Results from using the programme and the practices

[debbie]

It is essential that, as teachers, we know the results from using specific programmes (where these are used 'as' programmes) and practices.

It is essential that programme authors, publishers and teacher-trainers gain a full picture of the efficacy of their programmes and guidance.

Please do send any results you attribute to using the Phonics International programme and practices.

We love to hear your reports of how you have used the various resources and how learners have received them, so please keep sending these anecdotes to us - but also please send us any tangible results you are confident are a consequence of using the Phonics International programme in its entirety or in part.

Thank you so much.

[debbie]

We receive heartwarming messages like this from a teacher in Spain:

Hi Debbie,

I would just like to say that I have had a fantastic year with my two classes of 5 year olds teaching synthetic phonics and the results have been great.

In the infants we started with Jolly phonics which I found a great way of attracting the children's attention at the beginning with the catchy music but I later found that I did not need to use the music as they began progressing.

Once the penny dropped and they were reading in English with words like cat, mat, sit, sat, pan, I found that they wanted to learn all the other sounds so as to read more words.

By the end of the last term they were on alternative spellings such as 'ai' and 'ay' for the sound /ai/ which we ended up doing through incidental teaching.

During the last month some children were taking a book home everyday to read.

The weakest children with learning problems ended up reading the first level of "Dandelion Readers" which was a great success as they were not yet reading in Spanish (their mother tongue).

Quite a few of the parents mentioned that they had improved with their Spanish reading as previously they were being taught by the method similar to "Look and Remember", which does not work for all chidren, especially for the ones with a poor memory.

In primary (children aged 6 to 12) we worked on the sound sheets from units 1 to 3 from the Phonics International programme and it worked really well. This new term we will do units 4 to 6 depending on their progress.

The parents at our school are really happy with the method.
I must say it was well worth doing the course last year and I have taken full advantage of it by applying all what I learnt at our school. I have even been given hours to go into the classes to help the other teachers with the blending and tweaking e.t.c. They all said that it is really good and know the level of the children's reading will go up more everyday.

Thanks for all the e-mails you have been sending keeping me up to date!
Best Regards
Beverley

I encourage schools such as this to consider using the DfE's free Year One Phonics Screening Check which is so easy to download with full instructions for use!

[debbie]

http://phonicsinternational.com/forum/v ... .php?t=424

Follow this link to learn how to get the FREE Year One Phonics Screening Check which schools in England use!

By using this check, schools internationally can discover how well their children are doing at 'blending' the words to decode them!