4.9.21 Hello there, I hope you are all having a good weekend and thank you to all the new subscribers. I will probably update this site just once a week, so don’t worry, you won’t be inundated with emails 🙂 . Each week I will let you know what I have been finding out that week and I will add another spelling rule on the relevant page. This week I have added on the ‘es’ rule, to make it 7 spelling rules on here so far, but lots more to follow when I have chance and I have also been watching the Phonics Queen video regarding the Government’s new Reading Framework.
The Phonics Queen YouTube channel discusses lots of phonics topics for educators. Recently, Natasha (The Phonics Queen, who can also be found on facebook) discussed the new Government Reading Framework (which I understand are guidelines rather than statutory) and her take on this was really interesting and informative – I recommend having a look at this one and her other videos if you teach phonics as it is free to subscribe to her Youtube channel and watch all her videos. She also supplies training to teachers and is in great demand at the moment, giving advice to schools at a small cost to help them ensure their own phonics schemes meet the new criteria if they do not wish to change to one of the Government’s validated phonics programmes. One item that was written in the new Framework but I don’t remember being mentioned by The Phonics Queen was the line ‘Teachers should not ask children to read lots of pseudo-words to prepare for the phonics check. ‘ Although I agree that children should not be coached specifically for a test, but to enhance their overall learning, I do feel that there is a time and place for reading pseudo-words. Through my dyslexic teaching courses I have been advised that in a specialised dyslexic programme, each lesson should contain reading real and non-words to build accurate decoding skills. I have found this has been really effective in ensuring that children are decoding words instead of guessing them, as I have experienced some children reading text quickly, but misreading many words by guessing them from the initial letter or substituting a word with a similar meaning. After a few weeks of playing treasure and bin type games, where they have to decode a word to work out if it is a real word (treasure) or non-word (bin) , the learner was automatically decoding all unfamiliar words in a text instead of guessing them and so their accuracy and comprehension of a text improved. Therefore, I am in favour of all children practising reading real and non-words in phonics, not to prepare for a test, but to ensure they are automatically using their decoding skills to read unfamiliar words.
The Reading Framework also mentioned using lots of rhymes and songs, which is already common practice in most primary schools as this is a great way for learners to build on their phonological awareness skills because they are encountering rhyme, syllables, new vocabulary, articulation and more. These phonological awareness skills need to be built on before children try and learn reading and writing skills. The awareness of syllables is often not recognised as being an important phonological awareness skill, but it is really necessary, because if a learner can split up a word into syllables in the correct place, it really helps them to read and spell accurately (especially when they encounter longer words). I mention syllables on the Phonological Awareness page , detailing how each syllable has a vowel sound and you can count the syllables in a word by checking how many times the chin moves on saying the ‘open’ vowel sounds. When we clap the syllables of a word or beat to a rhyme, we are actually clapping on the vowel phoneme (sound) e.g. Hum/pty Dum/pty.
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FREE for parents during the month of September from Nessy.com the ‘Just Teach Me Parent edition’ https://www.nessy.com/uk/just-teach-me-parent-edition/ which includes:
- A free app each week!
- Printable free flashcards and worksheets.
- Free access to Nessy’s award winning Touch Typing Program Nessy Fingers- 7th-14th September. (WOW, I love this offer, this could be so useful!)
- Home School bulk buy event, sign up for 60% off all Nessy Programs! Code live from 14th-17th September!
Eventbrite has lots of free webinars with information concerning dyslexia. Dyslexia Scotland is delivering a Dyslexia Masterclass for parents on 3rd November. These free events are booked up quickly and this one can be booked on http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dyslexia-masterclass-for-parents-tickets-168082480223?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch.
Have a good week everyone! PJ
Success is not final,
Failure is not fatal,
It is the courage to continue that counts.
Winston Churchill
Help your child learn to read, write and spell 