Progression in phonics

Six phases of learning Taught from Reception to Year Two using ‘Letters

and sounds’ and ‘Year 2/3 spelling programme’ Children should be able to read independently by end

of programme Spelling continues throughout Key Stage Two through

use of :

‘Year 2/3 spelling programme’ Spelling bank Catch up intervention programmes School based schemes Handwriting

Purpose of phase 1

Explore and experiment with sounds and words

Distinguish between different sounds in the environment and phonemes

Learn to orally blend and segment sounds in words

By the end of phase 1

Children will have experienced a wealth of listening activities including songs, stories and rhymes.

They will be able to distinguish between speech sounds and many will be able to blend and segment words orally.

Some will also be able to recognise spoken words that rhyme and will be able to provide a string of rhyming words, but inability to do this does not prevent moving on to Phase Two as these speaking and listening activities continue.

Games for Phase 1

Key Stage two specific games and activities (see Letters and sounds Phase games and activities Appendix)

Phase 1 activities are primarily pitched at 3 to 5 year olds. The learning in the recommended games is suitable for Key Stage two children with language and learning difficulties but all activities would need to be made age appropriate.

Purpose of phase 2(up to 6 weeks – Suggested Timetable p50)

Learn 19 letters and know the phonemes that represent them.

Move on from orally blending and segmenting to blending and segmenting letters to read and spell (maybe with magnetic letters) VC and CVC words

Introduce two syllable words, simple captions and some tricky HFW.

Suggested daily teaching

Revisit and review Practise previously learned letters Practise oral blending and segmentationTeach Teach a new letter Teach blending and/or segmentation with letters (weeks 2 and 3) Teach one or two tricky words (week 3 onwards)Practise Practise reading and/or spelling words with the new letterApply Read or write a caption (with the teacher) using one or more

high-frequency words and words containing the new letter (week 3 onwards)

Phase 2 letter progression

Set 1: s a t p

Set 2: I n m d

Set 3: g o c k

Set 4: ck e u r

Set 5: h b f,ff l,ll ss

Games for Phase 2

Teaching a letter p51Oral blending games p56Sound buttonsBuried treasure

Use your imagination to jazz these games up and make them suit your needs.

Teaching HFW

Some HFW should be taught during each phase.

Many HFW are simple to work out using phonics.

Some are ‘tricky’. Children need to be taught strategies for spelling and reading these words.

These are similar to strategies we will look at later.

P64-65

Applying

Must have opportunities in class to read and write the words that they have been learning in phonics sessions.

Guided reading Shared reading Captions Labels Whiteboards and pens Magnetic letters Differentiated literacy work

■ give the sound when shown any Phase Two letter, securing first the starter letters s, a, t, p, i, n

■ find any Phase Two letter, from a display, when given the sound

■ be able to orally blend and segment CVC words

■ be able to blend and segment in order to read and spell (using magnetic letters) VC words such as: if, am, on, up and ‘silly names’ such as ip, ug and ock

■ be able to read the five tricky words: the, to, I, no, go.

By the end of Phase Two children should:

Assessment

Work with groups and observe:Oral blending CVC wordsIf you say j-a-m can they blend it into jamOral segmenting CVC wordsIf you say bed can they segment it into b-

e-dPhoneme-grapheme correspondencesCan they match letters to their sounds and

sounds to their letters? Appendix p199.

Purpose of phase 3(up to 12 weeks – Suggested Timetable p76-78)

Teach another 25 graphemesIntroduce digraphsLearn letter namesContinue to practise blending and

segmenting using new phonemes and two syllable words

25 phonemes taught in Phase 3

Letters

Set 6: j v w x

Set 7: y z,zz qu

ch sh th ng ai ee igh

oa oo ar or ur ow oi

ear air ure er

Suggested Daily Teaching in Phase 3

Revisit and review•Practise previously learned letters or graphemesTeach•Teach new graphemes•Teach one or two tricky wordsPractise•Practise blending and reading words with a new GPC•Practise segmenting and spelling words with a new GPCApply•Read or write a caption or sentence using one or more tricky words and words containing the graphemes

Games in Phase 3

Teaching grapheme recognition and recall – games introduced in earlier phases.

