How to Teach Phonics Clearly

If you would like to learn how to teach phonics clearly, you will need a clear and precise understanding of what you are about to teach.  You will need a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between the sounds in words, speech and spelling.

The eBook sold on this website, ‘Practice Reading & Speaking‘, is an out of the box phonics course that can teach reading or pronunciation through to an adult level. Phonic facts  are introduced gradually. The many examples and variety of words in the course allow for plenty of practice.  Simple, need to know teaching notes and resources back up your teaching. 

Learning to read new words involves seeing, recalling, decoding, visualizing and vocalizing each part of the word.  The course will teach you how to decode every word not just the easy ones. Teaching preparation has been done for you. Teach yourself, then teach your students. Listen to a child or adult read or speak and use the course to fill in the gaps in their understanding and pronunciation.

Improve Senses and Word Agility

With familiar words, a permanent memory is recalled of the whole word. Like a proficient typist, the response is instant. Whilst teaching sight recognition of whole words to pre-school children has its place, this is a temporary solution to learning how to read fluently and spell accurately. However, balance is the key. If you strengthen one sense such as hearing, the ability to notice visual differences will weaken. This course allows you to strengthen visual acuity whilst working on phonics. This can be done through using as many senses as possible. We all need ALL of our senses working in harmony.  Fortunately, Practice Reading & Speaking makes it easy to practice using all the senses when learning to read. 

How to Teach Phonics – Stick to the Facts

Whilst there are different approaches on how to teach phonics effectively, switching methods continually will leave your pupils confused. Imagine for a moment that the only resource you have for teaching phonics is paper and pen and your knowledge. How would you approach teaching reading? You will want to discover what your pupil does NOT know. You would likely need to order the facts they need to learn from easy to hard. Prepare the language you are going to use to begin teaching and start. Having a list ready of several examples before you start is a must. By concentrating on the facts only, you can keep explanations simple. Practice Reading & Speaking is about the facts only.

The eBook orders the facts from easy to hard. Are you aware of  how many facts you needed to learn in order to read fluently. You probably never counted. We have counted the facts in Practice Reading & Speaking. There are over 1,000 facts to learn in order to reach an adult reading age. Every time your pupil moves on a lesson you can show them how many new facts about phonics they have learned. The number is found at the end of each Assessments. This will motivate your student to continue making progress. Additionally, the more practice they get, the quicker they can decode a word.

Lesson Plan

• Read the teaching notes related to the lesson. Read through the lesson yourself checking that your own understanding is crystal clear.
• Set the assessment that covers your last lesson. (If there are still gaps re-teach it.)
• Explain the next lesson using as few words as possible.
• Point to the colour of the heading, then image at the top of the page, next explain that every spelling in the left column says the same thing.
• Ask your pupil to say the sound. Next, they should read the words in the group.
• If the phonic principle has been grasped, ask them to invent a sentence using a few of the words in the group.
• Go onto the next group when ready. Following the same pattern with each new spelling.
• Test understanding by setting the assessment for the material you have just covered.
• Set the scan reading or writing ‘Challenge’ at the bottom of the page.
• Help the pupil to discover memory techniques that work for them.
• Prompt memory regularly when the lesson is over by giving the lesson as reading homework.
• Set the same Assessment again before the next phonics lesson.

How to Teach Phonics – Learn How to Teach

When a pupil has a thorough understanding of phonic principles, they will know how to teach phonics to someone else. Why not immediately after teaching a new spelling of a sound, test the pupil’s grasp of the concept by suggesting that they teach it to the person sitting next to them or to you. If they haven’t grasped the principle fully, they will be unsure of how to teach it. There is a tendency to listen more carefully to explanations if you know that you will need to explain it to others. Memory of the principle is also enhanced and a firmer grasp of phonic principles will be achieved.  How to teach phonics will be a new skill that your pupils are acquiring. They in turn will be able to help others learn to read.

Employ Memory Techniques

Knowing how to teach phonics involves memory techniques. A spider diagram with the image of the sound in the centre can help student recall. The new grapheme can then be linked to that image, demonstrating that the sound it says is exactly the same as the sound that they already know. The pupil now has a way of remembering (colour, picture, sound, word,  spelling). Same colour, same picture, same sound, same word then new word/new spelling. Original links stay in the mind, whilst new memories are being tagged on to what they already know.

By learning how to teach phonics in this way, you are giving the student the best possible chance of understanding and remembering new things learned. Teaching phonics involves skill and innovative ideas as well as knowledge. However, clarity and employing memory techniques is always the key. Everything you need is contained in Practice Reading & Speaking.

