Waiting for someone to explain to me what that article about "phonics and a balanced approach to phonics" actually says, here is what I have just discovered the "balanced approach to phonics" at my school is (we are in Scotland, so we have in general little or no clue about phonics).
I was revising some words with DD (P4, more or less equivalent to Y3); this week she is supposed to revise the two lists of tricky words they have been working on since after Christmas (along with 2 sounds, and ).
It goes without saying that having a list of 30 "tricky" words per term is highly inefficient because you are not going to get anywhere anytime soon (and certainly not by the time primary is over). However, the discovery of the day is that the teacher asked them to make up "mnemonics" (her word) to remember the really tricky ones. So now she has:
Fred Runs Up Into Town - Fruit
Setting Up Races Everyday - Sure
Big Eagles Fly Over Roosters' Eggs - Before
OK, I need to get out more, I know, but still I was appalled that the teacher suggested such an approach. What about having "ui" when you did ? Indeed, now DD knows how to spell "fruit" (and I was surprised when she got it right first time, but now I know why), but what about "cruise" and "bruise" and "suitcase" and so on?
Also, does "before" really need a "mnemonic"? "Be" shouldn't be a problem and "fore" is the same as "more", "core", "bore" and so on.
The only word I am not sure how to decode is "sure", but I know that this is MY problem and the teacher should teach ME (via my DD) how to do it. But no... "Setting Up Races Everyday".
In fairness this years' teachers are much better than the ones we had in the past, but still...
Mnemonics are not entirely new to us because in P2 we were given one to write "because" (something to do with elephants... can't quite remember it now) and at the time I thought it was quite a smart thing to do :D :D Unfortunately now to me this is a balanced approach to phonics... my ass!
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A balanced approach to phonics (or is it?)
26 replies
Arkadia · 24/03/2018 17:29
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