PhonicsPhonicsDr. Kristen Pennycuff TrentDr. Kristen Pennycuff Trent

PhonicsPhonicsDr. Kristen Pennycuff TrentDr. Kristen Pennycuff Trent

Key Vocabulary• Analytic approach to

phonics instruction• Cloze procedure• Context clues• Homographs• Inflectional endings• Onset• Phonemic awareness• phonics

• Rime• Semantic clues• Sight words• Structural analysis• Syntactic clues• Synthetic approach

to phonics instruction

• Word configuration

Word Recognition Strategies• Purpose: Help readers recognize written words

– Development of a store of words that can be recognized immediately on sight and

– Word attack strategies and skills:• Ability to use context cues,• Phonics,• Structural analysis, and• Dictionaries for word identification

Word Recognition Strategies

• Sight Words– The larger the store of words a reader has,

the more rapidly and fluently he or she can read a selection.

– Comprehension and reading speed suffer when reader has difficulty with sight word application.

– The more mature and experienced readers have larger sight word vocabularies.

Word Recognition Strategies

• Reasons for developing basic sight word knowledge:– Multitude of irregularly spelled words—of, through,

two, know, give, come, and once– Gives children chance to have successful early

reading experiences and promotes positive attitude about reading

– Presenting children with whole words at the beginning allows them to associate reading with meaning rather than with meaningless memorization

– Begin analytic phonics instruction after child has developed a small store of sight words

Word Recognition Strategies

• Sight words to teach:– Irregularly spelled words—come, to, two– Frequently used words—at, it, and, am, go– “Word families”—ban, fan, tan…– Child’s name– Days of the week– Months of the year– Names of school subjects– Sight Word Lists

• Dolch list• Fry’s “Instant Words”

Word Recognition Strategies

• How to teach sight words1. Children must look at the printed word when it is

identified in order to associate the letter configuration with the spoken word or picture

2. Children taught to pay attention to the details of words by

• Noticing ascending letters (b, d, h) and descending letters (p, g, q)

• Word length• Particular letter combinations (double letters)• Visual configuration cautiously used• Compare and contrast new word with known word

Word Recognition Strategies

3. Repetitions4. Ashton-Warner Key Vocabulary

approach:– Children pick out words that are

meaningful to them– Teacher has children say word, trace

word, use words in stories, games, etc.

5. Plan practice that is • Varied and interesting (game format)• Using words in context

» Pronunciation of words clearer (read, read)» Understand meaning of words (thing, think)

Word Recognition StrategiesHow to teach sight words continued:6. Reading aloud—most natural and holistic

approach7. Using highly predictable books—pictures,

repetitive sentence structure8. Language experience approach (LEA)9. Connecting words with pictures or actual

objects10. Constructing picture dictionaries11. Labels12. Physically active and passive games more

effective than worksheets13. Flashcards

Word Recognition Strategies• Context clues—words, phrases, and

sentences surrounding the words to be decoded

– Picture clues—earliest context clue children use• As a teacher using picture clues:

– Combine with the printed word not separately– Do not overemphasize use of picture cues, become less

useless with more advanced material read– Semantic and syntactic clues—meaning and

grammar clues• Teaching strategies:

1. Oral context2. “Read before the unknown word, after the

unknown word, and with the unknown word”3. Cloze procedure4. Prefixes and suffixes and ending sounds5. Homographs—words that look the same but have

different meanings and sometimes pronounced differently (bow, wind, read, content, minute…)

Phonics• Association of speech sounds

(phonemes) with printed symbols (graphemes)

– Teaching sequence: • auditory discrimination• visual discrimination• work with words, • sentences and short paragraphs, • whole selections

– Predictable text and decodable text

Phonics Terminology• Phoneme—smallest unit of sound in a language• Grapheme—written symbol for a phoneme• Vowels—a ,e, i, o, and u. w and y take on characteristics

of vowels when they appear in the final position in a word or syllable. Letter y also has characteristics of a vowel when in the middle position in a word or syllable

• Consonants—letters other than a, e, i, o, u. Letters w and y have the characteristics of a consonant when they appear in the initial position in a word or syllable

