Well, I hope to update this as regularly as I can!
We are just about to start using the Early Years Starter Pack in Reception. Because the programme is really flexible - I'm going to try out the different resources over the next few weeks in small groups and see how the children respond - then I'll decide how I am going to structure it.
We have started to use some of the materials (The Sounds Book Activity Sheets particularly) as part of an intervention programme for children in Year 3.
Over the coming weeks, myself and a few other teachers are going to look at ways we can introduce the programme in KS2 as a spelling programme.
This is just the start and we hope to track the progress as we start on this journey....
xx
How our school is using Phonics International...
How exciting! 
You are really lucky to be able to roll out the PI program in your school - I'm dead jealous! I'm using the Early Years starter pack in my class. I'll look forward to hearing more about your journey. 
pdw xx
You are really lucky to be able to roll out the PI program in your school - I'm dead jealous! I'm using the Early Years starter pack in my class. I'll look forward to hearing more about your journey. pdw xx
Last edited by pdwroe on Mon Apr 27, 2009 1:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
This week my theme is "Our Senses" - as part of the half termly topic All About Me.
Today, was 'hearing' day! So...we went on a sound walk around the school and 'collected' sounds to put into our sound bag.
When we got back to the classroom - there were a variety of activites out on the carpet and tables. Making instruments from 'junk modelling' materials, playing real instruments, tuning forks in the water and sand, guess the sound CD's, recording sounds and extra otoscopes and stethoscopes in the Baby Clinic.
On the writing table I left the 'sound bag' and the A5 Alphabetic Code Frieze Posters (flash card size) from unit 1 and Unit 2a. (We are working within Unit 1 but there are some children that already know more of the code and would also be able to make associations with the picture and grapheme.)
I sat with a small group and we drew pictures of some of the things we heard on the sound walk. Aeroplanes, helicopters, ambulance, talking, footsteps, laughing, dog barking, window opening, drilling etc. I told the children that we might need to write some words to let people know what we heard - not just what we saw.
The children came up with the words they wanted to write:
"bus" was the first example.
So to write this, I modelled the process we go through to spell,
1)Say the word - bus.
2)Say it again really slowly and stretch out the word (using hands to actually pretend the word is stretching) buuuuuusssssss
3)Count how many sounds I can hear. b - u - s (3)
4)Write the (3) sounds down using the code we know - bus
5)Blend back under the word to check that we are right.
The children then continued to write on their own as I went round the group modelling the segmenting process to those that needed it. As a table that started off with 5 children, we ended up with a table of 7 plus a table of 4 next to us with whiteboards and 2 kids on the carpet with their special writing books open!
By the end of the session we had some wonderful words written independently!!
bus (bus)
crr (car)
ps cr (police car)
hlekop (helicopter)
buk (bike)
amblns (ambulance)
ruslin (rustling!!)
lrfin (laughing)
pepol (people)
I was so pleased but more so because they all wanted to come to the writing table and they were all so excited about their writing achievements! It was so wonderful to see their faces when I read back their words to them!
Tomorrow is our 'sight' day! Amongst other things we are going to go and collect words from our local environment and take photographs of words in the real world. (Shop signs, newspapers, road signs, street signs, graffiti). I'm looking forward to see which children using their code knowledge to read some of the words we see along the way!
x
Today, was 'hearing' day! So...we went on a sound walk around the school and 'collected' sounds to put into our sound bag.
When we got back to the classroom - there were a variety of activites out on the carpet and tables. Making instruments from 'junk modelling' materials, playing real instruments, tuning forks in the water and sand, guess the sound CD's, recording sounds and extra otoscopes and stethoscopes in the Baby Clinic.
On the writing table I left the 'sound bag' and the A5 Alphabetic Code Frieze Posters (flash card size) from unit 1 and Unit 2a. (We are working within Unit 1 but there are some children that already know more of the code and would also be able to make associations with the picture and grapheme.)
I sat with a small group and we drew pictures of some of the things we heard on the sound walk. Aeroplanes, helicopters, ambulance, talking, footsteps, laughing, dog barking, window opening, drilling etc. I told the children that we might need to write some words to let people know what we heard - not just what we saw.
