How we teach Phonics & Reading
• Environmental sounds
• Instrumental sounds
• Body percussion
• Rhythm and rhyme
• Alliteration
• Voice sounds
• Oral blending and segmenting
PHASE 2
Phase 2 is the start of systematic phonic work. Children begin to understand the grapheme- phoneme correspondence. They will focus on their understanding of how words are constructed from phonemes and that phonemes are represented by graphemes. Children then begin to blend for reading. They start with simple VC (vowel consonant) words e.g. ‘at,’ ‘it,’ ‘is’ and then move on to CVC (consonant vowel consonant) words e.g. dog, cat, man
- By the end of phase 2, the children should know 24 sounds...
s |
a |
t |
p |
i |
n |
m |
d |
g |
o |
c |
k |
ck |
e |
u |
r |
h |
b |
f |
ff |
l |
ll |
ss |
|
and be able to read 5 tricky words…
the |
to |
I |
no |
g |
They should be able to orally blend cvc words e.g. when you sound out c-a-t, they can tell you the word is cat, and also orally segment cvc words e.g. when you say mum, they can pick out the sounds m-u-m.
PHASE 3
Phase 3 builds on Phase 2. It completes the teaching of the alphabet and children move onto sounds represented by more than 1 letter (including some where the same letters can make different sounds e.g. oo– book, loop)...
DIGRAPHS – 2 letters that make 1 sound e.g. ll ss zz oa ai
TRIGRAPHS – 3 letters that make 1 sound e.g. igh air
j |
v |
w |
x |
y |
z |
zz |
qu |
ch |
sh |
th |
ng |
ai |
ee |
igh |
oa |
oo |
ar |
or |
ur |
ow |
oi |
ear |
air |
ure |
er |
ur |
and 12 more tricky words to read...
he |
she |
we |
me |
be |
was |
my |
you |
her |
they |
all |
are |
They should now, also, be able to spell the 5 tricky words from phase 2.
PHASE 4
Phase 4 does not introduce any new graphemes. The main aim of this phase is to consolidate the children's knowledge and to help them learn to read and spell words which have adjacent consonants, such as trap, string and milk.These can be sounded out but recognising them quickly makes for a stronger reader.
14 more tricky words are added too…
some |
come |
one |
said |
do |
so |
were |
when |
have |
there |
out |
like |
little |
what |
The children should now be able to write the Phase 3 words.
PHASE 5
Phase 5, Children will learn more graphemes and phonemes. For example, they already know ‘ai’ as in ‘rain’ but now they will be introduced to ‘ay’ as in ‘day’ and ‘a-e’ as in ‘make.’ Alternative pronunciations for graphemes will also be introduced, e.g. ‘ea’ in ‘tea,’ ‘head’ and ‘break.’
ay |
ou |
ie |
ea |
oy |
ir |
ue |
aw |
wh |
ph |
ew |
oe |
au |
ey |
a-e |
e-e |
i-e |
o-e |
u-e |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
They should also be able to read and write the ‘first 100 high frequency words‘
the |
and |
a |
to |
said |
in |
he |
I |
of |
it |
was |
you |
they |
on |
she |
is |
for |
at |
his |
but |
that |
with |
all |
we |
can |
are |
up |
had |
my |
her |
what |
there |
out |
this |
have |
went |
be |
like |
some |
so |
not |
then |
were |
go |
little |
as |
no |
mum |
one |
them |
do |
me |
down |
dad |
big |
when |
it’s |
see |
looked |
very |
look |
don’t |
come |
will |
into |
back |
from |
children |
him |
Mr |
get |
just |
now |
came |
oh |
about |
got |
their |
people |
your |
put |
could |
house |
old |
too |
by |
day |
made |
time |
I’m |
if |
help |
Mrs |
called |
here |
off |
asked |
saw |
make |
an |
By the end of Year 1, the children should be confidently reading all of these words and writing them accurately too.
PHASE 6
In Phase 6, the focus is on learning spelling rules for word endings or suffixes. They learn how words change when you add certain letters. There are 12 different suffixes taught:
-s |
-es |
-ing |
-ed |
-er |
-est |
-y |
-en |
-ful |
-ly |
-ment |
-ness |
The children are also expected to be able to read and write the ‘next 200 common words’.