• Consonant blends (or clusters)—two or more adjacent consonant letters whose sounds are blended together with each individual sound retaining its identity: strike—str, frame—fr, click—cl, bread—br

• Consonant digraph— two or more adjacent consonants that represent a single speech sound: shore—sh, (p. 93)

• Vowel digraph— two adjacent letters that represent a single speech sound : foot—oo

• Dipthongs—vowel sounds closely blended and treated like one vowel unit: out: ou

Word Recognition Strategies• Phonics

– Prerequisites for Phonics Instruction• Visual discrimination—ability to distinguish

likenesses and differences among forms– Understand difference between like and

different• Auditory discrimination—ability to distinguish

likenesses and differences among sounds– Understand difference between like and

different– Phonemic awareness—awareness that speech

is composed of separate sounds (phonemes)

Phonics Generalizations• Should be used taught as guides to

better guesses rather than as unvarying rules

• Some of the most useful found on page 154-155

• Cautions in teaching generalizations:– Requiring verbalization of the

generalization – Teach only one generalization at a time– Generalizations have temporary value

Phonics Generalizations1. C and G rules• When the letters c and g are followed by e, i,

or y, they generally have a soft sound: the s sound for c and the j sound for g.– Cent, city, cycle, gem, ginger, gypsy

• When the letters c and g are followed by o, a, or u, they generally have a hard sound: the k sound for c and a special g sound.– Cat, cake, cut, go, game, gum

Phonics Generalizations2. When two consonants are next to each

other, only one is sounded.– Hall, glass

3. Ch usually has the sound heard in church, although sometimes it sounds like sh or k.

– Child, chill, china– Chef, chevron– Chemistry, chord

Phonics Generalizations4. When kn are the first two letter in a

word, the k is not sounded.– Know, knight, knife

5. When wr are the first two letters in a word, the w is not sounded.

– Write, wrong6. When ck are the last two letters in a

word, the sound of k is given.– Check, brick

Phonics Generalizations7. The sound of a vowel preceding r is

usually neither long nor short.– Car, fir, her

8. In the vowel combinations oa, ee, ai, and ay, the first vowel is generally long and the second one is not sounded.

– Boat, feet, rain, play– This may also apply to other double vowel

combinations.

Phonics Generalizations9. The double vowels oi, oy, and ou

usually form diphthongs. The ow combination may also form a diphthong, although it frequently stands for the long o sound.

– Boil, boy, out, now

Phonics Generalizations10. If a word has only one vowel, and that

vowel is at the end of the word, the vowel sound is usually long.

– Me, go

11. If a word has only one vowel and that vowel is not at the end of the word, the vowel usually represents the short sound.

– Set, man, cut, hop, list

Phonics Generalizations12.If a word has two vowels and one

is a final e, the first vowel is usually long and the final e is not sounded.

– Cape, cute, cove, kite

Two Types of Phonics Instruction

• Synthetic1. teacher first instructs

children in the speech sounds that are associated with individual letters. There is no connection between sound and symbol associations

2. Blending occurs next usually using two and three letter words and progressing to longer words– Successful only if direct

instruction used to transfer skills taught into unknown words

3. Nonsense words used

• Analytic1. Teaching some sight words

first followed by teaching the sounds of the letters within those words

2. To avoid distortion have children isolate vowel sound and produce it, then blend the remaining consonant blends with the vowel sound, next blend the remaining consonants at the end of the word with the onset-vowel chunk

Variation of Analytic Method• Trachtenburg Method:

1. Teacher reads to class a literature selection that contains examples of the phonetic element studying. Students discuss or dramatize the story when the teacher finishes.

2. Teacher introduces phonic element that is the target for the lesson by explaining that the children are going to learn one of the sounds for a specific letter or letter combination

3. Teacher writes a portion of the story that contains the target element on chalkboard or transparency. Teacher reads this portion of the story aloud, underlining the words containing the target element as he or she reads.

4. Teacher identifies the sound involved and asks the children to read the story portion with him or her and listen to the sound. Teacher can suggest a key word to help them remember the sound.

