Slide 9

Subject knowledge and

systematic teaching and
learning of phonics

© Crown copyright 2008

 Phonics at a glance

phonics is

skills of knowledge of
segmentation + the alphabetic
and blending code
 Slide 11

Phonics consists of:

•identifying sounds in spoken words;

•recognising the common spellings of
each phoneme;
•blending phonemes into words for
reading;
•segmenting words into phonemes for
spelling.

© Crown copyright 2008

 Slide 12

Some definitions

A phoneme is the smallest unit of

sound in a word.

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 Slide 13

Some definitions
Grapheme

Letter(s) representing a phoneme.

t ai igh

© Crown copyright 2008

 Phonemes and
graphemes
Terminology

phoneme grapheme

smallest unit of sound in a a letter or sequence of

word letters that represents
a phoneme
 Slide 15

Phonemes and graphemes

• Phonemes are represented by
graphemes.
• A grapheme may consist of one (t), two
(ch) or more letters (igh).
• A phoneme can be represented/spelled
in more than one way: cat, kennel, choir.
• The same grapheme may represent
more than one phoneme: me, met.

© Crown copyright 2008

 Letters and phonemes
Letters: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
Some of the 140 (approx.) letter combinations illustrated within
words:
cat, look, would, put, peg, bread, cart, fast, pig, wanted, burn,
first, term, heard, work, log, want, torn, door, warn, plug, love,
haul, law, call, pain, day, gate, station, wooden, circus, sister,
sweet, heat, thief, these, down, shout, tried, light, my, shine,
mind, coin, boy, road, blow, bone, cold, stairs, bear, hare, moon,
blue, grew, tune, fear, beer, here, baby, sun, mouse, city, science,
dog, tap, field, photo, van, game, was, hat, where, judge, giant,
barge, yes, cook, quick, mix, Chris, zebra, please, is, lamb, then,
monkey, comb, thin, nut, knife, gnat, chip, watch, paper, ship,
mission, chef, rabbit, wrong, treasure, ring, sink.

Phonemes:
/b/ /d/ /f/ /g/ /h/ /j/ /k/ /l/ /m/ /n/ /p/ /r/ /s/ /t/ /v/ /w/ /wh/ /qu/ /y/ /z/ /th/
/th/ /ch/ /sh/ /zh/ /ng/ /a/ /e/ /i/ /o/ /u/ /ae/ /ee/ /ie/ /oe/ /ue/ /oo/ /ar/
/ur/ /or/ /au/ /er/ /ow/ /oi/ /air/ /ear/
 Slide 17

Some definitions
Blending

Recognising the phonemes in a

written word, for example c-u-p, sh-ee-p,
and merging or synthesising them in the
order in which they are written to pronounce
the word: ‘cup’, ‘sheep’.

© Crown copyright 2008

 Slide 18

Some definitions
Oral blending
Hearing a series of spoken sounds
(phonemes) and merging them together to make
a spoken word. No text is used.

For example, When a teacher calls out ‘b-u-s’ or

‘c-r-ay-o-n’,
the children say ‘bus’ or ‘crayon’.

This skill should be taught within Phase 1

before blending and reading printed words.

© Crown copyright 2008

 Slide 19

Some definitions
Segmenting

• Identifying the individual sounds in a

spoken word (e.g. h-i-m, s-t-or-k) and
writing down or manipulating letters
for each sound (phoneme) to form the
word ‘him’.

© Crown copyright 2008


Blending and Segmentation
Blending
• Merging the individual
phonemes together to pronounce
a word.
• To read unfamiliar words a child
must recognise (sound out) each
grapheme, not each letter, then
merge the phonemes together to
make a word.
Slide 20
Segmentation
• Hear and say the individual
phonemes within words.
• In order to spell, children need
to segment a word into its
component phonemes and
choose a grapheme to represent
each phoneme.
© Crown copyright 2008
 Slide 21

Some definitions
Digraph
Two letters, which make one phoneme.

A consonant digraph contains 2 consonants:

sh ck th ll

A vowel digraph contains at least one vowel:

ai ee ar oy

© Crown copyright 2008

 Slide 22

Some definitions
Trigraph

Three letters, which make one

phoneme.

igh dge

© Crown copyright 2008

 Slide 23

Some definitions
Split digraph

A digraph in which the two letters

are not adjacent – e.g. ‘make’.

© Crown copyright 2008

 Slide 24

Enunciation
• Teaching phonics requires a
technical skill in enunciation

• Phonemes should be articulated

clearly and precisely

© Crown copyright 2008

‘ss’ at the end of a word
Double ‘ss’ appears at the end of a word when:
…a short vowel is in the middle of a one-syllable word.

a e i o u
mass mess miss moss fuss
lass dress kiss loss
grass Bess hiss boss
guess Ross
Jess toss
less
Tess
bus
gas yes this pus
Why has ‘think’ got a ‘k’ at the end
and not ‘ck’ or ‘c’?
• ‘k’ sound is preceded by a consonant, e.g.
‘nk’, ‘sk’
• ‘ck’ is always preceded by a vowel

duck sock neck lock rock tick

kick peck rack sick clock shock

 1 2 3

c a t
b ir d
f i sh
kn igh t
These words each have three phonemes (separate
sounds). Each of these phonemes is represented by a
grapheme.
 Sound buttons

rain bright

witch slaughter
speed crayon
slight toast
broom foil
speed crayon
slight toast
broom foil
 Slide 31

Using a phoneme
frame

© Crown copyright 2008

Segmenting
WORD PHONEMES

bleed
creed
deed
speed
weed
greed
Segmenting
WORD PHONEMES

bleed b l ee d
creed c r ee d
deed d ee d
speed s p ee d
weed w ee d
greed g r ee d
 Slide 34

