Section 4 – What about phonics?
So far, so good. Understanding print is what reading is all about, and children who have the abundant experience of ‘seeing meanings in written words’ are well on the way to becoming fully literate.
The trouble is that most teachers of reading think that learning to read is a matter of ‘saying written words aloud’, so children who cannot do that are not reading.
Probably the best way of resolving the puzzle is to imagine a child who learns to understand print first, without any reference to spoken words.
It’s perfectly feasible. In the 1920s, Dr Helen Thompson developed a way of teaching profoundly deaf children to understand print by presenting written words in a physical context. Words such as ‘go’, ‘jump’ and ‘run’ were shown to the children, accompanied by the relevant actions, as well as nouns like ‘table’, ‘door’, ‘window’ and so on. Then the teachers would hold up sentences – e.g. ‘Go to your table’ – demonstrating the action required, until the children could carry out the actions in response to the written instructions.
Glenn Doman (Teach Your Baby to Read) worked with brain damaged children in Philadelphia (USA), and reckoned that reading words was even easier than hearing them. If a youngster was having difficulty learning to talk, he would suggest to parents that they should help their child learn to read first, and this would help the child’s speech. So they did, and it did.
Suppose, then, that a baby is exposed to massive amounts of meaningful print, and learns to understand it, without having any idea that it’s also possible to say the written words aloud.
When he or she is five years old, and starts school, the teachers’ job is to help their pupils learn to hear language, and to talk.
How do they set about it? They can use spoken words in physical contexts – or, they could link spoken words with written words already meaningful to the children (e.g. ‘flower’).
This is a brilliant short cut. A child transfers the meaning from the written word to the equivalent spoken word, until she understands the spoken word ‘flower’ whenever she hears it.
Learning phonics
An even more brilliant idea is to teach the children to match written words with spoken words by themselves.
Because someone back in the mists of time invented an alphabetic script, we can not only match written words with spoken words as wholes, we can also match them bit by bit. Spoken words are whole patterns of individual sounds: we can generate thousands and thousands of spoken words using a mere 44 different sounds.
An alphabetic script works on the same principle. It enables us to construct written words like spoken words, by using an even smaller number of moveable shapes – i.e. only 26 letters. This does away with all the disadvantages of an ideographic script, it makes writing easier; and typing, keyboards and printing possible.
As an added bonus, we can transfer meanings from one form of language to the other, by matching the individual shapes in written words with the individual sounds in spoken words.
Which is what phonics is all about. Phonics (sounding out written words bit by bit) is a different process from understanding print. But it is an extremely powerful aid to reading – and to speaking – and to spelling.
It enables us to transfer meanings from spoken words to written words when we are learning to read.
If we learn the meanings of some written words first, phonics allows us to transfer meanings from the written words to spoken words, and so enriches our speaking vocabularies. Think of words you mispronounced as a child, while understanding them perfectly well. E.g. my daughter Helen told her father one day she didn’t think he would look very nice with a ‘mowst-ake’ (‘moustache’). This shows that the transfer of meaning often happens from print to speech, as well as the other way round. (Usually, though, we pronounce the words correctly, and are not aware of how the transfer is taking place.)
Then when we move on to writing, we almost always refer to the spoken words in our heads, and match them sound by sound with the letters appearing on the page.
So of course all children need to learn phonics, thoroughly and systematically, as a process in its own right, alongside their experience of understanding print. In fact it’s important to introduce phonics as soon as possible, so that by the time a child moves on to silent reading, she is automatically thinking of the sounds for the letters, as well as the meanings of the words. Then phonic matching is instantly available when she needs it for speaking or writing, in addition to reading.
How phonics works
It’s much easier to teach phonics when we recognize what it’s actually for. We are not expecting children to learn and remember a list of different letter sounds, then all the exceptions, then how to put the letters together to make words.
