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Introduction

Children are born ready to learn. They are naturally curious about everything around them, and

from the moment they are born, a lifelong process of learning begins. It is pertinent to note that

millions of children in Nigeria will never be availed of this opportunity.

The Statistics

Did you know that according to UNESCO (2015) less than 10% of children enrolled in school will

graduate from elementary school without the basics of reading and writing? That means that 9

in every 10 children will be struggling to read and write after spending 6-10 years in school?

It also means a huge number of our children will not be able to fulfill their potentials as a result

of this problem.

Suffice it to say that sadly a significant percentage of our children will not be too different from

the 10.5 million out of school children in Nigeria, both categories of children need serious help.

Imagine what the future holds for these children who are already starting life at a

disadvantaged position.

if children are not learning while enrolled in school, it is safe to state that teachers have not been

employing effective methods to teach them, all other factors been equal.

For this situation to change, deliberate steps of modifying or completely changing pedagogy

must take place, without which everything maintains status quo.

10 reasons why reading is important for the child

1. Reading is the gateway and foundational to all learning

2. It is the basis for creative, and imaginative thinking

3. It builds concentration

4. It enhances writing

5. It enhances spelling

6. Builds vocabulary

7. Nurtures analytical thinking

8. Builds understanding of the world -knowledge

9. Keeps brain cells healthy

10. Has a calming effect

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Reading Approaches

There are different reading methods teachers have employed to teach basic literacy of reading.

Some of them include whole-language approach; Look and Say method and Literature-based

approach.

The methods have their advantages and effectiveness in certain areas but one major

disadvantage is the fact that the learners have to be presented with hundreds of words which

are memorized and regurgitated on demand. Additionally, learners are most often not able to

read unfamiliar words or words that they haven't encountered before.

On the other hand, children that learn to read using phonics are able to decode unfamiliar words

and are able to spell better than their contemporaries.

What is Phonics?

A branch of linguistics that deals with the correlation of sounds and their symbols i.e the

relationship between phonemes and graphemes. It is a method for beginning reading

instruction and a simplified form of phonetics

Phonetics on the other hand is a branch of linguistics that deals with the study and classification

of speech sounds, esp. with regards to the physical aspects of their production;

What is Jolly Phonics?

Jolly phonics is a comprehensive programme based on the proven, fun and

multisensory synthetic phonics method that gets children reading and writing from an

early age.

It enables teachers to deliver fun and effective lessons embedding phonics, spelling,

grammar and punctuation concepts that will empower children become clear and

confident communicators.

Jolly phonics is used in over a 100 countries with millions of children already taught to

read using the method.

The programme came into being in 1975 and was developed by Sue Lloyd and Susan

Wenham practicing classroom teachers in the UK.

Chris Jolly is the founder and CEO Jolly Learning Ltd the publishers of Jolly Phonics.

Proven Results

Independent research shows that the progress made by children using Jolly phonics far exceeds

that of children not taught using a synthetic phonics approach. Reading and spelling ages of

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children who have used Jolly phonics for one year are usually a year above their chronological

age. Jolly phonics is effective across the ability range, with boys doing just as well as girls, while

those with English as their second language can do as well as children who have it as their first.

Why Jolly Phonics works?

1. It is child-centered

2. Teaching is multi-sensory and active, with fun stories, actions, games and songs.

3. It is systematic and a progressive teaching of phonics.

4. Independent research supports the outstanding results achieved around the world with the

programme.

5. Continues to revise and extend children's phonic knowledge as they advance in class.

6.Flexible and easy to implement in your school

7. Developed by teachers for teachers

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Over view of the Jolly phonics method:

1. Teaches the 42 main letter sounds

2. These sounds are divided into 7 groups of 6 sounds each,

3. Five different skills are taught.

4. A sound is delivered in 8 steps.

5. Grammar, punctuation, spellings, vocabulary and writing continues as Jolly Grammar..

Elements of the Jolly Method

1. Learning the Letter Sounds.

The main 42 sounds of English are taught in the following way–

A multisensory method is used to introduce the children to the letter sounds. There

is a storyline, action and ‘Sound Sheet’ for each sound. By doing an action associated

with the sound, e.g., rub tummy and say “mmmmm” for the /m/ sound, the children

remember it easily.

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Each child has their own ‘Sound Book’. Every day the letter sound taught is stuck

into the book and taken home. Parents are asked to help their children learn the

sounds, either by going through the Sound Book, or by cutting up the letters and

playing a game of ‘Pairs’ with their child.