Countdown / Sentence substitution p86 Phoneme Frame / Quickwrite p88 Full circle p90 HFW – as in earlier phases Practising reading and writing captions and

sentences p95

Countdown

chicken

shell

rang

path

tonight

boatman

Sentence substitution

Mark fed the cat.

dog moon Gail hid

(alternative suggestions p. 104)

Phoneme frame/Quickwrite

Phase two/three words p. 102/103 Use sound talk to segment word – reinforce by

counting phonemes on fingers can use magnetic letters or fans for non writers

Phase 3 games

Full circle p. 90 car

Applying

As in previous phases

plusDemonstration writing p.97Writing sentencesShared writingIndependent writing

Think it say it write it check it

■ give the phoneme when shown all or most Phase Two and Phase Three graphemes

■ find all or most Phase Two and Phase Three graphemes, from a display, when given the phoneme

■ be able to blend and read CVC words (i.e. single-syllable words consisting of Phase Two and Phase Three graphemes)

■ be able to segment and make a phonemically plausible attempt at spelling CVC words (i.e. single-syllable words consisting of Phase Two and Phase Three graphemes)

■ be able to read the tricky words he, she, we, me, be, was, my, you, her, they, all, are

■ be able to spell the tricky words the, to, I, no, go■ write each letter correctly when following a model

By the end of Phase Three children should:

Purpose of phase 4(4 – 6 weeks)

To consolidate children’s knowledge of graphemes in reading and spelling words containing adjacent consonants and polysyllabic words

• can blend adjacent consonants in words and apply this skill when reading unfamiliar texts, (CCVC, CVCC, CCVCC)

step list clap grasp strap• can segment adjacent consonants in words

and apply this in spelling

Beware – Adjacent consonants are not digraphs. They make two distinct sounds.

Phase 4

Adjacent consonants

Children with speech and language difficulties find this stage tricky. Persevere – they will get there.

Adjacent consonants are no longer taught as blends as this can be a barrier to learning. Not everybody knows this yet.

Spread the word to other peopleWatch out for old resources (and some

new ones)Train children to think about mouth

movements

Games for Phase 4

CVCC and CCVC words p111Phoneme frame CCVC p116Two syllable words

Plus many other games introduced in earlier phases.

Applying

As previous phases

andReading across the curriculum p. 124

By the end of phase four children should:

■ give the sound when shown any Phase Two and Phase Three grapheme

■ find any Phase Two and Phase Three grapheme, from a display, when given the sound

■ be able to blend and read words containing adjacent consonants

■ be able to segment and spell words containing adjacent consonants

■ be able to read the tricky words some, one, said, come, do, so, were, when, have, there, out, like, little, what

■ be able to spell the tricky words he, she, we, me, be, was, my, you, her, they, all, are

■ write each letter, usually correctly

Purpose of Phase 5(throughout Year One)

Children broaden their knowledge of graphemes and phonemes for use in reading and spelling

Learn new graphemes and alternative pronunciations some of which they will have already encountered in high frequency words for example /ae/ ay a_e ai a e.g. snake day

Learn to choose the appropriate graphemes when spelling and begin to build up word specific knowledge

Revisit and review Practise previously learned graphemes Practise blending and segmentationTeach Teach new graphemes Teach tricky wordsPractise Practise blending and reading words with the new GPC Practise segmenting and spelling words with the new GPCApply Read or write a sentence using one or more high-frequency

words and words containing the new graphemes

Suggested daily timetable

Suggested timetable - Weeks 1–4

Practise recognition and recall of Phase Two, Three and Five graphemes as they are learned

Teach new graphemes for reading (about four per week) p. 134 Practise reading and spelling words with adjacent consonants

and words with newly learned graphemes Learn new phoneme /zh/ in words such as treasure Teach reading the words oh, their, people, Mr, Mrs, looked,

called, asked Teach spelling the words said, so, have, like, some, come,

were, there Practise reading and spelling high-frequency words Practise reading and spelling polysyllabic words Practise reading sentences Practise writing sentences

New graphemes for reading

Suggested timetable - Weeks 5–7

Practise recognition and recall of graphemes and different pronunciations of graphemes as they are learned

Teach alternative pronunciations of graphemes for reading (about four per week) p. 136

