Hi,
We've just informed people about our new series of 8 eBooks compiled from some existing resources in the Phonics International and Early Years Starter Package plus some new resources.
The books introduce systematically 115 letter/s-sound correspondences (some other correspondences are introduced incidentally in the short texts) and their advantage for busy parents, tutors, teaching assistants, special needs teachers is their 'pick up and go' readiness.
We provide them along with three bonuses:
1) A set of printable Grapheme Tiles and their key pictures for all the graphemes introduced systematically in the eBooks
2) An 80 page eBook of all the 'My words - word lists' from the Phonics International programme units 1 to 6
3) A series of emails from me to point people in the right direction of teaching and learning - getting the best out of the eBooks.
Following the launch, a number of people contacted us asking whether the eBooks were suitable in their circumstances. Sometimes the answer is that the full online Phonics International programme is more suitable.
For example, a mother wrote and asked what woud be best for her 12 year old daughter with a spelling age of around 10 - and would the books help her with spelling.
For a very serious and sustained spelling programme for a learner in this scenario, I would suggest that the Phonics International full programme would be more fit-for-purpose - that is, use the core Sounds Book Activity Sheets alternating with the 'I can read' texts and further associated resources to focus on which words are spelt which way - and that is 'spelling word bank' knowledge.
See my specific answer in the posting below:
Also, I have been asked if the eBooks would be suitable for adult learners. Well - this is an interesting question. It could well be just what is needed for adults who literally know no spoken English and are starting from the beginning. It gives the 'tutor' or 'educator' a pick-up-and-go body of material which will launch reading, writing and spelling.
However, for a deep, extremely comprehensive and sustained and flexible body of work, I would suggest the full Phonics International programme - 'flexible' being the key word. Phonics International has been designed to enable the 'tutor' or 'teacher' to be able to focus on the level of alphabetic code knowledge required and plan the programme of work according to the different levels of vocabulary and cumulative sentences and texts - taking into consideration the learner's needs and stage of learning - and level of alphabetic code knowledge and phonics skills.
Ultimately, people need to read the accompanying description of the series of 8 eBooks for themselves to make a decision. Using the eBooks to start off with does not preclude going on to the later units of Phonics International after that - by which time both the supporting adult and the learner has had an excellent straightforward start with the ready-compiled eBooks.
The books focus on the letter/s-sound correspondences of Units 1 to 6 of Phonics International with a few additional letter/s-sound correspondences to ensure full coverage for the English Year One phonics screening check - totalling around 115 systematically introduced letter/s-sound correspondences of the alphabetic code.
See the notes accompanying the series:
http://www.teachyourchildtoread.co.uk/e ... erview.pdf
See the website for the eBooks:
http://www.teachyourchildtoread.co.uk/
New: Series of 8 eBooks - suitable for whom?
New: Series of 8 eBooks - suitable for whom?
Debbie Hepplewhite
I'm just adding the message below as an 'example' of questions sent to us. It is easier for me to link people to this thread than attempting to reply query by query as quite a number of people have written to us already about the eBooks!
Here is my reply:I've just received your email about this new resource. I would just like to know if they are suitable for me as a parent. My daughter is 12 with a spelling age roughly about 10. Would they be suitable for her? Are they independent activities that she could work through? I don't want her to think that they are too 'babyish' if you know what I mean.
Kind regards
Considering your daughter’s age and spelling age, I would suggest the resources from the second half of the full Phonics International programme rather than the eBooks.
In the online Phonics International programme, there is a range of resources which provide spelling mnemonic themes. By this I mean the themes are for the ‘il’ words or the ‘au’ words or the ‘gn’ words and so on.
The learner can use the ‘I can read’ theme, the characters, the accompanying full colour pictures to ‘remember’ which words are spelt which way – a sort of ‘word association’ technique to support learners in recalling spelling word banks.
The actual skill of spelling required is identifying the sounds in spoken words and turning the sounds into letters and letter groups – and even word ‘chunks’ like ‘tion’ – but ultimately, the need is there to remember which words are spelt which way.
Could your daughter do the associated activities independently? Yes, she could. It would involve an initial ‘grapheme search’ whereby she underlines the focus letter/s-sound correspondence of the ‘I can read’ story, followed by ‘reading’ the story to ascertain its meaning – part of it being a ‘memorable’ theme – followed by listing the focus words containing the grapheme – followed by counting how many words there are in the word bank then see if the storyline helps to recall the specific words in the word bank.
Some of those words will be very straightforward to spell – nothing like ‘look, cover, write, check’ is needed. Occasionally there are words in the word banks which need extra attention such as ‘chaos’ and ‘choir’ compared to ‘arachnid’ – the latter being much more straightforward to spell once it is known that the /k/ sound is spelt with ‘ch’ and not ‘k’.