The children came up with the words they wanted to write:
"bus" was the first example.
So to write this, I modelled the process we go through to spell,
1)Say the word - bus.
2)Say it again really slowly and stretch out the word (using hands to actually pretend the word is stretching) buuuuuusssssss
3)Count how many sounds I can hear. b - u - s (3)
4)Write the (3) sounds down using the code we know - bus
5)Blend back under the word to check that we are right.
The children then continued to write on their own as I went round the group modelling the segmenting process to those that needed it. As a table that started off with 5 children, we ended up with a table of 7 plus a table of 4 next to us with whiteboards and 2 kids on the carpet with their special writing books open!
By the end of the session we had some wonderful words written independently!!
bus (bus)
crr (car)
ps cr (police car)
hlekop (helicopter)
buk (bike)
amblns (ambulance)
ruslin (rustling!!)
lrfin (laughing)
pepol (people)
I was so pleased but more so because they all wanted to come to the writing table and they were all so excited about their writing achievements! It was so wonderful to see their faces when I read back their words to them!
Tomorrow is our 'sight' day! Amongst other things we are going to go and collect words from our local environment and take photographs of words in the real world. (Shop signs, newspapers, road signs, street signs, graffiti). I'm looking forward to see which children using their code knowledge to read some of the words we see along the way!
x
The Early Years Starter Package is being used in a Reception class, that I can describe, to great effect already.
Most noticeably, the Reception teacher is very well-organised and 'feels' well-organised with the range of systematic resources at her fingertips.
Good preparation has taken place as a long term investment and the A5 ALPHABETIC CODE FRIEZE POSTERS have been laminated and displayed for the first couple of units. There is a second set laminated to make the A5 FLASH CARDS which are introduced as each new letter/s-sound correspondence is introduced.
(Note: There is a new resource about to be added to the Early Years Starter Package referred to as the A5 SUBSTITUTE FLASH CARDS. Keep your eyes open for these because substituting these plain cards (no picture mnemonics) will give a great sense of progress and show true learning as the children can respond to the letter shapes with no picture prompts. Some children can recall the sounds associated with letter shapes without any picture prompts - but the pictures also aid vocabulary development and support the development of 'phonemic awareness' (hearing the sounds in words in different positions).
The teacher's routine is to add to a growing bank of the GRAPHEME TILES which are laminated and which have sticky magnetic tape to enable them to be displayed on her main magnetic whiteboard.
Before introducing the new letter/s-sound correspondence, she points to the GRAPHEME TILES on her board of graphemes introduced previously and the children 'say the sounds' from memory.
She then introduces the new letter/s-sound correspondence and adds the new GRAPHEME TILE to the board.
She uses the PICTURE POSTERS (which are laminated) and clips them to her board with a large bulldog clip. These can be found in the full Phonics International programme and you can review them on the free unit 1 page. These provide three pictures and written word examples which include the focus sound and grapheme. The teacher finger-tracks under the written word whilst saying the word and points out the new grapheme.
The teacher may include additional examples as appropriate - but this session does not drag out.
The children then leave the carpet and they are provided with a paper version of the new GRAPHEME TILE. They stick this themselves into a little exercise book. They draw a key picture of something where they can hear the focus sound. This may not always be the 'first' or 'initial' sound - but it the sound may be in any position of the word as long as the children can really hear 'where'. For example, drawing a 'pan' for the /n/ sound "because I can hear it at the end of the word". This may seem a strange idea but it means that the children are really listening - and understanding - about the 'sounds' in spoken words.
The children then try writing the new letter shape but a lot of fuss and encouragement is made to hold the pencils correctly with the 'froggy legs and log under' hold (the tripod grip). The children have responded extremely well to this and are very keen to hold their pencils correctly. Some times young children can be very stubborn being asked to change their idiosyncratic hold - but it is worth it to persist in a kind and positive way.
Note: There are free certificates available on the homepage for correct pencil holds - but only give these out if the 'hold' is automatic and consistent!