CVC words -
some points to note…

© Crown copyright 2008

Words sometimes wrongly identified
as CVC

bow

few

saw

her
Words sometimes wrongly identified
as CVC

bow

few

saw

her
Consonant digraphs
ll ss ff zz
hill, mess, puff, fizz

sh ch th wh
ship, chat, thin, whip

ng qu ck
sing, quick
CVC words – clarifying some
misunderstandings
pig chick

church car

boy down

curl wheel

thorn for

day dear

head shirt
 pig chick
church car
boy down
curl wheel
thorn for
day dear
head shirt
 pig chick
church car
boy down
curl wheel
thorn for
day dear
head shirt
 pig p i g chick ch i ck
church ch ur ch car c ar
boy b oy down d ow n
curl c ur l wheel wh ee l
thorn th or n for f or
day d ay dear d ear
head h ea d shirt sh ir t
Examples of CCVC, CVCC,
CCCVC and CCVCC

b l a ck s t r ea m
ccv c ccc v c

f ou n d blank
c v cc ccvcc
Grapheme choices
glay glai
proyn proin
strou strow
sproat sprowt
dryt dright
smayn smain
groy groi
 Slide 57

Direct teaching of phonics

© Crown copyright 2008

 Slide 58

Developing phonics learning across a

week
• Every day – direct teaching of phonics
• At least once a week – Guided Reading
• Once a week minimum – Guided Writing

© Crown copyright 2008

 Slide 59

Every day
Children are provided with:
• opportunities throughout the day to engage
independently in speaking, listening, reading and
writing activities across the curriculum;
• interactive multi-sensory phonics session;
• session led by the practitioner of shared reading
and/or shared writing;
• opportunities to hear a wide-ranging selection of
stories, poems, rhymes and non-fiction.

© Crown copyright 2008

 Slide 60

Planning discrete teaching of Phase 5

© Crown copyright 2008

 Slide 61

Aims of Phase 5
• Broad knowledge of graphemes and phonemes for use in reading
and spelling
• Learn new graphemes and alternative pronunciations for the
graphemes children already know
• Children able to quickly recognise graphemes of more than one
letter
• Develop ability to choose the appropriate graphemes to represent
phonemes
• Begin to build word-specific knowledge of the spellings of words
• Lists of words and sentences to support the activities in Phase 5 –
practising blending for reading and segmenting for spelling

© Crown copyright 2008

 Model for daily teaching of phonics skills and knowledge

REVISIT AND REVIEW

recently and previously learned phoneme-grapheme correspondences, and blending and segmenting skills
as appropriate

TEACH
new phoneme-grapheme correspondences; skills of blending and segmenting

PRACTISE
new phoneme-grapheme correspondences; skills of blending and segmenting

APPLY
new knowledge and skills while reading/writing
 Route to planning – planning an
overview for the week
• Identify the number of the week from Phase 5 timetable,
for example: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, … etc.

• Decide which new graphemes to use for reading and spelling with
adjacent consonants (about four per week)

• Experts suggest that children will more effectively learn the new
grapheme for a phoneme if one representation is focused on in one
phonic session, and a few days is left before introducing another
grapheme for that same phoneme.
For example: new graphemes: 1. ay 2. oe 3. ir 4. a – e

• Decide which new ‘tricky’ words from the suggestions in the

timetable you will teach for reading and which ones for spelling

• Begin to plan in the objectives and the detail on the weekly

planning grid
 Phase 5 Weeks 1 – 4

Phase New graphemes to be taught Irregular/high-

5 over a week ( 4 per week ) frequency words

Wk 1 /ai/ /ee/ /igh/ /ai/ Read: Mr, Mrs, people

Write: some, have,
ay ea ie a –e come

Wk 2 /oa/ /ue /ee/ /igh/ Read: oh, their

Write: said
oe u-e e-e i-e

Wk 3 /oa/ /ar/ /ue/ /ow/ Read: looked, called

Write: like, so
o- e a oo ou

Wk 4 /oa/ /oo/ /ur/ /oi/ Read: asked

Write: there, were
o u ir oy
 Slide 65

Planning for discrete teaching of

Phase 5 over a week

A week’s planning exemplification

© Crown copyright 2008

 Slide 66

Application of phonics
across the curriculum

© Crown copyright 2008

 ART

Reading to learn
Word recognition Phonics DT Good word
(decoding - recognition
encoding) PE Good
comprehension
blending and Science Positive attitudes
History
segmenting Geography

Expanding written Science

ART
vocabulary Maths History PE
Geography DT

PSHE CLL (Literacy)

Understanding of oral and written language

Language comprehension
 Slide 68

Phase 5

Using IWB resources

© Crown copyright 2008

 Slide 69

Letters and sounds

Phase 5 – Contents

Suggested timetable
Reading
Spelling
Assessment
Word bank
© Crown copyright 2008
 Slide 70

Progress check for Phase 5

By the end of Phase 5 children should be able to:

• give the sound when shown any grapheme that has been taught;
• for any given sound, write down the common graphemes;
• apply phonic knowledge and skill as the prime approach to reading
and spelling unfamiliar words that are not completely decodable;
• read and spell phonically decodable two-syllable and three-syllable
words;
• read automatically all the words in the list of 100 high-frequency
words;
• accurately spell most of the words in the list of 100 high-frequency
words;
• form each letter correctly.

© Crown copyright 2008

 Slide 71

Remember…
• Phonics is the step up to word
recognition
• Automatic reading of all words –
decodable and tricky – is the ultimate
goal
• Confidence in building word-specific
knowledge of the spelling of words
• Continuous language development
© Crown copyright 2008
 Slide 72 Slide 72

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