No, phonics is best understood, not as putting the letters of the alphabet together, but as a mapping procedure. The child is learning to map a whole spoken word onto a whole written word, in such a way that the first sound in the spoken word maps onto the left hand edge of the written word, the last sound maps onto the right hand edge, and the middles map onto each other, bit by bit. (The child actually works from left to right along the written word, until she reaches the end, but the above description shows how the words are fitted to each other.) The procedure works with all words, even ‘irregular’ ones, e.g. ‘thought’:
The easiest way of helping a child to carry out this mapping procedure is by telling her the whole spoken word, first, then showing her how to match the pieces. E.g. “This word says ‘twig’, doesn’t it. We’ll cover all the letters except the ‘t’, look, and it just says ‘tŭ’. Now it says ‘tw’,” [uncovering the ‘w’] “now it says ‘twĭ’, now it says ‘twig’. You do it.”
Approaching phonics in terms of teaching a procedure, or technique, makes the whole thing plain sailing. There are only three steps:
1. First sound onto left hand edge.
2. Matching the ends and middles of words.
3. Blending the sounds.
In practice, you combine Steps 2 and 3, and help a child to blend the sounds as she goes along (see above).
Use an ordinary alphabet book to teach Step 1, with, say, a picture of an apple on one page, and the word ‘apple’ printed twice, opposite the picture, once beginning with a small letter, picked out in red, and once with a capital letter, also in red. It helps if the red letters are also printed by themselves, underneath the picture:
The child looks at the picture, and says ‘apple’. She points to the two words, saying ‘apple’ both times, then to each initial letter, saying ‘ă’. Finally she points to the separate letters underneath the picture, saying ‘ă’ again for each one.
It takes only a few minutes to learn this technique. After that it is practised with another twenty five words which, surprise surprise, just happen to begin with the other twenty five letters of the alphabet... Make sure you add an indeterminate vowel sound, ǔ, to the letter sounds for the consonants, to make them easier to say: bǔ, cǔ, dǔ, etc. This vowel sound is readily dropped when
you help a child to blend the sounds in a whole word, e.g. hǔ, hǎ, han, hand.)
Steps 2 and 3 are taught as you show the children how to sound out a selection of three- and four-part words.
The children have now mastered the entire process of phonic matching. That is really all there is to it, but practice is key and needs to be carried out at every possible opportunity, until the technique has become instinctive.
In addition, youngsters need to know about the two main peculiarities of the English written system. One is that a single sound can match more than one letter (as in words like ‘train’, ‘claw’, ‘graph’, ‘cloth’, ‘fight’, etc.).
Secondly, some letters are ‘magic’. In certain conditions, the letters ‘e’, ‘i’ and ‘y’ particularly can change the sounds matching earlier letters.
Secondly, some letters are ‘magic’. In certain conditions, the letters ‘e’, ‘i’ and ‘y’ particularly can change the sounds matching earlier letters.
You can also cover this territory very rapidly, and consolidate with practice, practice, practice. As a rough guide, you could teach the 26 common letter-sounds for the letters of the alphabet, plus the sounding out procedure for 50 simple words with short vowel sounds, in six weeks at most – that’s half a term. Another half term for 24 illustrated words with two-letter sounds, plus practice with a further 12 words. Finally, allow twelve weeks, or a full term, for the story of Alphabet Magic and the magic letters, and 34 practice words (only because the story is so compelling, and worth spending time on). See below for details of materials and word lists.
That’s two terms for the complete phonic programme, at the end of which all the children will be able to sound out any written word they encounter (pronouncing most of them correctly), and spell all 120 words in the programme – as a minimum.
It is much simpler to get to grips with the sounding out procedure if you stop thinking about the separate letters in words, and concentrate instead on the separate sounds. You are building up a spoken word sound by sound, and matching each successive sound with the equivalent letter or letters in the written word. (This is why the procedure works with all words, whether they are ‘irregular’ or not.) Practise building up the sounds in any number of spoken words, by themselves (i.e. without matching them with written words at first), and it will all start making beautiful sense. E.g. ‘kŭ, kĭ, kitch, kitchĕ, kitchen’, ‘shŭ, shĕ, shel, shelv, shelves’, ‘wŭ, wor, walk’, ‘shŭ, shă, sham, shamp, shampoo’, ‘cŭ, că, cărr, carrĭ, carriage’.