The children are then called back to the carpet after their table-top activitiy. The teacher then, perhaps, goes through a few A5 Flash Cards quickly which causes great excitement and a sense of achievement. She then builds some words for blending with her magnetic GRAPHEME TILES on her whiteboard.
Finally, she says a few well-chosen words to say slowly for the children to orally segment (identify the sounds from beginning to end of the word). The children hold up their left fist at face level with palm facing. They count the sounds in the word on their hand starting with thumb first. This corresponds to left to right tracking through a printed word. Then sound dashes are written on the board followed by children selecting the magnetic GRAPHEME TILES.
The final process for this is 'editing'. The newly spelt word is sounded out and blended to check if it is spelt correctly. If necessary, the children offer corrections.
The children think it is AMAZING that they can read and spell. Half the children can do some simple sounding out and blending already. The other half are 'well on their way' and can say the sounds in response to seeing the graphemes.
The latest step is for the WORD CARD STRIPS printed on paper to be stuck in the little exercise books in addition to the paper GRAPHEME TILES.
This book is 'sent home' every night in a plastic wallet in the children's school book bag.
This teacher allowed a slight time delay before sending home the EARLY YEARS ACTIVITY SHEETS to parents. This is because she wanted to get the children familiar with the routines before the parents were faced with activities to do at home when the children had no experience of the routines. The children are already hugely enthused about learning their letters and sounds and know all about blending and segmenting. This will be more likely to lead to an enthusiastic response to the ACTIVITY SHEETS at home.
This teacher also laminated GRAPHEME TILES for each child to build up in the plastic wallet to build words at home. This isn't necessary, however, if teachers wish to use the ACTIVITY SHEETS alone as these include Grapheme Tiles and Picture Tiles at the top of the sheets.
Pace:
The Reception teacher is introducing new letter/s-sound correspondences at this stage at the rate of three new correspondences per week. Phonics activities take place, however, almost every day and sometimes very short sessions take place a couple of times a day.
Most noticeably, the Reception teacher is very well-organised and 'feels' well-organised with the range of systematic resources at her fingertips.
Good preparation has taken place as a long term investment and the A5 ALPHABETIC CODE FRIEZE POSTERS have been laminated and displayed for the first couple of units. There is a second set laminated to make the A5 FLASH CARDS which are introduced as each new letter/s-sound correspondence is introduced.
(Note: There is a new resource about to be added to the Early Years Starter Package referred to as the A5 SUBSTITUTE FLASH CARDS. Keep your eyes open for these because substituting these plain cards (no picture mnemonics) will give a great sense of progress and show true learning as the children can respond to the letter shapes with no picture prompts. Some children can recall the sounds associated with letter shapes without any picture prompts - but the pictures also aid vocabulary development and support the development of 'phonemic awareness' (hearing the sounds in words in different positions).
The teacher's routine is to add to a growing bank of the GRAPHEME TILES which are laminated and which have sticky magnetic tape to enable them to be displayed on her main magnetic whiteboard.
Before introducing the new letter/s-sound correspondence, she points to the GRAPHEME TILES on her board of graphemes introduced previously and the children 'say the sounds' from memory.
She then introduces the new letter/s-sound correspondence and adds the new GRAPHEME TILE to the board.
She uses the PICTURE POSTERS (which are laminated) and clips them to her board with a large bulldog clip. These can be found in the full Phonics International programme and you can review them on the free unit 1 page. These provide three pictures and written word examples which include the focus sound and grapheme. The teacher finger-tracks under the written word whilst saying the word and points out the new grapheme.
The teacher may include additional examples as appropriate - but this session does not drag out.
The children then leave the carpet and they are provided with a paper version of the new GRAPHEME TILE. They stick this themselves into a little exercise book. They draw a key picture of something where they can hear the focus sound. This may not always be the 'first' or 'initial' sound - but it the sound may be in any position of the word as long as the children can really hear 'where'. For example, drawing a 'pan' for the /n/ sound "because I can hear it at the end of the word". This may seem a strange idea but it means that the children are really listening - and understanding - about the 'sounds' in spoken words.
