Launch Sept 2016: Debbie's No Nonsense Phonics Skills books

[debbie]

This is a very exciting development of my work - content-rich phonics and language comprehension books - including spelling word banks.

Phonics International Ltd is working in association with Raintree to produce a streamlined series of 9 Pupil Books, 9 accompanying Teacher Books and mini Alphabetic Code Charts - with fantastic supplementary resources on a USB Stick.

Here's a little 'taster' - video footage of a Year One class trialling the resources when they were in development:

View/Stream: http://view.vzaar.com/7596007/video

Download: http://view.vzaar.com/7596007/download

[debbie]

http://www.blackberryphonicstraining.co ... ills-video

Read Abi's review of the video footage!

This is a great review for professional development.

Watch out for Debbie talking about:

The 5 Pillars of Literacy
The Simple View of Reading
The 3 Core Phonics Skills
The Teaching and Learning Cycle

Then teacher Kate demonstrates with her class:

Revisit and review
Individual revision at code level
Individual revision with cumulative word banks
Teacher led - the blending routine
Teacher led - the spelling routine
The phonemic awareness puzzle
Individual practice blending a bank of new words
Individual apply and extend to the mini-story

Once you've watched the video through once, why not watch it again -but this time I'd like you to notice and reflect upon the following 20 important points:

The quantity of words the children are exposed to in the lesson - lots!
The level of the language in the word banks and texts - rich and full, high expectations!
Children are sitting at desks, using paper and pencils - they look comfortable!
All the children are engaged in the learning - you can see the cogs whirring!
The children are working individually (but still supporting one another) - they are taking ownership over their own learning!
The children are using a routine of circling unknown words for the teacher to help them with later!
The children are not upset or bothered when they can't read a word (they know they will be helped)!
The teacher talks about the meanings of words throughout - always thinking about vocabulary enrichment and language development!
The children read with blending when needed and without blending when not needed - natural progression!
The class is being taught as a whole rather than small ability groups!
The children are all accessing the same activity irrelevant of their ability - differentiation is through the children's own pace of working and teacher support!
They are using worksheets - with loads of fit for purpose content to practise all the phonics skills!
There are no mini-whiteboards in sight - the children have a record of their learning to revisit later in school or at home, and it leaves a trail of evidence rather than being wiped away!
The teacher is directly and actively teaching!
The teacher is calm and clear!
The teacher models writing letters on lines!
The teacher's whiteboard is clean and spacious so the children can see clearly what she is teaching them!
The teacher uses an appropriate handwriting style to model writing as she remembers that the children will emulate her!
The children point and track with a finger when reading - they know this keeps their eyes focused on the text!
The children are happy, engaged and learning!

What do you think?
Does this look like the type of phonics lesson you would like to teach?
Which parts would you like to know more about?

[debbie]

In a discussion taking place via an educational network regarding phonics for spelling for older learners (Y3 to 6 in this case), I spent some time writing the message below and thought it was worth sharing here. Arguably, many children are not as well served as they might be where phonics provision is concerned because of teachers having to create and compile phonics resources for themselves when they have used the 'Letters and Sounds' publication (DfES 2007) as their chosen programme. I wrote:

Hi ...,

Just for interest (and you don’t have to actually answer), have you tried using the Year One Phonics Screening Check from England to see how your children are faring after about two years of ‘Letters and Sounds’?

The translation of ‘Letters and Sounds’ into provision and practice can vary hugely from school to school bearing in mind that the publication does not provide resources for teaching and learning.

In my consultancy work, I am fortunate and feel very privileged to observe many, many teachers ‘delivering’ Letters and Sounds in schools that state they are ‘Letters and Sounds Schools’.

What I see looks very different not only in one school to the next, but sometimes in one class to the next.

Having said that, there are definite patterns of provision in Letters and Sounds Schools which can look typical.

