Phonics: Read Task

RThe Literacy Teaching Guide: Phonics by the NSW Department of Education and Training Learning and Development 

• Phonics: knowing the connections between printed letters (and combinations of letters) and speech sounds
• Teachers help students learn the relationships between letters and sounds to recognize words when reading, spelling, and writing. 
• Phonics is not only explicitly taught, but it is integrated into the literacy program in many ways 
• Learning one aspect of phonics reinforces to other- like a staircase
• There are many myths about teaching phonics; such as that phonics and phonological awareness are the same thing and that teaching students every possible letter sound, as well as their combinations will create efficient readers and writers (students need to not only decipher print but understand it) 
• To meet diverse learning needs of students: determine prior knowledge, allow students to demonstrate knowledge in multiple ways, differentiate instruction if necessary, and draw upon students experiences to make connections to phonics learning. 

Principles of effective phonics teaching

1. Phonics knowledge and skills are critical to becoming literate- this is why it is important to start teaching/incorporating these skills at an early age 
2. Phonics need to be explicitly and systematically taught- regular, 20 minute, fast-paced lessons
3. Phonics needs to be taught in an integrated and balanced literacy program- scaffold opportunities for phonics learning in other areas, as well as balancing teaching phonics along with vocabulary, writing and concepts about print
4. Phonics needs to be taught to a level of automaticity- recognizing letters, words and sounds becomes a habit
5. Phonics teaching is enhanced by an emphasis on multi-sensory activities- all learning styles and preferences are acknowledged (auditory, visual and kinesthetic) 
6. Phonics teaching needs to be supported and reinforced using quality texts and technology

Methods for teaching phonics 

1. Synthetic phonics: letter-sound relationships are taught so students can then synthesize the letter sounds into words when reading/spelling 
2. Analytic phonics: students analyze letter-sound relationships once a word is identified
3. Analogy phonics: uses parts of written words students already know to identify new words 

• Teaching phonics starts simple and gets more complex, with the use of common then uncommon words. 

Sequence of teaching 

1. Recognize and write single letter-sound correspondence 
2. Recognize and write easy letter combinations (ex. sh)
3. Recognize and write more difficult letter combinations (ex. vowel digraphs)

Sequence for explicit and systematic phonics teaching

1. Assessment for/of learning- determine prior knowledge and provide feedback 
2. Planning- lesson/lesson on what and how skills will be taught 
3. Instruction- use the key three strategies: modelled, guided and independent teaching 

Three Key Strategies:

1. Modelled teaching: directly teaches new phonics skills, teacher models and leads lesson
2. Guided teaching: allows students to have more control, teacher scaffolds students thinking if needed, and corrects errors
3. Independent teaching: students are ready to learn independently and transfer their phonics knowledge to other contexts