The children then try writing the new letter shape but a lot of fuss and encouragement is made to hold the pencils correctly with the 'froggy legs and log under' hold (the tripod grip). The children have responded extremely well to this and are very keen to hold their pencils correctly. Some times young children can be very stubborn being asked to change their idiosyncratic hold - but it is worth it to persist in a kind and positive way.
Note: There are free certificates available on the homepage for correct pencil holds - but only give these out if the 'hold' is automatic and consistent!
The children are then called back to the carpet after their table-top activitiy. The teacher then, perhaps, goes through a few A5 Flash Cards quickly which causes great excitement and a sense of achievement. She then builds some words for blending with her magnetic GRAPHEME TILES on her whiteboard.
Finally, she says a few well-chosen words to say slowly for the children to orally segment (identify the sounds from beginning to end of the word). The children hold up their left fist at face level with palm facing. They count the sounds in the word on their hand starting with thumb first. This corresponds to left to right tracking through a printed word. Then sound dashes are written on the board followed by children selecting the magnetic GRAPHEME TILES.
The final process for this is 'editing'. The newly spelt word is sounded out and blended to check if it is spelt correctly. If necessary, the children offer corrections.
The children think it is AMAZING that they can read and spell. Half the children can do some simple sounding out and blending already. The other half are 'well on their way' and can say the sounds in response to seeing the graphemes.
The latest step is for the WORD CARD STRIPS printed on paper to be stuck in the little exercise books in addition to the paper GRAPHEME TILES.
This book is 'sent home' every night in a plastic wallet in the children's school book bag.
This teacher allowed a slight time delay before sending home the EARLY YEARS ACTIVITY SHEETS to parents. This is because she wanted to get the children familiar with the routines before the parents were faced with activities to do at home when the children had no experience of the routines. The children are already hugely enthused about learning their letters and sounds and know all about blending and segmenting. This will be more likely to lead to an enthusiastic response to the ACTIVITY SHEETS at home.
This teacher also laminated GRAPHEME TILES for each child to build up in the plastic wallet to build words at home. This isn't necessary, however, if teachers wish to use the ACTIVITY SHEETS alone as these include Grapheme Tiles and Picture Tiles at the top of the sheets.
Pace:
The Reception teacher is introducing new letter/s-sound correspondences at this stage at the rate of three new correspondences per week. Phonics activities take place, however, almost every day and sometimes very short sessions take place a couple of times a day.
Debbie Hepplewhite
The contrast of the last two postings is very interesting and very topical.
In the UK there is quite a dominant group of early years advisors who are somewhat pedantic about what they consider is the correct way to provide for pre-school (and infant) children.
I am someone who believes that there is room for many types of provision as contexts are so different, children are different, parents' views and preferences are so different - and the teachers and practitioners themselves are so different.
As long as good, direct teaching of phonics is taking place leaving no room for those children who need lots of support and direct, repetitive teaching to 'slip through the net', then teachers, parents and practitioners can use whatever their 'style' of provision is.
My description of practice above is of a teacher, for example, who would not provide activities like placing letters in water to be fished out or words in sand to be found and read. She prefers to separate her teaching into activities which are simple and direct and which do not necessarily cross over into other areas of the curriculum.
What upsets me, and others, is when advisors can put on the pressure to the extent that teachers (practitioners) are made to feel that they are 'not doing it right'.
I think it will be fascinating to read descriptions of different use of the Phonics International resources. The programme has been DESIGNED so that people can use their own discretion for using them.
I just urge people to follow the basic synthetic phonics teaching principles whatever their teaching style and whatever their relationship with the learner/s.
Last night my attention was drawn to a video described as 'synthetic' phonics practice. When a clip showed children reading books, the adult 'voice-over' went on to describe the need for multi-cueing reading strategies. She said how the children can look at the pictures to guess the word, could 'read on and go back' to guess the word.
NO, NO, NO - I would never endorse this.
With synthetic phonics you need to provide reading material which the learner CAN read with his or her own alphabetic code knowledge and blending skills.
If words appear in the book with code which the learner has not yet learnt, the adult can say, "In that word, those letters ARE CODE FOR the sound /..../" - and then the learner can use that knowledge for that specific word and attempt to sound out and blend the word.