Your daughter can also do what I call ‘self-dictations’ whereby she re-reads the ‘I can read’ story themes and holds each sentence in her head to re-write in a lined exercise book. Then she, and/or you, can check all her spellings against the original story.
This means that she is also practising the spelling of the common tricky words – whether a word is spelt ‘there’ or ‘their’ or ‘they’re’ for example. So, once again, this is all part of spelling work.
So, in broad terms, after looking at the programme’s resources to decide whereabouts you think is the right place to start in the programme, I would suggest a pattern of doing the core Sounds Book Activity Sheet alternating with its parallel ‘I can read’ text plus the associated ‘Questions’ (comprehension questions) and looking at the black and white line drawing resource which focuses on the spelling word banks from around Unit 7.
I hope this helps.
Kind regards,
Debbie
Debbie Hepplewhite
Here is another interesting question associated with the new eBooks:
![Confused :?](./images/smilies/icon_confused.gif)
Here is my reply regarding the use of the eBooks with adults:Your new product looks most valuable. I work primarily with adults and was wondering about how this would of interest for them? I know that the general program can work with adults, but when I looked at your info about this product, the pictures on the covers of the books were definitely more for children, so I was wondering if similar photos/content throughout may be off-putting to adults?
Warm regards,
If I had the time to re-do Phonics International with alternative illustrations and some more mature story themes, I would - but sadly there aren't enough hours in the day for me to provide different versions of PI at the moment!Thank you for your interest in the new eBooks.
You have asked a very good question – and one which others have asked.
Basically, the remaining pictures in the books are very small scale pictures of objects, people or actions and also the key picture-words of Phonics International which you can see on various versions of my Alphabetic Code Charts - see the key pictures on this chart to exemplify the graphemes in real words:
http://alphabeticcodecharts.com/DDD_par ... bleTop.pdf
Personally, other than by providing real-life photographs, I think it would be hard to provide illustrations which are more adult-friendly because they are simply cartoon-like drawings.
What do you think would look more appropriate in the circumstances for adults – but also, which phonics programme provides such a sustainable body of work based on the alphabetic code for reading, spelling and writing?
If you look at the information leaflet for the eBooks, below, you can study the examples to get a feel for the visual impression of the books. They are not designed specifically for adults – they are designed primarily for young learners – but if the adults are complete beginners, it is the same alphabetic code they need to learn!
http://www.teachyourchildtoread.co.uk/e ... erview.pdf
However, I would still recommend the full Phonics International programme to give you the scope of more unusual letter/s-sound correspondences and vocabulary in the second half of the programme which is more mature than in the earlier stages of the programme.
It may well be that you decide to try the eBooks and invest in the full PI programme – but I am always very grateful indeed for any feedback of use of the programme. If you used PI and decided it was not suitable, I would still welcome you telling me your thoughts and findings.
Kindest regards,
Debbie
![Confused :?](./images/smilies/icon_confused.gif)
Debbie Hepplewhite
This is a really appropriate set of circumstances in which to use the new eBooks:
I have designed the Phonics International programme to be fully informative for parents - and for schools to work in partnership with parents wherever possible.
The new eBooks will be perfectly suitable to use in school contexts either completely within the school - or to be shared in partnership with parents.
Learners may need a great deal of 'overlearning' to really embed the alphabetic code knowledge and to practise their skills of reading, spelling and handwriting.
Whilst some children pick up these things relatively quickly, many others simply don't but then don't get enough chance - or good content - in which to store the information in their long-term memory - and to hone their basic skills well enough.
As indicated in the message above, how then DO teachers with many subjects to teach and many children's needs to cater for, repeat what the individual children need? It's a challenge!
...I have taken up your offer of purchasing the new ebooks you have designed for homeschooling kids as I though they could be very useful for a wee boy in my class who still isn't automatic with his initial sounds and is still on' satpin'.
I can only do so much at school and thought that his mum could help if she was guided in a structured way.
I have designed the Phonics International programme to be fully informative for parents - and for schools to work in partnership with parents wherever possible.
The new eBooks will be perfectly suitable to use in school contexts either completely within the school - or to be shared in partnership with parents.
Learners may need a great deal of 'overlearning' to really embed the alphabetic code knowledge and to practise their skills of reading, spelling and handwriting.
Whilst some children pick up these things relatively quickly, many others simply don't but then don't get enough chance - or good content - in which to store the information in their long-term memory - and to hone their basic skills well enough.
As indicated in the message above, how then DO teachers with many subjects to teach and many children's needs to cater for, repeat what the individual children need? It's a challenge!
Debbie Hepplewhite