In order to blend efficiently it is important to know the letter sounds fluently. Every

day flash cards of the sounds that have been taught should be held up for the

children to call out the sounds as they do the actions.

Some sounds called digraphs, are represented by two letters. The children need to recognize

digraphs in words, e.g., the ‘ng’ in ‘strong’. The digraphs ‘oo’ and ‘th’ each have two

sounds, e.g., ‘book’ and ‘moon’, ‘thin’ and ‘that’. In Jolly Phonics they are initially

written in two sizes to help the children understand that there are two sounds.

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STOP: ONLY FOR COMMITED PEOPLE.

Children will need to practice over and over for this to stick. Get a free software

that will make this process easier and add excitement to learning. Learn how to

pronounce the 42 sounds correctly in a live class.

Send a whatsapp message to Book for a live class.

2. Learning Letter Formation

As the letter sounds are introduced, the children are shown exactly how to form each

letter correctly. Initially, the children form the letters in the air at the same time as

the teacher. By regularly feeling the formation of each letter, and then writing it using jingles,

most children should form their letters correctly after the first ten weeks or so. It

is also important to teach the children to hold their pencil correctly, in the tripod grip.

Feeling letter formation in the pulpils books or tracing over dotted letters gives

good practice

The Jolly Phonics material uses the Nelson script with joining tails. This

makes it easier for the children to transfer to joined-up (cursive) writing when the

time comes.

In a Live class we delve deeper into letter formation. Gain mastery writing in

Nelson handwriting after following our simple step-by-step method. You will also

learn how to implement the programme in your school and how to help children

write without holding their hands. Find that out in our Nelson Hand Writing.

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3. Blending

As well as learning the sounds, the children need to be taught how to blend them

together to hear a word. This teaching starts on the first day. The aim is to enable

the children to hear the word when the teacher says the sounds, e.g., “Listen carefully,

what word am I saying … ‘d-o-g’?” A few children will hear ‘dog’. Try a few more

words, e.g., ‘s-u-n’, ‘b-oy’, ‘m-ou-se’.

Once the children can hear the word when an adult says the sounds, they are ready

to try and blend words for themselves. Initially, being able to blend letter sounds

fluently is the essential skill for reading and should always be the first strategy for

working out unknown words. Children must also be able to recognize consonant blends

and digraphs in words such as ‘fl-a-g’ and ‘sh-o-p’.

After the letter sounds have been taught and the children can read simple, regular

words, they start taking home the ‘Word Boxes’ for extra practice. The Word Boxes

start with simple words made from the first group of letter sounds. Invariably, the

children who are the fastest at learning to blend sounds become the more fluent readers.

At first, one way of spelling each vowel sound is taught, e.g., ‘ai’ as in ‘rain’. The

children should have practice blending these spellings in words before the alternatives

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are introduced, e.g., ‘ay’ as in ‘play’ and ‘a-e’ as in ‘lane’.

Once the children have worked their way through the Word Boxes, and learned some

irregular common keywords, they should be given storybooks to read for themselves.

Explain to parents that their child may not bring home a storybook until they have

mastered the skill of blending. Parents should then encourage their children to talk

about what they have read.

Children will need a lot of practice through interesting games and hands-on

activities for this to stick. Get a software at the live class that will make this

process easier and add excitement to learning.

You will learn a fun ways to teach blending using kinesthetic means quickly and

easily

Learn to make your own word boxes, flash cards plus be shown how to get

recyclable or low-cost materials for games.

All in our live class, call to book a class now..

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STOP: (ONLY FOR THE COMMITED)

At the live class you will discover a kinesthetic way to teach blending that works like magic.

Find out why some children will find it very difficult to read and what you can do about it.

4. Identifying Sounds In Words

It is essential that children can hear the individual sounds in words, especially for

writing. Initially, the children are asked to listen carefully and say if they can hear

a given sound in words. Start with words that have three sounds in them, for example,

“Is there a ‘s’ in ‘sun’ … ‘mouse’ … ‘dog’?”; “If there is a ‘s’ where does it come – the

beginning, middle or end?”. Then the children are encouraged to say the sounds they

hear. Practice by saying a word like ‘hat’. The children should respond by saying

‘h-a-t’. As they say each sound they hold up a finger … ‘h-a-t’ three fingers, three

sounds; ‘sh-i-p’ three fingers, three sounds, etc. Progress to more complicated words

such as those with initial and final consonant blends.

