G /j/ not /g/ English can be crazy!
These letters make 2
sounds. You can see
how this might be
difficult for a 5 year old
or a student just
learning the English
language!!

7. Why is Phonics Difficult?
 When learning letters and sounds,
students also learn the difference between
consonant and letters.
 And the difference between letters and
words.

8. So how should phonics be taught??
Go back to theory and think about what you
saw on Slide 11. Students need to be active
not just filling out a worksheet. Letters can
be taught by doing these things daily:
 Connect to the name chart hanging in your room
(see next slide)
 Engage students in Interactive Writing daily!
(module 2)
 Sing songs that connect letters and sounds.
 Make class charts that the students can refer to.

9. Name Puzzle
 Directions: This activity is to be used with children just learning the alphabet
and sounds. Write the child’s name (begin with first, later add last name)
and cut apart the letters. Ask the child to build his/her name. Then ask them
to identify specific letters and/or sounds from their name.
 Doing this activity daily with students who need it is guaranteed to help with
letter identification and sounds too! It works because it is connecting new
knowledge (letters) to something meaningful to the student (their name!).
Once the student knows their first name add their last or give them a friends
name!!
A l y s o n

10. Teaching Phonics with
a Name Chart…

11. Teaching Phonics with
Interactive Writing

12. Once children know their
letters, then what do you
teach?

13. Consonant blends
Once students can identify most letters and
sounds, you can begin to work on letter
combinations.
Find the definition of consonant blends in
your glossary and highlight.
Two or more consonant letters that appear together in words and
represent sounds that are smoothly joined. Each sound can be heard
in the word.

14. Consonant blends
This chart shows
common blends. The key
here is when you break
apart the phonemes you
can hear each sound. So
with float, you hear /f/
and /l/ separately but
they blend together.
Float has 4 phonemes
/f//l/o/t/.
Be sure to add an example
of a blend to your glossary!

15. Digraphs
Find the definition of digraphs in your glossary and
highlight.
Two consonant letters that appear together and represent a single sound that
is different from either letter.
ch as in
th as in
sh as in
ph as in
Digraphs are different
than blends because they
make one sound. C and
h come together to make
/ch/.
Be sure to add an example of a
digraph to your glossary!

16. Vowel Digraphs
Highlight: Two vowels that appear together in a
word and represent a single sound.
Some Examples are…
 ai like in rain
 ea like in eat
 ay like in day
 oo like in boot
 ie like in pie
Be sure to use these to add an
example of a vowel digraph to
your glossary!

17. Dipthong
Go to your glossary and highlight this
definition: Combination of two vowel sounds that
produce a new unique sound.
One teacher I have seen, taught this sentence to her students to illustrate
dipthongs. The thing to know is that two letters (usually vowels) come
together and make a crazy sound (not related to the letters). Ou is a great
example. Together it makes the /ou/ sound like in out.
The boy pointed at the loud cow chewing straw.

18. Onset and Rime
Do you remember these terms from
phonological awareness. They are the same
for phonics but now you are talking about
how it is spelled along with the sounds.
Highlight the definitions for…
Onset: In a syllable, the part that comes before the vowel.
Rime: The ending part of a word containing the vowel.
Word Family: A term designate for words that are
connected by rimes

19. Word Families (Onset/Rime)
Here is an example
from a kindergarten
class. The child is
using the word
family (or
sometimes called a
phonogram) –ar and
building other
words. This teaches
children to be
flexible and use
what they know to
get to unknown
words.

20. Onset/Rime in 1st Grade

22. Un- Re- Dis- Mis-
unopened repackaged discontinue misfortune
mislead distrust reinstall unheated
misconduct misplace disclose reconsider
unglued mistake reform unattached
disease unread misstep unplanned
Phonics in the older grades…

23. Phonological Awareness versus Phonics
Early Development Later Development
Phonological awareness
instruction
Phonics instruction
As this figure shows, in early development (pre K/ kindergarten or for a
new English learner) there is a lot of phonological awareness and a little
phonics. Later as students progress, there is more phonics and less
phonological awareness.

24. Assessing Phonics
 TPRI…Texas Primary Reading Inventory
 Anecdotal Records…what we see
 Products
 Writing Samples

25. Sample from 1st Grade Saxon
Phonics worksheet

26. Sample First Grade TPRI assessment

28. What is the goal?
 Reading is a message getting activity which
increases in power and flexibility the more it is
practiced.
(Marie Clay)