Ooh dear - am I ranting?
No wonder - imagine that this video clip was entitled SYNTHETIC PHONICS!!!!
Grrr...!
In the UK there is quite a dominant group of early years advisors who are somewhat pedantic about what they consider is the correct way to provide for pre-school (and infant) children.
I am someone who believes that there is room for many types of provision as contexts are so different, children are different, parents' views and preferences are so different - and the teachers and practitioners themselves are so different.
As long as good, direct teaching of phonics is taking place leaving no room for those children who need lots of support and direct, repetitive teaching to 'slip through the net', then teachers, parents and practitioners can use whatever their 'style' of provision is.
My description of practice above is of a teacher, for example, who would not provide activities like placing letters in water to be fished out or words in sand to be found and read. She prefers to separate her teaching into activities which are simple and direct and which do not necessarily cross over into other areas of the curriculum.
What upsets me, and others, is when advisors can put on the pressure to the extent that teachers (practitioners) are made to feel that they are 'not doing it right'.
I think it will be fascinating to read descriptions of different use of the Phonics International resources. The programme has been DESIGNED so that people can use their own discretion for using them.
I just urge people to follow the basic synthetic phonics teaching principles whatever their teaching style and whatever their relationship with the learner/s.
Last night my attention was drawn to a video described as 'synthetic' phonics practice. When a clip showed children reading books, the adult 'voice-over' went on to describe the need for multi-cueing reading strategies. She said how the children can look at the pictures to guess the word, could 'read on and go back' to guess the word.
NO, NO, NO - I would never endorse this.
With synthetic phonics you need to provide reading material which the learner CAN read with his or her own alphabetic code knowledge and blending skills.
If words appear in the book with code which the learner has not yet learnt, the adult can say, "In that word, those letters ARE CODE FOR the sound /..../" - and then the learner can use that knowledge for that specific word and attempt to sound out and blend the word.
Ooh dear - am I ranting?
No wonder - imagine that this video clip was entitled SYNTHETIC PHONICS!!!!
Grrr...!
Debbie Hepplewhite
Ooops! Reading my post back and your reply Debbie, I think I needed to make clear that the session I had described was not actually my phonics lesson. We have a clear 15-20 min phonics lesson every day where we use other Phonics International Resources. I understand the need for discrete daily phonics teaching (whole class and in smaller groups) where children are shown how the 'code' works. Taught new code and show how to use that code in the right way.
The session I had describe was part of our 'Hearing Day' topic work. This was an example of putting the phonics taught in the main session into real use.
The activities I'd described such as making instruments, tuning forks in sand/water, making own music etc were rotated activites that the children could explore during the day. The children then came with me in small groups of 4 or 5 on a short sound walk and came back in to our writing table to 'write'. It is in a session like this we are able to put the Phonics work from the discrete phonics lessons into practice.
I think I should have made this a little clearer. (Fear I may have confused people!!)
It's been a busy week - will try to post an example of a phonics lesson using the Phonics International resources next week.
xx
The session I had describe was part of our 'Hearing Day' topic work. This was an example of putting the phonics taught in the main session into real use.
The activities I'd described such as making instruments, tuning forks in sand/water, making own music etc were rotated activites that the children could explore during the day. The children then came with me in small groups of 4 or 5 on a short sound walk and came back in to our writing table to 'write'. It is in a session like this we are able to put the Phonics work from the discrete phonics lessons into practice.
I think I should have made this a little clearer. (Fear I may have confused people!!)
It's been a busy week - will try to post an example of a phonics lesson using the Phonics International resources next week.
xx
Hi poppetsam!
Your last posting has clarified the practice in your setting - thank you very much for that.
By coincidence, our earlier postings where you describe your 'senses' walk and I describe a routine phonics lesson were only one minute apart. We were both tapping away on keyboards at the same time!
I think it is great that you have described the 'by-product' of your direct-instruction phonics lessons and how your Reception children are already able and confident enough to tackle spelling multi-syllable words to great effect in the rest of the curriculum.
