Systematic Phonics

Recommended by the US National Reading Panel for its systematic, direct method, systematic Phonics has become the foundation of the Reading First component of the No Child Left Behind Act. Children first learn how to connect letters or letter combinations with sounds, and then how to blend the sounds together to form recognizable words. They are then taught to sound out and blend letters to pronounce unfamiliar words. systematic Phonics rapidly teaches children to read within months rather than years.

PHONICS NEWS

• 'Teach Every Child to Read Through Phonics' - Primary schools should be able to teach 'virtually every child to read', claims the UK's Ofsted.
'Reading by Six' highlights the best practice of 12 outstanding schools in England, and claims that all schools can follow suit by sticking to a consistent and rigorous phonics-based approach.

• Phonics: Reading Aid 'Brilliant' - A UK primary head teacher has credited phonics teaching with boosting pupils' reading skills. Children as young as three at Stoneleigh primary in Oldham have been learning to read through sounding out words for more than a year. Acting head Tim Renshaw said there has been a noticeable difference in the reading skills of his students. "It is most noticeable because we get a few new children who join the later years who have not used phonics and they have not made as much progress.

• Inspectors Say UK Literacy Standards 'Fall Short' - Head of Ofsted Christine Gilbert said standards of reading and writing among many 11-year-olds fell "stubbornly short" of achievable levels.
Rigorous teaching of phonics, which focuses on the sounds of letters and letter combinations, could help all pupils, of any background, she said.
"Teaching children to read is at the heart of their curriculum. Rigorous, intensive and systematic phonics teaching underpins reading, spelling and writing."

• Sounds Incredible - Once upon a time, in a deprived part of Scotland, a plan was put into place to wipe out pupil illiteracy within a decade. Ten years on, it's worked! It is mid-morning at St Mary's primary school in Alexandria, a bleak, post-industrial town north-west of Glasgow that often features on Scotland's list of areas of multiple deprivation. In Margaret Mooney's class, 20 five-year-olds have gathered on the floor at the teacher's feet, pretending to be trains. "Ch, ch, ch, ch, ch," they intone, small arms circling wildly like the wheels of a locomotive...

• Phonics Works Best Together With Whole Word Method - Reading specialists have often pitted phonics against holistic word recognition and whole language approaches in the war over how to teach children to read. However, a new study by researchers at New York University shows that the three reading processes do not conflict, but, rather, work together to determine speed.

• Phonics Changes the Structure of the Brain -

The study reported that the brain function of poor readers actually changes to resemble the brain function of “good” readers when they have been taught to read through instruction that is direct, systematic, and focuses on the sounds and letters that make up words, the meanings of words, and helping children read accurately and quickly.

Using functional MRI scanners, researchers were able to document that effective reading instruction not only improves reading ability but actually changes the brain’s functioning so children can read more efficiently.

• Good Books, Good Readers - In the 2001-02 school year, Indianapolis Public Schools launched a reading initiative that used a lot more phonics in the early grades. The switch wasn't easy on teachers. It meant a different textbook, extra training, a more formulaic way of teaching. Their reading series, Open Court, wasn't all that changed. Specialists demonstrated strategies to use with urban kids who have vocabulary deficits. The school day was altered to give pupils more language arts time.

• Phonics the Tonic For Reading Rigors - 9-year-old Nick West is matter-of-fact about why he has a private tutor: "I had some problems with spelling." His mother, Anne Howley of Armadale in Melbourne, Australia, explains: "He couldn't spell anything more than a two or three-letter word. He couldn't spell 'this', he couldn't spell 'because'." Enter Noelle Michaelson, a retired teacher whose tuition begins with phonics: direct instruction in the rules for making out letters and mastering spelling. Tutors with this kind of phonics training are few in number.

• Schools Turn Page on Reading Instruction - The Greenwich Public Schools found that reading was being taught differently throughout the district. Schools chose their own approaches to literacy, which meant some had a more rigorous program than others. This year educators rolled out a single literacy program called "Phonics and Friends." It is now being used by every elementary school in the district.

• Rose Report on Phonics (Dec 2005)

England's schools are being told to change the way they teach children to read, with the government calling for greater use of phonics. At the moment, guidance is that phonics should be used as one of four methods of teaching children to read. Now former OFSTED director Jim Rose has said phonics - where children learn the sounds of all the letters and combinations of letters first - should be taught "first and fast" to young children.

• Rose Report details, including a full copy (Click on 'Download the Report' and then on 'Open'; a little slow to download)

• Spelling Fad Cost Kids 14% Drop in Results - Dumping 1970s methods of teaching spelling, which included primers and graded workbooks, in favor of the "whole language" method caused primary school students' reading scores to fall about 14 per cent over 15 years. A study of spelling scores among South Australian school students over 26 years showed the need for the inclusion of phonics in teaching children to read, write and spell.

• Research Questions Phonics Policy - The UK research said that phonics improved reading accuracy, but its effects on spelling and understanding were inconclusive. The systematic use of phonics teaching should be in "a judicious balance" with other elements, the report said.

• Scottish Schools Tune in to Phonics Success

• Teaching of Reading to be Revised - The national curriculum in England is to be revised so children are taught to read primarily using phonics.

• Phonics Teaching: a Child's Passport to Literacy - Phonics should feature in every child's reading instruction and it should be part of every literacy teacher's repertoire, according to a UK Government-funded review of research by academics at the Universities of York and Sheffield.

• Inquiry reveals phonics hang-up - The Australian inquiry report, Teaching Reading, released in December 2006, called for the re-introduction of phonics as the foundation of reading, writing and comprehension. It found that children's progress in reading accuracy, fluency and spelling was significantly impeded if they were not taught phonics or were taught it in an incidental, unstructured way.

• UK Schools to adopt 'phonics' style of teaching reading - The education secretary, Ruth Kelly, today announced an overhaul of the way children are taught to read with a return to a "back to basics" approach.

•'Back to Basics' Seen as Key to Learning to Read - Primary schools should use a "back to basics" method of helping young children to understand sounds as a first step in teaching them to read, a government-appointed review is expected to recommend today.

• Phonics a Hit in Wyoming Schools - Phonics is back in vogue in reading education, and one program being used in a handful of Wyoming schools - including Willard Elementary School in Casper, where Bush teaches - is proving a success.

• Australian States Back Phonics Push - Most state governments yesterday embraced Brendan Nelson's national action plan to promote back-to-basics teaching based on phonics.

• C is for Computer: ABCs Move Into the Age of Technology - Phonics is being taught a little differently this year in the Pine Bluff School District, as a virtual leprechaun named Clancy began administering phonics tests to the elementary students ... I like Clancy because he teaches me, said Chandler Tate, taking a break from writing his ABCs.