5. Teacher guides practice with the new sound, using a mechanical device where the initial consonants are varied while the medial vowel remains the same (p. 104)

6. Teacher presents another book that has numerous examples of the phonic element targeted. Children read the book independently, chorally, or partner depending on their individual achievement level

Word Recognition Strategies• Trade Books can use:

– The Cat and the Hat—short a sound– The Paper Crane—long a sound– Caps for Sale—long and short a sound– Elephant in a Well—short e sound– Ten Sleepy Sheep—long e sound– Whistle for Willie—short i sound– Why I Can’t Fly--long i sound– Fox in Socks—short o sound– The Giants Toe—long o sound– Thumb and Plunk—short u sound– The Troll Music—long u sound

Teaching Approaches• Onset and Rime approach

– Teacher breaks down a syllable into the part of the syllable before the vowel (onset) and the remainder of the syllable (rime) that begins with the vowel• Phonograms or word families• Example: Word Onset Rime black bl - -ack

• Benchmark Word Identification Program—analogy, phonogram, or word family approach– Children compare an unknown word with a

familiar word in order to decode the words by analogy, then they use context to check their predictions

Onset Rime Strategies – Word Building

• Class first builds words by adding onsets to rimes then adding rimes to onsets, followed by reading that allows practice with the patterns studying

– Direct instruction• Teachers inform the children about what they are going

to teach, why it is important, when it can be used, and how to use it, followed by teacher modeling and group and individual guided practice for the students.(p. 101)

– Knowledge of phoneme-grapheme correspondences• Students need instruction on individual phoneme-

grapheme correspondences, especially vowels, rather than relationships between groups of phonemes and groups of graphemes

Other Strategies• Programs emphasizing phonics or code approach

to word identification produces superior word-calling ability, use analytic approach is the better choice

• Phonics generalizations that involve the use of phonics terms, and other technical terminology should be deemphasized when working with student who have not mastered the terms.

• Key words help children learn sounds associated with vowels, consonants, vowel digraphs, consonant digraph, diphthong, consonant blends

• Consonant substitution activities (p. 103)• Word walls• Jump rope rhyme• Game format for letter-sound associations• Practice exercises preceded by instruction and

followed by feedback

Structural Analysis Strategies1. Inflectional endings

– Added to nouns to change number, case or gender (boy—boys, host—hostess, Karen—Karen’s)

– Added to verbs of change tense or person(look—looked, make—makes)

– Added to adjectives to change degree (mean—meaner, happy—happily)

2. Prefixes and suffixes (affixes)– letters or sequences of letters that are added to

root words to change their meanings (happy—unhappy) and or parts of speech (amuse—amusement from verb to noun)• prefix added before root word• Suffix added after root word

3. Contractions – Apostrophe indicates that one or more letters have

been left out when two words were combined into one word (I’ll—I will)

Structural Analysis Strategies

4. Compound words• Two or more words that have been joined

together to form a new word (dish + pan = dishpan)

5. Syllabication/Accent• Syllable is a letter or groups of letters that forms

a pronunciation unit. • Every syllable has a vowel sound• Diphthongs contain more than one vowel sound,

although treated like a single sound• Types:

• Open—end in vowel sounds• Closed—end in consonant sounds

• Other features:• Accented—given greater stress• Unaccented—given less stress• Generalizations that can be taught to children

Word Recognition Strategies

• Structural Analysis

– The syllable divisions shown in the phonetic spellings are more helpful for children than the ones indicated in the bold entry words

– Accentuation is generally not taught until children have a good background in word attack skills and is presented with dictionary skills

• Dictionary Study– Students should turn to it only as last resort for

pronunciation– Skills needed to pronounce words correctly:

• Interpretation of phonetic respellings• Interpret accent marks• Activities on pages 113 and 114

Five Steps for Decoding Unfamiliar Words

• Strategy for teaching children to independently decode unfamiliar words:

1. Apply context clues—read before the word, after the word

2. Try the sound of the initial consonant, vowel, or blend along with context clues

3. Check for structure clues (prefixes, suffixes, inflectional endings, compound words, or familiar syllables)

4. Begin sounding out the word using known phonics generalizations

5. Consult the dictionary