You describe some enjoyable and good practice with your little ones but unfortunately, some people are led to believe that activities like 'sound walks' and 'rhyme and rhythm' activities are actually 'pre-requisites' before embarking on systematic phonics teaching when this is not the case.
In the UK government's guidance, Letters and Sounds, such activities are outlined as a 'phase one' stage prior to 'phase two' which amounts to the beginning of the introduction of letter/s-sound correspondences. To my knowledge, the 'phase one' part of the guidance was written by different authors from the 'phase two' guidance - the actual beginning of the phonics programme.
It's all good practice so in some ways this may not matter, but where it does matter is if teachers feel that some children in their setting cannot begin 'phase two' (the phonics teaching) because they have not demonstrated great skill with rhyming and alliteration and hearing sounds.
I am looking forward to hearing about your phonics practice as I know that this will offer a different perspective on the teaching as each individual brings with him or her their own personality and ideas for use of the resources.
Your last posting has clarified the practice in your setting - thank you very much for that.
By coincidence, our earlier postings where you describe your 'senses' walk and I describe a routine phonics lesson were only one minute apart. We were both tapping away on keyboards at the same time!
I think it is great that you have described the 'by-product' of your direct-instruction phonics lessons and how your Reception children are already able and confident enough to tackle spelling multi-syllable words to great effect in the rest of the curriculum.
You describe some enjoyable and good practice with your little ones but unfortunately, some people are led to believe that activities like 'sound walks' and 'rhyme and rhythm' activities are actually 'pre-requisites' before embarking on systematic phonics teaching when this is not the case.
In the UK government's guidance, Letters and Sounds, such activities are outlined as a 'phase one' stage prior to 'phase two' which amounts to the beginning of the introduction of letter/s-sound correspondences. To my knowledge, the 'phase one' part of the guidance was written by different authors from the 'phase two' guidance - the actual beginning of the phonics programme.
It's all good practice so in some ways this may not matter, but where it does matter is if teachers feel that some children in their setting cannot begin 'phase two' (the phonics teaching) because they have not demonstrated great skill with rhyming and alliteration and hearing sounds.
I am looking forward to hearing about your phonics practice as I know that this will offer a different perspective on the teaching as each individual brings with him or her their own personality and ideas for use of the resources.
Debbie Hepplewhite
Just wanted to make a comment myself about phase 1 and phase 2 stuff from Letters and Sounds. A friend is teaching a reception class and at the beginning of the term not one of his 25 children could hear the sounds in words. They were not even able to understand what he was asking of them, so in response to the question "what sound can you hear at the beginning of the word cat", he would get the answer " meow"! However much he explained and exaggerated the initial sounds in words, it seemed quite apparant to him that none of the children had ever thought about the sounds in words before, and quite obviously hadn't been doing the phase 1 type of activities that would have helped with these skills.
However, after 3 days with him, about half the class could hear the initial (albeit still very exaggerated) sound in a word when asked, and within 2 weeks all the class were able to hear the initial sounds. He had started teaching the PI unit 1 phonemes before many of the children could actually hear even the initial sound in a word. None of the children had any problem learning the phoneme grapheme correspondences though.
They are still working very hard on discriminating sounds all through the word, and the children are now picking this up very quickly. He will continue to do lots of aural discrimination in his daily phonics lessons, and they are also practising blending and segmenting with the phoneme grapheme correspondences that they have been taught so far.
I think this shows exactly what Debbie was saying, that they don't have to be secure in Phase One of letters and sounds before you start teaching the phoneme grapheme correspondences.
Another point though, is that maybe if more of the early stuff had been done with the children, the better equipped they would have been to be able to blend and segment straight away, and I wonder if they could have moved on quicker had they had more aural discrimination experience?The children in this class were all at the stage where they were ready for stage one work, but unfortunately they weren't given this opportunity. There are a lot of children in the class with quite poor speech, and the staff have already noticed a marked improvement in the speech of one or two of the children. I wonder how much better their speech would have been had they been introduced to aural discrimination activities during their time in Nursery? Would it have made any difference?
From what people tell me, we seem to be getting more and more children into our schools who have poor speech, do other practitioners have this experience?
