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Steps To Teach Phonics

The document outlines a 5 step process for teaching phonics: 1) Letter sounds - teaching letters and their sounds using words like sat and pin. 2) Blending - blending letter sounds into words like sit and tap. 3) Digraphs - teaching two-letter sounds like ch and sh. 4) Alternative graphemes - showing one sound can be spelled differently like ai in rain vs ay in day. 5) Fluency and accuracy - becoming automatic with words and focusing on spelling rules and reading comprehension.

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Najihah Nazri
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1K views

Steps To Teach Phonics

The document outlines a 5 step process for teaching phonics: 1) Letter sounds - teaching letters and their sounds using words like sat and pin. 2) Blending - blending letter sounds into words like sit and tap. 3) Digraphs - teaching two-letter sounds like ch and sh. 4) Alternative graphemes - showing one sound can be spelled differently like ai in rain vs ay in day. 5) Fluency and accuracy - becoming automatic with words and focusing on spelling rules and reading comprehension.

Uploaded by

Najihah Nazri
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Step 1 – Letter Sounds

Most phonics programmes start by teaching children to see a letter and then say the
sound it represents. Children are often taught the letters S,A,T,P,I,N first, so that
they can sound out a wide variety of words (e.g. sat, pin, pat).

Children should also begin to learn how to write these letters using the correct
formation.

Tip: There are a host of songs and videos available on Youtube to support learning
letter sounds.

Step 2 – Blending
Children are taught how to blend individual sounds together to say a whole word.
They will start with CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words such as sit, pan,
tap, before moving on to CCVC words (e.g. stop, plan) and CVCC words (e.g.
milk, past).

Tip: Invest in a set of magnetic letters for the fridge. Children can arrange
different combinations of letters to form words.  

Step 3 – Digraphs
Once the children have learnt individual letter sounds, they will start learning to
read and write digraphs. They will learn consonant digraphs (e.g. ch, sh, ng) and
vowel digraphs (e.g. ea, oo, ai). Then they will move on to sounding out whole
words such as hair, moon, chin etc.

Alongside this, children should be introduced to ‘tricky words’ (also called


common exception words). These are common words that don’t follow the normal
phonics rules (e.g he, she, was, they, all).
Step 4 – Alternative graphemes
Once children are confident with the above, they will start learning more
graphemes. They will learn that one sound can be represented by different
graphemes. For example, the ‘ai’ sound (rain) can be represented as ‘ay’ (day),
‘a_e’ (make), ‘eigh’ (eight) and ‘a’ (apron). Alternative pronunciations for
graphemes will also be introduced, e.g. ‘ea’ in sea, head and break.

Tip: Reading to your child is key. It is important that your child continues to listen
to and (most importantly) enjoy stories while they are learning phonics. When
you’re reading aloud to your child, ask them to read one sentence per page. They
will enjoy using their phonics skills to decipher new words.

Step 5 – Fluency and Accuracy


By this point, children should be able to read many familiar words automatically
and sound out unfamiliar words. They should be able to spell words phonetically,
but not necessarily correctly.

The aim now is to support children to become more fluent readers and accurate
spellers. Children will begin to learn more complex spelling rules such as prefixes,
suffixes and silent letters. They should continue to practise reading on a daily basis
to develop speed, fluency and comprehension.

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