The teacher writes the letters on the board as the children say them. Then the children

look at the word, say the sounds and blend them to read the word. This gives a good

understanding of how reading and writing work. A few examples every day helps to

develop this skill.

As soon as the children can hear the sounds in three letter words they can start their

dictation homework

Once a child can hear the sounds in words, and knows one way of writing each sound,

they can write independently. Initially, the children will not spell accurately but

their work can be read, for example, ‘I went hors riedin that wos fun’. Most children,

by the end of their first year, should be able to write their own news and simple stories

independently. It will be exactly what they want to say as they are not restricted

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by writing only the words they have learned by heart. Accurate spelling develops

gradually from reading books, knowing the alternative vowel sounds and following a

spelling scheme.

Children will need to practice over and over for this to stick.

Get a free software that will make this process easier and add excitement to

learning.

Participate in lots of other fun activities to reinforce the skill.

Get a scheme for your home, class or school.

Book for a live class :

Our 2-day Intensive and

comprehensive Jolly Phonics

Training and Workshop

Why you must not miss this class..

Comprehensive and intensive.

Learn exactly the way you will teach.

Training by a certified by Uk trainer

and

Early Childhood Educationist.

Free e-giveaways

Certificate

Refreshments

No stone is left unturned

Free Software

Practical and Interactive class

Lots of hands-on activities

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5. Tricky Words

After their first month at school, when the majority of the children know about 18 letter sounds

and have been blending regular words as a group activity, they can begin to learn the tricky

words.

Tricky words are words that cannot always be worked out by blending. These can be introduced

gradually using the Jolly Phonics Tricky Word Cards (These can be easily made).

Look at what is ‘tricky’ in each word, e.g., ‘was’ has an /o/ sound in the middle instead of an /a/

sound. Try and teach 2–3 a week, continually revising for reading and spelling.

Tricky words teaching techniques:

• Look (identify the irregularity and say the letter names), Copy-Cover-Write-Check-Have

another go. (Learn a hand movement to remember this technique in a live class)

• Say It As It Sounds, e.g., pronounce ‘mother’ with a short /o/ sound so that it

rhymes with ‘bother’.

Learn other techniques to teach tricky words in a live class.

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6. Conclusion:

Aims to Achieve in the First Nine Weeks

All the children can:

• Read and write the 42 letter sounds automatically,

• form the letters correctly, holding their pencil in the tripod grip,

• blend regular words fluently, for example, ‘leg’, ‘flag’, ‘shoot’ and ‘bringing’, and

• write simple, regular words by listening for the sounds, for example, ‘bed’, ‘flat’,

‘band’, ‘ship’ and ‘spoon’.

What next ? Our live Classes will

show you exactly how to

put the programme to

work.

Come let us save you

time, money and energy.

Get to know what works

and what doesn't.

Enough of google

downloading. Get the

definitive training that

will get all children

reading quickly, easily

and in fun ways.

We have added lots of

activities using

recyclable materials or

competitively sold store bought items.

Lets stop the learning crisis in our classrooms and schools!

Be part of the solution not the problem.

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"Let it not be heard that a child leaves

your class without learning to read

and write." Lizzy Ohaka

(For Elementary school teachers)

Make a real difference today.

Sign up for the level 1 & 2

2-Day INTENSIVE and

COMPREHENSIVE JOLLY PHONICS

TRAINING and WORKSHOP.

Send a Whatsapp message to 08033229546

to book a training.

You will be glad you did

Thank you for your time,

Lizzy Ohaka

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About the author

Lizzy Ohaka is the co-founder Redwood Academy

Nursery and Primary School, Isolo Lagos and the

principal Consultant at Redwood Learning

Alliance. She is a Professional teacher registered

with TRCN. An Early Childhood curriculum

expert with an M.Ed from University of Lagos,

Akoka, Nigeria and a member of Early Childhood

Association of Nigeria (ECAN).

She is a certified results, performance and

transformational Coach and practitioner of NLP

trained by the prestigious international

consulting firm - Innocent Minds and also an

alumni of the foremost Mabysgold Coaching

Network and Nursery Institute.

She has multiple certifications in Jolly Phonics & Grammar Certified by UK trainers;

She is a Nelson handwriting trainer and Play strategist.

Mrs. Ohaka has trained nearly 200 teachers since July 2018 and conducted bespoke

trainings in the area of Mental Utilization Efficiency and 21st Century Learning.

She is happily married with children.

Reach her on: Whatsapp 08033229546

Facebook @Elizabeth_ohaka

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