Is it because we (as parents/society) are not talking to our children enough? How do others feel about this subject? Sorry to have digressed somewhat, I just feel it is an interesting subject and wondered if anyone else had any experience or opinions to offer up?!
However, after 3 days with him, about half the class could hear the initial (albeit still very exaggerated) sound in a word when asked, and within 2 weeks all the class were able to hear the initial sounds. He had started teaching the PI unit 1 phonemes before many of the children could actually hear even the initial sound in a word. None of the children had any problem learning the phoneme grapheme correspondences though.
They are still working very hard on discriminating sounds all through the word, and the children are now picking this up very quickly. He will continue to do lots of aural discrimination in his daily phonics lessons, and they are also practising blending and segmenting with the phoneme grapheme correspondences that they have been taught so far.
I think this shows exactly what Debbie was saying, that they don't have to be secure in Phase One of letters and sounds before you start teaching the phoneme grapheme correspondences.
Another point though, is that maybe if more of the early stuff had been done with the children, the better equipped they would have been to be able to blend and segment straight away, and I wonder if they could have moved on quicker had they had more aural discrimination experience?The children in this class were all at the stage where they were ready for stage one work, but unfortunately they weren't given this opportunity. There are a lot of children in the class with quite poor speech, and the staff have already noticed a marked improvement in the speech of one or two of the children. I wonder how much better their speech would have been had they been introduced to aural discrimination activities during their time in Nursery? Would it have made any difference?
From what people tell me, we seem to be getting more and more children into our schools who have poor speech, do other practitioners have this experience?
Is it because we (as parents/society) are not talking to our children enough? How do others feel about this subject? Sorry to have digressed somewhat, I just feel it is an interesting subject and wondered if anyone else had any experience or opinions to offer up?!
Last edited by pdwroe on Mon Apr 27, 2009 1:17 pm, edited 2 times in total.
pdwroe - thank you for your posting.
I am not really worried about how much aural discrimation work nursery children receive as, like you, I have found that once children are trained very specifically in listening for the individual sounds in words (the phonemes), then they are soon able to discern them. It is usually a matter of good 'training' rather than waiting for this to develop naturally.
What research has shown is that children seem more able to make progress with what they can hear when they also understand 'why' we are splitting words up into their sounds and how these relate to symbols (letters) which are code for the sounds. This gives their activities huge purpose.
When reading, the symbols (letters and letter groups - the 'graphemes') are learnt discretely so that the learner is prompted to 'say a sound' which further reinforces the identification of these sounds in words. This is why it is important to teach the skills of both decoding and encoding - they support one another.
Regarding chidren's standards of speaking:
To me, this raises the question of emphasis of our UK government and Early Years advisors about how we run our pre-school settings. Anyone from the UK is aware how much strong emphasis is placed on children playing together. There is nothing wrong with this - but we also know that teachers and pre-school practitioners are advised to OBSERVE and note down what children do and say to inform our practice - and yet many of us have then commented that this is to the detriment of the children's development.
This practice of frequent 'observing' is often IN PLACE OF interacting with the children.
This may mean that children are hearing far less ADULT speech and vocabulary and FAR MORE children's speech and vocabulary.
My suggestion may be far from the truth of why people think that children's speech is weaker nowadays in the past.
But - think about it - if parents are talking less to their children in the home - and teachers are also talking less to the children in their pre-school settings - then what are we to expect?
I do suggest, however, that good small-step phonics teaching helps children to speak well - to understand the notion of 'words' and to 'listen to' and 'understand' spoken words as being separate rather than one long string of sounds.
Whatever the reality of chidren's speech, as teachers we must do our best to make the time for children to have opportunities to speak in a supported way - where there is adult interaction and modelling.
Modelling, modelling, modelling followed by rehearsal, rehearsal, rehearsal - are the key!
I am not really worried about how much aural discrimation work nursery children receive as, like you, I have found that once children are trained very specifically in listening for the individual sounds in words (the phonemes), then they are soon able to discern them. It is usually a matter of good 'training' rather than waiting for this to develop naturally.