How to Teach Phonics – Auditory Discrimination Problems

If a pupil had problems grasping the synthetic phonics principle, use the focus pages in ‘Practice Reading and Speaking‘. These pages, allow the pupil to concentrate on the phoneme/grapheme for at least one minute in order to re-enforce understanding and memory. These phonic resource pages are a smart way to consolidate the facts about an individual spelling of a sound by concentrating on it for over one minute.

Practice Reading and Speaking‘s approach on how to teach phonics, clarifies every sound that we speak in English. The many varied spellings of the sounds in English, are linked to an image and a colour. (Letter sounds are red. The alphabet name of the letter is blue. Vowel digraphs are green.) With the key image and it’s keyword memorised, it’s an easy task to link a new grapheme to the image of the sound that they already know. Using both audio and visual techniques to teach phonics, caters for different learning styles. Link new facts to remembered facts. This eBook keeps it simple to avoid confusion.

Teach Phonics – Keep it Simple

Childlike simplicity is needed when you use your knowledge of how to teach phonics. All who are taught clearly and precisely, by a teacher with a crystal clear and thorough understanding of how to teach phonics, will have the best possible chance for success.

The eBook ‘Practice Reading and Speaking’ explains how to teach phonics by separating sounds or clusters of sounds in words. Every part of every word has been explained in terms of the relationship between the sound and the written code.  Whether the word is regular or irregular, it can always be explained. If you can say it, the sounds you say can be separated into chunks.  This eBook will reduce preparation time for the teacher.  A comprehensive picture of how to teach phonics will become crystal clear. What you see, is what you teach.

How to Teach Phonics with Precision

In order to know how to teach phonics well, you need the basic facts, presented clearly and succinctly. Every concept needed in order to teach phonics successfully, needs to be included at an age and ability appropriate time. You also need a foolproof way to help the pupil remember what they have learned. Uncluttered teaching notes allow for clear thinking and lesson planning. Teaching phonics with precision in the same way that dyslexics are taught, will allow the whole class the best possible chance of reading success.

Why not preview ‘Practice Reading and Speaking’. It offers the facts about how to teach phonics along with over 12,000 practice words, without the clutter of methodology. This eBook can accelerate your students to an adult reading age, due to the inclusion of over 1,000 phoneme/grapheme relationships. It will allow you to develop specialist knowledge about phonics that will boost your pupils’ reading and spelling results.

Teach Basic English Alongside Phonics

Nested in this book on how to teach phonics, is the 70 module/page course teaching every phoneme/grapheme combination needed as an adult reader. Basic English writing and public speaking skills have also been included. As a complete guide to English literacy, the core skills it teaches includes all of the reminders that you need in one book. It will also clarify pronunciation for your students whose first language is not English.

You will find a challenge on each page for the student, a way to remember parts of speech, a self-correction reading book mark, spelling rules, writing ideas, ideas for games, how to improve comprehension, public speaking and much more. How to teach phonics and Basic English to any age or ability will become clear.

Download a preview of the eBook here.

How to Teach Phonics to ESL/EFL Students

Students whose first language is not English will need additional hints and tips on English pronunciation. These have been included at the bottom of each page in the Practice Reading & Speaking Phonics Course.

The student will first need to learn how to pronounce the individual sounds heard in English with precision.  They will need to learn about word stress, sentence stress, intonation, linking words, pausing and to slow down their rate of speech in order to be understood more clearly. Practice Reading & Speaking will allow the student to practice words with the same sound at one time.  Further help can be given by reading stories that are targeted for individual sounds. The following phonic stories eBook covers all of the sounds heard in spoken English. It mirrors the Practice Reading & Speaking phonic course and covers up to module 39. See the Phonic Stories for adults eBook.

English Accent Training

Understanding how to teach phonics to ESL/EFL students will enhance your understanding of how the English language works. It will enable you to transfer your knowledge to pupils successfully. Most phonic courses don’t include the additional elements on British pronunciation that this course includes. You can refine your understanding of how to teach phonics by including natural British pronunciation in your training. Students can practice reading and speaking a range of words that refines their grasp of the British English accent.

You will be able to help students refine their accent (if that is their wish). Teaching notes, phonic tests, a phonic dictionary, as well as many other useful resources are included. Hints and tips are included throughout the phonics course to assist ESL/EFL students with British English pronunciation.

To Buy Practice Reading and Speaking click here.

PRS STUDENT GUIDE (The phonics course without the teaching notes.)

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