Because you begin by telling your pupil what the whole written word says, then help her to sound it out, she will never be confused, but just go on copying you until she can manage independently. So we are using an experience-based approach to teach phonics, as well as reading. Every child is given the continual experience of success – failure doesn’t exist.
And because the children are learning phonic matching as a separate process, they don’t have to begin reading with acres of stilted phonic material. They can plunge straight into the most delicious books by the most delicious authors, and have the experience of ‘seeing meanings in written words’, and ‘matching written words with spoken words’ – side by side. (Once they are established as real readers, though, there is no harm in allowing them to practise their reading aloud skills by working through a series of simple books, until they have closed the gap between their ‘reading aloud’ levels, and their ‘understanding print’ levels. This should happen far more rapidly than you might expect.)
Here is a list of all the words in my phonic programme:
The Alphabet Set – Primary Level 26 cards
apple, banana, camel, dragon, elephant, fox, grandmother, helicopter, ink, jam, king, lion, mountain, nurse, octopus, palace, queen, rabbit, snake, tree, umbrella, volcano, witch, x-ray, yeti, zebra
Sound Spelling Set 1 – Vowel Sandwiches 50 cards
Set 1a
bad, jazz, mad, sat, van; bed, fell, red, web, yes; big, him, kit, lid, pig; cog, doll, fox,
got, top; bus, cup, nut, sun, tub
Set 1b
grab, hand, slam; desk, lend, nest; kilt, quiz, twig; blot, frog, smog; jump, plug, tusk; scram, exact; quest, request; crisp, strip; frost, clock; trust, strum
Sound Spelling Set 2 – The Combinations 36 cards
Set 2a
train, crayon, astronaut, claw, children, beach, three, helicopter, third, nurse, star, morning, jewels, king, coal, Typhoo (kangaroo), book, mouth, tower, elbow, graph, shampoo, cloth, fruit
Set 2b
(The combinations are not printed in red. The child identifies the combination/s, then sounds out the word)
proud, bring, drown, play, flew, sprang, squeak, splash, shrink, scream, other, mother
Sound Spelling Set 3 – Alphabet Magic 34 cards
Spell 1 – The magic ‘e’ spell
made, grate, snake; these, scene; kite, shine, slide;
hope, clothes, phone; tube, exclude, fortune
Spell 2 – The magic ‘i’ and magic ‘y’ spell
hoping, shining, shiny
Spell 3 – Consonants can’t use magic
hopeful, grateful, hopeless
Spell 4 – The double defence
trotting, hopping, muddy, webbed
Spell 5 – Changing ‘c’s and ‘g’s
ceiling, city, cygnet; gentle, giant, gypsy
Spell 6 – The bodyguard ‘u’
guess, guide, plague, guy
Revolution at Longniddry
Longniddry Primary School, in East Lothian, Scotland, decided to trial my experience approach, to reading and phonics, with their Reception children (Primary One in Scotland). They set up an experimental class, following my ideas, and a control group using more traditional methods.
At the end of the first term, they rang me up to say they had a problem. The experimental group was so far ahead of the control group, they didn’t feel it was morally right not to use my experience approach with the control group as well. The inward grin reached from my toes to the top of my head. “Oh yes,” I replied. “Do it with all the children. Compare the results with national norms, and that will be just as scientific.”
Both Primary One class teachers then set to with a will. I suggested enlarging the pictures in the phonic books from A4 to A3, and putting them on a wall, but the school had discovered that people rarely look at information on walls. (It’s true…) So, instead, teachers printed the illustrations on smaller A5 cards, strung a washing line across the classroom, and asked the children to peg up particular cards. Much more fun!