What research has shown is that children seem more able to make progress with what they can hear when they also understand 'why' we are splitting words up into their sounds and how these relate to symbols (letters) which are code for the sounds. This gives their activities huge purpose.
When reading, the symbols (letters and letter groups - the 'graphemes') are learnt discretely so that the learner is prompted to 'say a sound' which further reinforces the identification of these sounds in words. This is why it is important to teach the skills of both decoding and encoding - they support one another.
Regarding chidren's standards of speaking:
To me, this raises the question of emphasis of our UK government and Early Years advisors about how we run our pre-school settings. Anyone from the UK is aware how much strong emphasis is placed on children playing together. There is nothing wrong with this - but we also know that teachers and pre-school practitioners are advised to OBSERVE and note down what children do and say to inform our practice - and yet many of us have then commented that this is to the detriment of the children's development.
This practice of frequent 'observing' is often IN PLACE OF interacting with the children.
This may mean that children are hearing far less ADULT speech and vocabulary and FAR MORE children's speech and vocabulary.
My suggestion may be far from the truth of why people think that children's speech is weaker nowadays in the past.
But - think about it - if parents are talking less to their children in the home - and teachers are also talking less to the children in their pre-school settings - then what are we to expect?
I do suggest, however, that good small-step phonics teaching helps children to speak well - to understand the notion of 'words' and to 'listen to' and 'understand' spoken words as being separate rather than one long string of sounds.
Whatever the reality of chidren's speech, as teachers we must do our best to make the time for children to have opportunities to speak in a supported way - where there is adult interaction and modelling.
Modelling, modelling, modelling followed by rehearsal, rehearsal, rehearsal - are the key!
Debbie Hepplewhite
Thanks for your thoughts Debbie. I think it is a very valid point, and one I hadn't considered, that we may be talking less to the children as teachers. Quite scary too!
I've just returned to FS after being in KS1 and KS2 for 10 years. After doing a training course the other week, I duly returned to school and carried out my "homework task", to do some written, focussed observations. Having not done this since I trained, I was dreading it, but I have to admit it was quite enjoyable to spend a bit of time "just watching" the children, and also very informative.
However, I have been told that there should be an adult doing this most of the time in class, and this really worries me. We have been told to do a focussed observation on every child each half term. This in a normal class equates to 1 per day, but add onto that all the mini observations and notes we are supposed to do and it really mounts up. I feel sure there needs to be some redressing of the balance here, at the end of the day, our title is Teacher, so surely we should be imparting knowledge and skills TO the children, not to the public ABOUT the children?
I've just returned to FS after being in KS1 and KS2 for 10 years. After doing a training course the other week, I duly returned to school and carried out my "homework task", to do some written, focussed observations. Having not done this since I trained, I was dreading it, but I have to admit it was quite enjoyable to spend a bit of time "just watching" the children, and also very informative.
However, I have been told that there should be an adult doing this most of the time in class, and this really worries me. We have been told to do a focussed observation on every child each half term. This in a normal class equates to 1 per day, but add onto that all the mini observations and notes we are supposed to do and it really mounts up. I feel sure there needs to be some redressing of the balance here, at the end of the day, our title is Teacher, so surely we should be imparting knowledge and skills TO the children, not to the public ABOUT the children?
Yes - I personally feel very strongly that Early Years practitioners and teachers in the UK are being seriously bullied and manipulated into making their provision fit the mould of what some powerful advisors believe is the 'right' practice....so surely we should be imparting knowledge and skills TO the children, not to the public ABOUT the children?
Since this September, our Early Years Foundation Stage has been made statutory and the local authority 'moderation' of practice, evidence, judgements and so on is tantamount to yet another scary inspection.
One huge issue is that this also applies to the independent (private) sector and even to local community playgroups and childminders. It's all a bit of a nightmare in my opinion and I am in the middle of challenging these heavy-handed expectations.
I am well aware that some countries around the world may have strong government control - but in the UK we are supposed to have a democracy and more freedom and individualism. I personally feel there is backwards slide where 'choices' are concerned and find this both sad and worrying.
Debbie Hepplewhite