I know that I’ve provided links to this document before, but it is perhaps timely to do so again to exemplify what I mean. I have labelled this diagram the ‘Simple View of Schools Phonics Provision’:

http://www.phonicsinternational.com/for ... .php?t=847

The ‘Letters and Sounds’ publication is excellent in so many ways and has made a huge difference to the uptake of systematic phonics in England. Many teachers are extremely attached to it because it has changed their practice and understanding and really, tangibly made a difference.

However, a deeper understanding about phonics provision is the ‘next step’ because the very fact that teachers can translate its guidance into provision which looks very different school to school and class to class is flagging up a number of questions.

For example, a look at a school’s struggling group – its size and the profile of the children’s reading, spelling and handwriting – may be revealing as to a lack of provision of one kind or another.

It could be a lack of provision and understanding in the school itself, or a lack of rigour in Letters and Sounds – and the fact that teachers do have to equip the programme with teaching and learning resources and end up doing this in many ways.

That is why it is truly essential for all schools to use the same screening check so that they are fully aware of what is possible in the teaching of schools in various contexts and where, in the scale of things, one’s own school lies within the bigger picture results.

Regarding the issue of teaching older children, my personal opinion is that phonics provision can, and should, be maintained in addition to more sophisticated elements of the English writing system and language.

Good systematic synthetic phonics teaching teaches the vast majority of children to decode extremely quickly – and then they just need to be taught about more alphabetic code. SSP also teaches them to orally segment, and spell, simultaneously with teaching reading.

But for spelling, the children need a very good grasp of a comprehensive range of spelling alternatives BUT ALSO they need to know that they have to work hard to begin to assimilate ‘spelling word banks’ of words spelt with the same letter/s-sound correspondences (not onset and rime ‘word families’). In order to enhance this assimilation or ‘building up knowledge of spelling word banks’, the children need to be told of that need, and activities can take place within the teaching which facilitates this – such as glueing together certain words in memory through spelling stories and recall activities and highlighted word lists and associations with illustrations – the type of things that are ‘memorable’ to children.

This is built into the Phonics International programme and the level of vocabulary and design of the core resources is not infantile. If you are looking for phonics for intervention for older learners and phonics for longer term spelling, you might want to investigate what PI has to offer and it is not at all expensive.

In April this year (two thirds the way through England’s academic year), some Year Ones were filmed trialling materials which are redeveloped PI materials. You might be interested to watch it purely to see the expectation of Year One content and practice which is supported hugely by paper-based resources and activities. The teachers in this school (previously a ‘Letters and Sounds School’) were very upset when I first observed their phonics practice and pointed out to them how little they were teaching lesson by lesson and how little ‘practice’ the children were, in reality, getting – with no tracking and monitoring possible as this was what I call a ‘mini whiteboard’ school. The headteacher told me recently that the points I raised for phonics have profoundly changed the school’s approach to all its teaching and learning based on the notion of examining the difference between ‘extraneous’ (superfluous) activities and truly fit-for-purpose activities.

Sir Jim Rose raises this issue (warning) of ‘extraneous’ activities but teachers of young beginners have been trained, and led to believe, that all activities must be ‘all-singing-and-dancing’ to maximize engagement. Nothing could be further from the truth. Children LOVE having their own activities to do which they can get stuck into and which keep them very busy – and learning.

Anyone who truly knows me will know that this is not at all intended as self-promotion – just intellectual discussion.

Best wishes,

[debbie]

Spurcroft Primary School website features the No Nonsense Phonics Skills video via the 'curriculum' page. I'm so grateful to Headteacher Nathan Butler-Broad, Deputy Head Kate Flowerdew, and their colleagues, children and their parents, for supporting the filming of the resources and guidance in action:

http://www.spurcroft.w-berks.sch.uk/Curriculum

Congratulations to the school, too, for the recognition of Ofsted inspectors for the hard work and improvements made to the school over an 18 month period.

