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debbie
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
Posts: 425
Location: UK
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 Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 9:24 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Hi Debbie
I just thought I'd update you as I've been in touch with you before saying that I've got an individual licence for your programme and love it and I was going to try and get school to use it.
There is progress on that front as I've shown the resources to my colleagues and they are very impressed - I wish I'd had the confidence to speak up sooner! We are hoping to buy the school licence, we are just waiting for the literacy coordinator to approve it which hopefully won't take long.
I continue to be astounded by the results that I am having from using the programme. I have a child already writing at Level 2b at this stage of Year 1 and several others already at 2c. There are lots of Level 2 readers already too. Even my lowest ability children are making good progress and noone seems to be completely stuck.
Keep up the good work and I'll let you know how it goes in school when we buy it. |
I asked this Y1 teacher (UK) if I could post her message to me on the 'feedback' forum and she replied with further details of how she uses the PI resources in her class:
| Quote: | Hi
That's fine to post it on the message forum.
I think that what the children like is that it is so structured and they know exactly what to expect each day. I have made a Smart Notebook template that I use for every session, basically doing all the steps that you show on one of your videos but I've done it on Smart Notebook rather than using flashcards. I show a table with all the sounds they've learned and they read them when I point to them. We then look at lists of words with the previous couple of days sounds on. I then introduce the new sound, we then read some words with the new sound in together and then the children go to their tables to do the sounds book sheet.
I have given every child a phonics folder (just a loose leaf file) and this is out in their place every session. When they have done their sounds book sheet they put it in the folder. It means that if a child finishes quickly they can take out earlier sheets and continue to practise them. I also use the sentence sheets on some days for revision and ask the children to circle the sounds and read the text.
I have a group of children that were quite low ability so as it took a bit of time doing the basics at the start of the year they are now working on unit 3 with my LSA each session whilst I teach the rest of the class who are coming towards the end of unit 6 now.
In terms of informing parents I make a sheet every week which has the sounds for that week along with a list of words for the parents to practise reading with their child. I sometimes will put some information about phonics on the back of the sheet. I did this a lot at the start of the year and now I just do it occasionally to give parents and update of where we are up to with phonics.
Other teachers have taken phonics on board more this year, Year 3 in particular, at my school. The thing I find some people do both at my school and on message forums I go on is treat phonics as an end in itself. So they take a phonics session in isolation rather than linking it to everything to do with reading and writing. I find it works best to constantly refer to phonics so when I listen to children read I point out sounds in their books that we have been learning or when we are writing if they ask how to spell a word I ask them to sound it out and go and look at our 'sounds wall' if they get stuck.
The other thing that I think is making phonics work this year with my class is total consistency - so like I say keeping lessons pretty much the same format every day, but also making sure I have phonics every day and it doesn't get missed. If we have an event in school so I have to change my timetable it is never phonics that is dropped as I think it is the most crucial lesson out of everything.
I'm glad it's useful me keeping you informed. I find teaching children to read is my favourite part of my job so I'm passionate about anything that will help me do that. |
I was very pleased that this teacher was prepared to take the time to be so informative. In my reply, I asked if use of the core SOUNDS BOOK ACTIVITY SHEETS was being alternated with the 'I CAN READ' texts or 'SENTENCES' [or people could alternate with 'SIMPLE SENTENCES' from the Early Years Starter Package). The sentence and text level resources can be used in several different ways and ALL the children can use them by accessing them at their own level either independently or with adult supervision (making sure the children apply themselves to their objective - not the adult 'doing' it for the children!!).
I am always very gratified when people keep in touch with me - and genuine feedback is very important indeed. I do hope that this teacher's colleagues will try out the PI programme to provide a whole school approach to teaching reading and spelling - and if they do, I'm sure this teacher will let me know the outcome! 
It is not uncommon for an individual teacher to try out the PI programme's resources and then to pass on the findings to colleagues. 
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Debbie Hepplewhite |
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debbie
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
Posts: 425
Location: UK
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| Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2010 11:45 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Hi Debbie,
Just thought I'd send you an email to introduce myself - I'm ..................... daughter, ............
I'm doing PI in my classroom too  I just joined your mailing list of tutorials on recommendation of Mum.
I absolutely LOVE Phonics International. It's made SUCH a huge impact on the kids I teach so thank you so much.
Anyways, better get back to it - just thought I'd drop you a small email!
