Getting the start to phonics right
10+ minute read…
I have enjoyed teaching phonics for most of my career as a teacher. At first it wasn’t a ‘thing’. I’d certainly heard of phonics as a method of teaching children to read, but it wasn’t in vogue as a teaching tool when I was training as a teacher. There were plenty of methods being used such as the ‘look and say’ method, which many older friends describe as their first recollection of learning to read. Later, there was the idea that children would ‘catch’ reading if they were exposed to it enough and there was even something called ITA – look that one up, it is really interesting. The acronym stands for Initial Teaching Alphabet. It was developed by the grandson of Sir Isaac Pitman, the creator of Shorthand. It makes absolute sense when you put those two together. I came across phonics as a teaching tool after my teaching career had already begun. As a young teacher I felt needed something with a little more substance when it came to teaching children to read but that also fitted with my own developing pedagogy. One Saturday I was browsing around WHSmith in Enfield, North London, when I came across a large spiral bound book called ‘The Jolly Phonics Handbook’. My interest was instantly piqued. As I explain in my book The Right Start to Phonics, I was fortunate enough to be working under a Head Teacher who both trusted me and was open to new ideas. The following week our adventure into the world of Systematic Synthetic Phonics began!
Some benefits of learning phonics
One great and very memorable episode came when I taught a child called Henri*. He and his family were refugees from a war-torn country at the time. They had made their way to the UK and settled in North London. Not a word of English was spoken or understood by Henri. He had never even been in a classroom before; however, he was incredibly keen to learn and made magnificent progress in learning his phonic sounds. I still sense (both his and my) elation at his early success. He gleefully made sound after sound after being shown a grapheme (letter shape) accompanied by spirited actions.
But, as expert as Henri was at decoding the letters and making all the relevant sounds and actions and even blending those sounds together to read words, he would have had precious little understanding of ‘reading’ beyond these perfect utterances. It was a fabulous and exciting start to his reading journey, but I was also aware that there were so many more skills yet to be learned.
In my most recent teaching post, I was fortunate to teach a child called Hannah* who was a spectacular reader! I frequently quote this story anecdotally when working with teachers even now – Hannah could read a book with twenty-three chapters when in Reception. Twenty-three chapters! Quite incredible. I am disappointed to say that I had nothing to do with this achievement what-so-ever. Hannah had indeed ‘caught’ reading from her family, from her environment…none of us knew particularly where from, but she was the first and only child I had taught in a decades-long career that could do this. Around this time, I had read an article that was suggesting it might well be ‘dangerous’ to teach phonics to a child who could already read. The article seemed to surmise that the teaching of phonics might confuse a child who was already reading and could potentially stunt and limit their reading ability by encouraging them to question their naturally honed skills. Despite this research, Hannah continued with her classroom phonic learning. I must say that she was completely fine and continued to progress with her voracious reading! But I’d like to share how one day I realised the vital importance of her learning and understanding the phonic approach to literacy.
Hannah was working independently in the writing space in the classroom one morning, with her friends. They were busily making small, individual books. She was re-writing the story of the Three Little Pigs when she came across a word she’d never had to write before – Chimney. Not a word many five-year-olds possibly write other than in these circumstances or perhaps at Christmas. But Hannah couldn’t spell the word. The reason being that the method she used to read didn’t give her any strategies to spell unfamiliar words. She didn’t have any of her own tools such as ‘segmenting’; breaking words down to spell as taught in ‘phonics’. I was able to remind Hannah of her phonic learning and encouraged her to apply this to enable her to write. So, there it was. The genuine and much needed reason that Hannah, the fluent reader, actually needed phonics to enable her to spell independently. Some years later, I was reading a great book by Alex Quigley entitled ‘Closing the Reading Gap’, where I was quite relieved to note him quoting that phonics is ‘helpful for all children, harmful for none and crucial for some’ (Quigley, 2020: 60). From my experience, I couldn’t agree more.
