Thanks for your phonics training mailshot. I am continuing to use your programme almost every day with my supply lessons. On the last day of term, I looked at the Easter grapheme with a class of Year 1 and 2 children; very excitable and tired .... and yet totally switched on by the interest of the sound activity and 'I can read' sheets!
I am using your phonics on a weekly basis, with Reception children working with another system. We study the prescribed grapheme, then use the 'colour in' sound sheets and finish with a handwriting sheet, going through your handwriting order.
I have found for older children that the format of 'sound activity sheet', 'I can read', followed by the word bank with a 'challenge' to include all the words in sentences (carrot of a house point!), works wonders for the Year 5/6 boys! We then finish with a spelling 'test', using the sound activity words, with me 'sounding' out slowly and clearly. Everyone loves this and is amazed at how well they can spell, if they listen carefully!
In addition to the school lessons, I am tutoring a lovely nine year old lad, who has had difficulty in processing his thoughts at speed. Using the school format, he whizzes through the wordbank sentences. The first time that he did this, we both sat back and looked at his achievement in stunned amazement!!
So .. as you can see, wherever I get the chance, I include my very favourite lesson in my teaching day!!!
It was lovely receiving this feedback - especially because it includes a detailed description of the use of the core resources and how these can be used across the ages.
Phonics International (and the Early Years Starter Package and Teeny Reading Seeds) provide supply teachers and student-teachers with a very comprehensive and flexible bank of resources.
Feedback from a school using Phonics International as its core phonics programme - the results refer to the Year One phonics screening check which is statutory in England at the end of Year One (children are asked to read 20 real words and 20 pseudo-words working one to one with their class teacher). The 90% below refers to the number of children who reach or exceed the benchmark of 32 out of 40 words correctly or plausibly in the case of the pseudo-words:
Phonics results - 90% again. One little boy with cerebral palsy who is gorgeous but behind all his milestones and still managed to get 24 on the test, bless him - we are really proud of that! We did really well in Year 2 and Year 6 - I will get the results to you if I get a minute tomorrow as I can't remember exact percentages.
When I am teaching, the children often ask for certain words to be included in the little dictations they have. If we are looking at /oo/ it might be zoo and moon. They like to have silly sentences where they can include an exclamation mark or question mark. So 'Can you see a zoo on a purple moon?' is right up their street!
This week we were improving our knowledge of /oa/, they have looked all the usual words. They were calling out suggestions for words to include in the dictations. There were so many, so I asked to write down all the words they could think of that we could include. I don't usually do this as making them think of words isn't really useful. However, I might have to think again! Two girls had an enormous list!
Giggling, they said they had found all the words so wanted to make some up. They had so many I think the Gov needs to ask them for help with the phonics check materials! They didn't all stick the the rules we would be looking for but wow! Hoak, choad, coaf, loat.....
They must have found more than twenty each and would have carried on if there had been time. Really interesting though on so many levels when you think about the moaning over the check.
By the way, I have never mentioned pseudo words, never shown them any, probably never will.
There are still too many real words that we are meeting and they have never seen before anyway. They fit the criteria of a pseudo word in that sense.
One of those girls is still only 4!
They still manage to surprise me, it is amazing how something new like this pops up regularly.
Here is some lovely feedback sent with a screenshot of a successfully completed spelling sheet from Phonics International:
My daughter is thoroughly enjoying the Phonics International materials that I am able to now use with her for home schooling activities. Many thanks for sharing your knowledge and expertise Debbie. It is so lovely to see my daughter being able to access texts and spelling tasks completely independently. Seeing her confidence grow is just making my heart swell ��
Here is a description of how the family adapted the online material to practise on paper in the home when a printer is not available:
Unfortunately we do not have a printer at home so have been taking a screen shot and editing on the screen. We have then been transferring the words into sentences in jotters to allow us to think about handwriting and presentation.
The visuals are so helpful and allow me to leave her to work through the activities on her own while I then support my son with his work.