Cheers, |
Australian early years teacher trialling the action mnemonics
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Debbie Hepplewhite |
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debbie
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
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Location: UK
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| Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2010 11:51 am Post subject: |
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This is taken straight from the online TES (Times Educational Supplement) primary forum posted on 09/05/2010:
| Quote: | This thread makes interesting reading. I don't use Letters and Sounds with my class, but use Phonics International (www.phonicsinternational.com). I found Letters and Sound was a good starting point but really didn't provide enough resources. It is also full of all these ideas for activities, but they take a lot of resourcing and preparing for what is quite a short activity.
I teach my phonics sessions following the same structure every day. I recap previous sounds by showing them all on the board and pointing to them for the children to read, I then get the children to practise reading words with the previous couple of days sounds in. I then teach the new sound by putting it on the board and talking about it. We then read some words together with the new sound in. This takes up to 10 minutes. I then send the children to their tables where they complete a sheet from Phonics International - it has words for them to read and space to practise writing the sound.
Compared to some of the Letters and Sounds activities I realise how I teach it may sound quite boring. It is very teacher led and the interactive part is the children reading the words. I don't use a great deal of resources or play many games in the lessons. HOWEVER, it is working absolutely fantastic and the children really love the phonics lessons. We do it after play every day and they always come in asking what sound are they learning today. There is a lot of independent learning as the children are reading words on their sheets and ticking them if they can read them. They file their work in their phonics folders themselves and highlight new sounds on a bookmark.
The point I think I'm trying to make here is that I think it is vital to teach children to read in a very systematic and structured way. You can't learn to read by reading. That is a contradiction - how can you read in the first place if you've not been taught to read. I accept that some children will just pick up reading without much teaching (I believe that's how I learned to read myself) but there are no guarantees that this will happen and certainly not for every child. Therefore teaching children how to decode is so important.
I think a mistake some people make is taking phonics as an end in itself rather than a means to an end. So they are only thinking about if the children can identify all the sounds rather than looking at it in the wider picture - are the children reading words confidently in their books with sounds in they've learned? Are they spotting sounds in words around them?
For those of you who are cynical about phonics teaching, I'd urge you to put a really systematic plan in place for your class and you'll be amazed by the effect it has. I have a lot of level 2 readers and writers already and I teach Y1. I also have a class of children who love reading and writing. |
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Debbie Hepplewhite |
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debbie
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
Posts: 425
Location: UK
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| Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2010 11:53 am Post subject: |
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This was taken from the mumsnet forum posted 30th May 2010:
| Quote: | | I would recommend Debbie's programme to anyone. Very comprehensive resources and extremely effective. |
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Debbie Hepplewhite |
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debbie
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
Posts: 425
Location: UK
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| Posted: Sun Jun 13, 2010 12:15 pm Post subject: |
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A lovely message from a lady who has put together a training package using some PI resources from the Early Years Starter Package for volunteer adults who help out with hearing readers at a primary school:
| Quote: | Hello Again,
I just picked my kids up from school and one of the mums who attended my Support-A-Reader training came up to tell me how much she loves the booklet I put together – your modelling cards and simple sentences. She said she doesn’t use it with the Year 3’s she helps at the school because the teacher gives out books for the children to read, instead she uses it with her five year old son. She was absolutely beaming as she told me how he can sound out all the words and read whole sentences by himself. She has two older children who struggled and spent a fortune on Kumon to help them catch up, hence her excitement seeing her five year old read and want to read more.
You must hear things like this all the time – thought I’d tell you anyway that there is another happy mum out there!!
Keep up the great work. |
Hopefully, you'll hear more about this training package in the future as it is being developed and trialled by one of our PI trainers as we speak!
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Debbie Hepplewhite |
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debbie
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
Posts: 425
Location: UK
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| Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2010 3:48 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Hi Debbie, I just had to share with you- I've had so much positive feedback from the parents of the children in my class about their reading and writing- and they've only been at school 2 weeks! We've only covered 4 phonemes and today it 'clicked' with a lot of the children that we can read words by blending the phonemes together- not from guessing and struggling from pictures etc. The parents seem to be realising this 'miracle' too! Now just to convince the head teacher that SP is the way forward! Bring on the revolution in Australia!
Best wishes,
[Teacher in Australia]. |
I have just posted this on the 'Fancy a chat?' forum too - as I am trying to get volunteers to type up simple diary recounts of their teaching so that we can upload them onto the website to share with others. Students' names would not be identified.
If anyone is happy to do this, please do contact me at debbie@phonicsinternational.com .
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Debbie Hepplewhite |
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