Practise reading and spelling words with adjacent consonants and words with newly learned graphemes

Teach reading the words water, where, who, again, thought, through, work, mouse, many, laughed, because, different, any, eyes, friends, once, please

Teach spelling the words little, one, do, when, what, out Practise reading and spelling high-frequency words Practise reading and spelling polysyllabic words Practise reading sentences Practise writing sentences

Alternative pronunciations

Suggested timetable - Weeks 8–30

Practise recognition and recall of graphemes and different pronunciations of graphemes as they are learned

Teach alternative spellings of phonemes for spelling p. 144

Practise reading and spelling words with adjacent consonants and words with newly learned graphemes

Teach spelling the words oh, their, people, Mr, Mrs, looked, called, asked

Practise reading and spelling high-frequency words Practise reading and spelling polysyllabic words Practise reading sentences Practise writing sentences

Games for Phase 5

Split digraphs p135 e.g. tie/time

Known/alternative graphemes for reading p136 (milk, find, wild, skin) More alternative pronunciations on page 152

Phoneme spotter/rhyming word generation/best bet p145-147 (video sequence)

Plus many other games introduced in earlier phases.

By end of Phase five children should:

■ give the phoneme when shown any grapheme that has been taught

■ for any given phoneme, write the common graphemes

■ apply phonic knowledge and skill as the prime approach to reading and spelling unfamiliar words that are not completely decodable

■ read and spell phonically decodable two-syllable and three-syllable words

■ read automatically all the words in the list of 100 high-frequency words

■ accurately spell most of the words in the list of 100 high-frequency words

■ form each letter correctly

Purpose of phase 6(throughout year two)

ReadingLearn some of the rarer phoneme-

grapheme correspondences.

Develop automaticity in reading. In particular, reliably recognising digraphs as representing one sound.

Children should become fluent readers during this phase and develop a range of comprehension strategies.

Purpose of phase 6(throughout year two)

SpellingIdentifying the tricky bit in a word.

Develop strategies for spelling longer words.

Develop guidelines for making choices between spelling alternatives.

Begin to explore spelling conventions e.g. when using the past tense, adding suffixes etc.

Games for Phase 6

Word sort Team sort Add race Clap and count Action replay Suffix match What comes next?

Plus many other games introduced in earlier phases.

Strategies for spelling

Route to spellingBest guess / Best BetClap and countMemory strategies

Applying

Words that have been learned in phonics/spelling sessions must be applied in independent writing.

Insist that children spell these words:

Independently

Successfully

Consistently

Self Assessment

Encourage children to take responsibility for checking that they are correctly applying strategies in their own writing.

Explicitly teach them how to do this.Encourage children to mark all the

correct letters in a word and celebrate those that they have got right as well as identifying mistakes and learning from them.

Equipping children to read and write independently

Increase automaticity Recognition of graphemes has to be

automatic not segmenting every single letter.

Cyclical – greater understanding of spelling leads to greater understanding of reading which leads to a greater understanding of spelling.

Explicitly teach ways to read graphemes with various pronunciations.

Spelling throughout KS2

Continues exploring conventions, strategies, spelling patterns in much the same way as in Phase 6.

Will almost certainly need lots of revision of spelling choices for long vowel phonemes. Most adults get stuck on these sometimes.

Don’t forget to keep it fun.

Spelling throughout KS2

Most spelling conventions become easier to identify and understand when children have a sound knowledge of phonics.

Even teachers with secure subject knowledge in terms of spelling will need to reflect on how phonics can make things easier.

Ensure that there are many opportunities to apply

Build in self assessment.

Adding –ed to verbs

Spelling bank says:

•Most verbs just add –ed

•When a single syllable verb ends with a consonant preceded by a short vowel you double the final consonant when adding –ed.

•If a word ends in e, avoid the double – by dropping one as

necessary.

Essential phonic knowledge

•Know how to segment

•Recognise consonant and vowel phonemes.

•Distinguish between long and short vowel phonemes

Impact on reading

Two consonants e.g. Hopping, jumping– signals short vowel

Single consonant e.g. hoping signals long vowel (Therefore no longer need split digraph to signal

Know that –ed endings can be said in three ways

1) /t/ as in jumped

2) /d/ as in hoped

3) /i/d/ as in wanted