[debbie]

Here is another fantastic development - Sir Jim Rose was impressed with the video footage he watched of the No Nonsense Phonics Skills materials being trialled at Spurcroft Primary School (see link in top message) and he asked if he could visit to see the phonics provision.

This led to headteacher, Nathan Butler-Broad inviting Sir Jim to open a brand new extension building for Spurcroft Primary and of course Sir Jim was delighted to add to the special open day with a talk about education and what he had seen of the school.

Here is a brief description of the heartwarming event thanks to the Newbury Weekly News:

http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/news/that ... lding.html

[debbie]

We've now made a PowerPoint presentation and an audio/video featuring the No Nonsense Phonics Skills Starter Kit resources.

Here is a link to the PowerPoint with scripted notes for quick, transparent review of the programme's resources and rationale. It won't take long to flick t through the slides:

http://www.phonicsinternational.com/nnps.pptx

Here are links to the audio/video of the PPT slides and scripted notes read by me. This includes a level of detailed explanation which, in effect, amounts to supporting good use of the programme (training):


View/Stream: http://view.vzaar.com/8552337/video

Download: http://view.vzaar.com/8552337/download

[debbie]

A number of people have asked us where they can get the No Nonsense Phonics Skills Starter Kit. Here is a link to Raintree's online catalogue:

http://www.raintree.co.uk/product/9781474739665

Alternatively, for acquiring the resources in the UK direct from us, you can also contact David at:

support@phonicsinternational.com .

For any information about the resources and guidance, you can contact me at:

debbie@phonicsinternational.com .

If you require individual Teacher Books and Pupil Books, and/or the Tabletop Mini Alphabetic Code Charts, you will need to contact David.

[debbie]

Here's a great comment from a Principal in Australia who is already familiar with my Phonics International work and what children can achieve with it. She surprised me by tweeting at first with a photo of the No Nonsense Phonics Skills Starter Kit (Box Set) on her office desk! She then added the comment below via Facebook:

Awesome effort Debbie! So wonderful to see PI available in this format and so accessible for schools - congratulations! It is a hugely successful approach to synthetic phonics

[debbie]

Here is some more feedback following a 2-day consultancy & training event at a very big primary school where I introduced the No Nonsense Phonics Skills materials to the staff:

The difference is amazing. So, 6 weeks after you first visited - there are some incredible things happening at [our school]. We have seen children make phenomenal progress - the say the sounds sheets - say it all. For some children it is like a switch has been flicked. I think you would enjoy seeing how the Teaching Assistants are using the Intervention boxes - we have three - they use the teacher books as a reference document, interventions are specific and targeted at the children's "gaps." It has become a treasured resource. There is still a way to go and we are finding our feet, trying things out and consistency is not there yet, we might need to have a staff Skype or "Ask Debbie" session and we will definitely need you to come back and help us improve on what we have begun, but you have made a difference in such a short time. Child H today was working with a TA; He has been to 4 schools, loves school and learning, but he has struggled with reading and writing in the past. There were lots of gaps when we first looked at our Say the Sounds assessment (Sept 2016) -The gaps have disappeared! H is writing and reading with confidence. H is one of many.

[debbie]

Another positive review received via Facebook - from a lady who has used Phonics International and other reputable SSP programmes for years:

Hi Debbie , I purchased the no nonsense skill pack . It's simply amazing. It has gotten such quick results that I thought I would again let you know your synthetic phonic is is the best. Loads of love

[debbie]

Great to read this tweet from the wonderful Jacqui O'Donnell in Australia:

our teachers and kids love No Nonsense Phonics Skills books - awesome work Debbie 😊

[debbie]

Here is the major part (example) of a No Nonsense Phonics Skills Teacher Book 2. You can see the format whereby the Pupil Book 2 is part of the Teacher Book with post-it notes additional 'guidance' throughout the book:

http://nononsense.edcowebsites.co.uk/me ... sion_b.pdf

Each of the nine Pupil Books has a parallel Teacher Book which can 'stand alone' and is also part of the systematic sequence.