Based on the experiences I have described with Henri and Hannah, I choose to describe phonics as the ‘nuts and bolts’ of reading. I have learnt so much in the years since my early foray into phonics. So much as a teacher and then so much more during my work as an Early Years Adviser. The latter role allowed me the privilege of seeing how phonics is taught in many schools and settings, with varying age groups and to research the teaching method alongside the teaching of all aspects of language and literacy across the EYFS.
It is quite apparent that these ‘nuts and bolts’ require the addition of so many other elements to enable a child to read effectively. This is the crux of what we are striving for – reading effectively. From this, we hope will blossom the holy grail of that life-long love of reading. What children need is a broad and rich reading diet if this is to be achieved
Phonics are where independent reading begins…or are they?
The thing I am concerned about currently, and the inspiration for my book, is the focus on the teaching of phonics from the time a child starts in a Reception class (aged 5 or thereabouts), as advised in England. I worry that the crucial element of Early Phonics is being overlooked. I was delighted to read in the recently published Ofsted Best Start in Life Part 3 research review, that they mention the life-long love of reading that children need to develop.
Ofsted also highlight the fact that children should not be undertaking any formal phonics learning before they are in a Reception class. They continue to say that preparing children for this love of reading and writing needs firm foundations and we should not be ‘expecting young children to attempt tasks before they have secured the knowledge and skills they need’. I could not agree more! It is the Foundation Stage after all. We need to provide children with those firm foundations whatever we are teaching them to do. This applies to writing most certainly, but also to reading. Young children need a secure foundation in Communication and Language and in Early Phonics! They need to hear, to have the ability to listen, to discriminate between sounds and to have developed the executive function necessary to hold these sounds in their head in order to blend them to read.
As we have come to the end of many children’s first term in Reception in England, therefore coming to the end of their first term of ‘formal’ phonics teaching, I am hearing many teachers’ frustrations that a high proportion of children are learning individual sounds but are not able to blend yet. Being able to blend the sounds to read, for example seeing ‘c-a-t’ and being able to annunciate the sounds in order (synthesising them as in the synthetic phonics approach) to say and read the word ‘cat’ is the crux of phonics.
We could continue to blame to legacy of the covid-19 pandemic for this, but whatever the cause, a solution is needed. These children will clearly benefit from more engagement in activities that promote phonemic awareness – all of this is explained in my book which includes an abundance of activities to support this development.
I must add that this learning doesn’t stop as soon as children begin ‘formal’ phonic learning. It needs to continue so the skill isn’t lost and continues to be honed and rehearsed. For some children this can be crucial. This is also all explained in The Right Start to Phonics.
A matter of noise
Let’s think for a moment about noise. I think that I’m sitting at my desk writing this in a moment or two of ‘peace’. You might think you have 10 minutes peace to read this blog, but just stop for a moment and focus on what sounds you can actually hear. Right now.
As I’m writing I can hear the fan heater beside me blowing out warm air, my cat just yawned as somebody in another part of the house coughed. The tumble-dryer has finished its cycle but chugs back into life every few minutes to remind me my labours are not yet over…it just isn’t absolute peace. We have developed the skill to be able to filter out these constant sounds in our lives and I think we expect our children to do the same. The reality is that our children are often having to navigate their way through way more sounds than I have just described, and this is where our work in drawing their attention to individual sounds is imperative. To help them to filter their way through the cacophony of life!
A boat anecdote
(and I do always appreciate a rhyme!)
In recent times, a part of my life has been spent travelling to the South of England to work in the Home Counties and North London. When I travel South, I proudly and fondly became part of a different group in society as I find myself living on a narrowboat, on the river, as a bargee, where a whole new range of sounds are added to my listening repertoire. Creaking lines, pecking ducks, fish sloshing around underneath the boat, the engine noises, the pumps...