They invented games, accompanied by guitar playing, to go with the programme. E.g. when introducing two-letter sounds, they would stick the letters ‘ai’ on one child’s back, the word ‘train’ on the back of another, and so on down the list: each child had to find his or her partner. A classroom assistant constructed a glorious Alphabet Wizard, almost as big as the children, who went from class to class to lend his benign presence to the telling of the ‘Alphabet Magic’ story. The headteacher threw herself into the endeavour heart and soul. Every day a new and mysterious word went up on her office door, at child height, and the pupils would line up to work it out. They whispered the word in the head’s ear, and were rewarded with a hug and a sticker.
“How come,” some parents began asking, “my Primary One child can read so much better than my Primary Four child?”
At the end of the year, the school rang me up to say they had another problem. “Er – what do we do next year?”
(Pam Clark was the Special Needs teacher who introduced my experience approach to literacy at Longniddry Primary School. She later became Deputy Head of Dunbar Primary School in East Lothian – the largest state primary school in Scotland. She continued using the same approach during her time here – because, as she said simply, “It works.” She is retired now, but we are
still in touch, still encouraging all English-speaking primary schools, wherever they may be, to use the approach.)
Alphabet Magic – The Tallying Approach to Phonics: the three books
We are using a basic mathematical procedure to teach phonics – that of tallying. The individual sounds in a spoken word are tallied with the shapes in the equivalent written word, until the two word forms are firmly matched with each other, from beginning to end.
I have produced three books, wonderfully illustrated by Debbie Smith, to teach the procedure itself, and the two main peculiarities of the system:
Book One – The Alphabet Book. Teaches the common
sound names for all the letters, and the tallying (sounding out)
procedure for 50 words with short vowel sounds. Plus handwriting
pages for the same 50 words.
Also explains how to teach reading and speaking to profoundly
deaf children, with the helpful addition of ‘cued speech’.
Book Three – The Story of Alphabet Magic.
Unforgettable story of the quarrelsome vowels, and the
increasingly desperate attempts of the Alphabet Wizard
to sort things out. Brilliant for learning to spell and write the 34 ‘magic’ words.
Book Two – The Book of Combinations. Teaches 24 two
letter sounds, plus word lists and handwriting pages (36 words).
The snag is that I am producing the books myself, in batches of ten, and binding them at home on my spiral binder. Fine for present purposes, but not if I am trying to encourage world wide interest.
So I have decided to put the three books on line. You can download them yourself at no charge, print them off (120 gram paper works best for the pages, with card for the covers) and clip or bind each book together. If you find that prospect somewhat daunting, however, there is exciting news. A former student of mine, now living in Los Angeles, and making a real name for himself in the field of computing, has close ties with a renowned educational publisher. He thinks he might well be able to persuade them to publish my phonic books and materials: so watch this space!
Click on the following links to read and/or download the books as Word documents. (Note that Book One is in three sections, because it is the longest book.)
Book One –
The Alphabet Book
Book Two –
The Book of Combinations
Book Three –
The Story of Alphabet Magic
Packs of phonic word cards are available (while stocks last), containing all the words listed in the three Alphabet Magic picture books:
There are both primary and secondary level packs (the only difference is that the alphabet words in the secondary level pack are much more advanced, otherwise the packs are identical).
Available from: Felicity Craig, 33 Newcomen Road, Dartmouth, Devon, TQ69BN, UK. Price: £6.50 per pack, including postage. (Payment with order, please– cheques only.)
Overseas customers: £10.50 per pack, including postage. (Please send a sterling cheque with your order.)
Also available from the same address: As Easy as ABC – Phonic Analysis in Two Terms, by Felicity Craig. Booklet describing how you can cover the same phonic programme with literacy strugglers at secondary level. Price £4.50, including postage. Payment with order, please – cheques only.
Overseas customers: £7.50, including postage. (Please send a sterling cheque with your order.)
