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Primary education

Resources for phonics

102 replies

Arkadia · 28/04/2017 19:39

Hi,

Some time ago I read a thread in here about a child who could read, but would fail a phonics test. After giving it some thought I have come to realise that my DD1 is exactly in this situation. She reads pretty well and with a lot of expression, however when she comes across a word she doesn't know, she simply cannot decode it.

She does not know her phonics.

She is now P3 (Y2) and really loves reading, but she reads like me... When I come across a word I don't know , I need to look it up, unless it is very easy; I can't decode words and I look at them as a whole, a bit as if they were ideograms (I was never thought phonics and English is not my first language, but my vocabulary is very good by any standard, so I get by easily enough).

So, my question is: is there any resource I can use to help her improve her/my knowledge of phonics? It cannot be too "small children oriented", otherwise she will feel belittled.
On top of that I hope that a better knowledge of phonics will help her with her spelling which is absolutely appalling.

Interestingly enough, although I have been following what my kids have been doing at school, I never managed to learn phonics. Perhaps because I've never really seen the point of it. Instead DD2 has an instinctive understanding of phonics, so, though not so expressive, she can easily read words she does not know or understand (so, often when she is reading, I have to stop her to ask if she knows the meaning of a certain word...)

And yes, for the teacher everything is hunky-dory...

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HarveySchlumpfenburger · 28/04/2017 19:57

Phonics International, Dancing bears and the spelfabet books would all work across a variety of age groups IMO.

None of them are aimed specifically for beginners in reception so they shouldn't come across as too 'babyish'.

I'm not aware of any free resources that would do the same thing.

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Arkadia · 28/04/2017 20:04

Are they books or websites?

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GreatWhites · 28/04/2017 20:24

Is there anything you find acceptable about your child's education?!

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Arkadia · 28/04/2017 20:36

To be honest, very little... But that is another matter.

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Arkadia · 28/04/2017 20:43

Rafal, I get that Spelfabet has restricted contest... Adults only ;)
Anyway, I can access the dancing bears and that seems promising.

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HarveySchlumpfenburger · 28/04/2017 21:02

Spelfabet shouldn't have restricted content. Confused You need the downloadable workbooks from the shop rather than the rest of the website.

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user789653241 · 28/04/2017 21:05

Funny you question phonics teaching in other thread and ask for resources on this ...

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PurpleDaisies · 28/04/2017 21:08

www.spellzone.com/pages/contents.cfm

I use this a fair bit with students struggling with spelling.

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Arkadia · 28/04/2017 21:15

Irvine, I don't question phonics s teaching. If anything I think that trying to box the whole of the English language in one box, like you can do with most languages, is fruitless.
I can see that in my case DD1 who has always been able to read, has skipped all that information (and no teacher noticed it that I know of...) And now is asked to learn "choral"...
I don't believe that phonics is the Holy Grail of good spelling, but I do agree that you need at least the basics to get by. In my case DD1 does lack even the basics so I feel something has to be done.

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Arkadia · 28/04/2017 21:16

Rafals, I will have a go from my PC when I get back ;)

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Arkadia · 28/04/2017 21:19

Purple, thanks. Looks interesting.
Perusing that site I have noticed they mentioned what I think is the key word... "Schwa". I have often wondered why it is never mentioned at school, nor has it ever mentioned when I was learning English. When I discovered it's existence it was a big a-ha moment for me ;)

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PurpleDaisies · 28/04/2017 21:24

Glad it looks useful. It's got a lot of resources for testing in a non-scary way (games, wordsearches etc) and if you work through it in order, it follows a logical path.

I'm from the generation that never did grammar in school so teaching primary was a massive education for me!

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user789653241 · 28/04/2017 21:28

"Schwa" was always a big thing when I was learning English.
Also I have seen MN teachers mention it on phonics thread a lot of times!

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Arkadia · 28/04/2017 21:29

Irvine, to give you an example, we were reading a book where one of the characters (another "Ch"=k word, but not to be confused with "char"...) was a Mr Grimes. Now, I could be that my knowledge of The walking dead helped me, but it looks hardly difficult and I could read it, but she couldn't at all (DD2 could read it no bother).

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Arkadia · 28/04/2017 21:33

Irvine, not here... Never mentioned at school. Even I got to know it relatively recently.
I think it would help A LOT in understanding how pronunciation works, but I don't know enough about it to breach the subject. (I had to look up if it was breech or breach... ;) I had started with breech, but that looked odd, perhaps because of the meaning of the word, but I wasn't sure "breach" would have been correct :) )

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PurpleDaisies · 28/04/2017 21:35

I'd use "broach".

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user789653241 · 28/04/2017 21:41

I am a foreigner, and working with ds has helped me a lot.
But even before that, I must have been using some kind of decoding skills, since I was able to read unknown words.

About ch, does she have difficulty pronounce Christmas? Or does she have friend called Charlie?

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Arkadia · 28/04/2017 21:42

Well, there you go. I don't know why I didn't know it, but... I didn't (shame on me). The quick Google search I did wasn't good enough obviously.

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Arkadia · 28/04/2017 21:45

Irvine, no in both cases, BUT... She sees words as a whole, not as blended units. And he often spells Christmas without the H.

There again, I don't think she has a friend called Charlie or variations thereof ;)

Anyway, my phone is almost dead and the train is almost home ;)

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mrz · 29/04/2017 06:42
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Arkadia · 29/04/2017 21:09

Thanks mrz, but I don't think that Biff and Chip lookalike books will do. DD will be able to read through these books in her sleep, as she has done in the past, so we are not going to get much further forward.

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mrz · 29/04/2017 21:34

I don't know what you're looking at Arkadia the link isn't to books and certainly doesn't relate to anything remotely Biff, Chip et al lookalike.

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GreatWhites · 29/04/2017 22:42

If your DD cannot decode as you claim, then you will need to start at the start with her, whether she feels belittled or not.

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Arkadia · 30/04/2017 09:10

Mrz, I looked at that site (your link didn't work, so I had to go to the home page) and it seemed to me like a reading scheme à la Biff and Chip.

Great, yes, but HOW to do it? Can use books to read as she will read them easily. Also I lack the knowledge to do it. I need the school to address this issue, something they should have done ages ago.

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mrz · 30/04/2017 09:13

It most definitely isn't anything like Biff or Chip or a reading scheme so I'm not sure what you've been looking at.

My link was to an iPad app

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