When on the boat, my life moves to much more consciously hearing and then discriminating between these sounds. Because this is relatively new to me and they’re not sounds to which I am very accustomed, it is much more about which ones do I worry about and which ones do I not? This vital skill actually came into its own at one point, whilst on the boat in North London. Late one evening I shared my concerns with my partner about the ‘sloshy’ sounds I could hear below my head as I was trying to get to sleep. They weren’t ones I’d heard before and were worrying me. I was placated by the sure knowledge from The Captain that it was just because we were near a slightly leaky lock and not something to worry about…
A couple of hours later, we were to be very gratefully rescued by no less than FOUR fire engines from various north London stations (an emergency on water is deemed as a significant risk to life apparently)…as we were actually only a few sudden movements away from sinking into the River Lea! I WAS RIGHT! Trust your instincts and trust your knowledge of sound!
Why tuning into sound is so important
My newly acquired boat-related ‘sound knowledge’ is much more akin to what our children are having to learn, to filter, become accustomed to, use and sometimes learn to ignore.
This is happening from birth and even prenatally. Children are beginning to discriminate between some sounds they hear, the familiar voice of a parent or sibling perhaps, then moving forward, they will need to learn how to use these sounds, for speaking, to express their needs and to keep themselves safe. Eventually they will be needed for both reading and writing. This is where our work starts as enabling adults who can speak, read and write and have the desire to impart this knowledge to the next generation.
What this means for us as educators is that we need to teach our children effectively how to discriminate between the sounds they are hearing and then how to use them. They are learning that sounds are all around them in their environments
With Early Phonics in mind, we need to teach our children how to tune into the sounds specifically needed for reading. If we want children to hear the sounds of letters, hold them in their heads and then blend these together to say and read words, we need to ensure that they have the ability to actually hear each individual sound. By the time children are two years old, they are often already experts at tuning into some sounds because they've had to do that to learn to babble and then speak, so we need to help them to refine this skill and use it to their advantage.
My book contains information about Early Phonics and why it is so vitally important. It is concerned with helping those adults spending time with young children to understand the ‘why’ of Early Phonics. I have drawn on research to illustrate its value for any child, but especially for those who will learn those ‘nuts and bolts’ of reading through the phonic approach.
I am so lucky to have a grandson who I am desperately trying not to make into an early phonic project! But I am noticing that so much of what he is doing can be seen as early phonic learning. I love making sounds and drawing his attention to them. Music is a great love of mine so obviously Granny arrives to play with an array of musical instruments. Then, as we sit quietly in his bedroom playing with some toys or sharing a book whilst his bath runs, he will stop and turn his head to look out of the window when he hears a noisy motorbike speeding along a nearby road, or an aircraft flying overhead. I talk to him about the sound, letting him know that it is something to be listened to. I am obviously delighted that he has this early inclination to hear sounds…our job is now to continue to draw his attention to them, help him to pick sounds out from other noises, to match and compare sounds. Then to support his language to describe the sounds we hear. A good grounding for phonics!
My book is designed for anyone spending time with small children. For parents, grandparents and other family members, for those who might be training to become early years practitioners, play leaders, those supporting children in hospitals or home schooling their children, teaching assistants, nursery workers or managers. For trainee teachers, whether phonics will be taught discretely in their preferred key stage or not, there may well be children in Key Stage 2 who will benefit from these listening activities. For Literacy or English subject leaders and for senior leaders in schools. It may provide new information for some or reminders for others. The crucial element in my mind is to ensure that all children get the very best possible start to their lifelong reading journey!
If you would like further information or support to enrich children’s Early Phonics or to enhance and develop a broad and rich early reading approach, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Rose Blair, Early Years Consultant at The Right Start Early Years Consultancy
To purchase the book please click on the book or alternative click the button below.
Further resources:
Supersonic Phonics. For further high-quality activities relating to active phonics, visit the HfLeducation shop
Further reading:
Education Endowment Foundation
Ofsted’s Best start in life Part 3 review can be accessed here There are additional links within this document to Parts 1 and 2.