How do I start my child learning to read with phonics?
Hi,
Let me introduce myself. My name is Sally Anne Wake Jones. For more than 30 years, I have used a programme of traditional phonics to teach children to read fast. Even if the child is a reluctant reader, I discovered that you can get him or her to read fluently in as little as 6-9 months. Yes, you can teach them to read in 6-9 months from beginner to fluent reader (ready for their first solo reading books).
In ‘Learn To Read With Phonics’, a series of eight books, we set out how you use my scheme to teach reading fast. As an experienced teacher, I used this phonic scheme to teach my classes to read. When I ran after school tuition classes, I proved to desperate mums and dads, whose children were still struggling to take off in reading at eight or nine, that my phonic scheme could break through their reluctance to read and help them take off in reading. It works with young children of four or five who are ready to read, with reluctant readers, reader’s with learning difficulties, or where English is a foreign language.
As a mum of four, now grown up, children, I introduced my own kids to read early. In fact, I taught them to read before they started school, with this structured phonic method. My grandkids are now benefitting from it too.
There is one thing I really want to stress…
Teaching a child to read is about building up his or her confidence. You want them to fall in love with reading. Because this scheme is a fast track scheme, the child can make rapid progress. If possible, you work one to one (one adult to a child), or in small groups, mastering all the sounds at each level. The child starts to feel successful. He or she are happy to be able to start to read and want to move on. In this way, the child will gain confidence and soon acquire fluency, as well as a life long love of reading.
How does it work?
For those of you who are still not sure what teaching phonics means, I will set out our methods as simply as I can.
Start with Pre-Reader, Book One. If you are starting phonics from scratch, this is the most important book because it teaches what phonics are. The phonic method teaches reading by sounding words out. Each lower casement letter has a sound.
The c in cat is an initial sound.
We start with 21 consonants.
bin, cat, dog, fin, get, hat, jet, kit, lap, map, nap, pin, quin, rat, sun, tin, vet, wet, fox, yet, zebra
Learn the initial sounds with your child. Make sound cards.
Vowel sounds are in the middle of these words.
cat, get, lip, fog, bus
Learn all these 26 sounds with Pre-Reader Book One. Note the letters of the alphabet have different sounds - ABC.
2. Next, you now use your newly acquired sounds to sound out words. Practise three letter words by blending the three sounds together - b e d b i n.
You may need to practise this skill regularly, but the child will soon learn. The first book introduces the sounds gradually.
Lesson 1: c a t - words like cat, act
Lesson 2: tot in a cot - words like cat, act, cot, tot
….and so on.
We go on to introduce more sounds, adding more three letter words.
Practise each page several times. Do not move onto the next sound, until your child recognises the words on the page being learnt.
Your progress will depend on the age of your child and readiness of your child to learn.
Lesson 3: Make sure the child knows the new letters f x, plus the sounds d g o c a already taught. Use the sounds to blend together words: fat, fox, fog. Blend the sounds to form the 13 words now introduced.
Continue to work through he pages until all the 26 sounds have been covered and new three letter words introduced. The words are repeated at each stage. The child will have learnt over 100 words by the end of this section.
“80% of words can be taught by phonics. 20% are sight words to be remembered.”
3. Now, reinforce the three letter words by playing games. Your child will have fun making flip books.. We encourage the child to make a sentence maker, so they can use their words to make sentences and incorporate some sight words.
Play bingo, snap, matching pairs and sort words into their vowel groups.
4. A few four letter words are included, like sand, for the child to blend. If you have covered the four sections, in this book, you will now be ready to move on.
Read Part Two here ….