Synthetic Phonics

[Patrica1929]

I am very concerned about the teaching of reading using Synthetic Phonics in primary schools. (This is now part of the National Curriculum.) Yes, teachers may be becoming more successful at drilling children to pass the spelling tests of words and non words learnt by the blending together of 44 sounds, but at what expense. This method excludes and positively prohibits the use of word recognition, reading for meaning, the use of pictures for clues and the learning of key words. It is a mechanical process which can hold up children who are ready to learn to read for meaning and enjoyment and which could actually put them off reading. See the report by the 'United Kingdom Literary Association' entitled 'Children need more than Synthetic Phonics' and if you are concerned complain to schools and to the government.

For me, the reason I have an issue with it (aside from the illogicality of the phonics test, as described below, I HATE any illogicality in tests!!!) is that whilst it may well be a good method, or even the best method, and may leave behind fewer children, there is also an evangelism about it, and for a child like ds3 there can be an attitude of 'but we've done the phonics, phonics works'.

Now obviously, no good school would really take that line, and his doesn't, but there still feels to be an air of 'blame the child' - he's been taught all the sounds, he's saying them right, but he doesn't correlate the sound with the word - it must be his fault somehow, because phonics is the path to reading.....

do you see what I mean? And whilst it may well be beneficial to address the reason for that, and the school will, he also is left feeling like a poor reader, and 'not clever' (he has said as much to me, he's 5!! - and is super-bright) and that can be very discouraging, and leads to him trying to avoid anything literacy-based either at home or at school. Whereas I know that had he learnt the same way as ds1, i.e. a bit of phonics, but a lot of word recognition too, even if the same issues needed addressing, he would have made a lot more progress a lot faster, and felt more positive about literacy altogether.

We're obviously encouraging him as much as possible, and sticking with the phonics, but he is bored rigid by the books, and although he dutifully sounds out all the words, he hasn't got that thrill of learning to read yet because it's all such hard work!

You need a little patience and lots of bright children cannot blend at five years old. He needs five minutes a day of one to one practice. Some children find it confusing to have lots of mixed methods at an early age. A grounding in phonics gives an excellent foundation to building reading skilks on further up the school.

Research shows that pure synthetic phonics is the method test fails the fewest children. I feel that year 1 or even year 2 is too soon to give up on synthetic phonics. If a child is struggling then maybe he/she needs a hearing and eight check. My son's reading progress really improved when he got hearing aids and the school got a soundfield system.

RT - yes, def patience required!

It's not a blending problem, and it's not a hearing problem (ds2 had hearing and speech issues), I think he just finds it REALLY hard to get from the 'sounding out' to realising what the word is, even if he's saying it perfectly. If I repeat what he's said, he gets it!

We're not mixing methods with him, I just think that on balance he would have felt less disillusioned with older reading methods.

Have you modelled blending to him? Say a word with the first letter sound slightly louder than the other rounds and then say the other letter sounds really quickly. Games are good at this age. For example say to your son can you find me something r-e-d and get him to run to something red or give him an instruction like "touch your ar-m" make sure you know how the letters and diagraphs should sound. There are sound clips on the jolly learning web site.

A bit of gentle bribery can help with practice. I suggest a star chart and a reward at the end of the month if he manages to get 20 stars in 30 days. If the carrot approach fails then banning screen time can do wonders.

RT - it's not the blending - he can say the word perfectly, it's just understanding what that word then is, even if it's a word he knows iyswim.

Thanks for the tips though, will try them with him!

If your experience is of a "national exam" or "we've done the phonics" type then somethings gone terribly wrong.

The check should be 1-1 reading words with a teacher ...it takes a couple of minutes. There shouldn't be any sending home lists of words or endless practising before hand.

It's a screening check to identify those children who aren't able to use their current level of phonic knowledge to read any word they meet. It's a tried and tested method used by educational psychologists because there is evidence that children who have difficulty with this can go on to have reading difficulties. Similar "tests" are used in many dyslexia screening programmes.

It definitely isn't a case of getting it out of the way and then stop teaching phonics because it only covers the very basics.

To me it's perfectly logical to screen early before a child begins to struggle rather than wait until they have fallen so far behind self esteem is damaged.

mrz, I"m not sure if that post was to me or not; I think for me the feeling of 'we've done the phonics, you know the sounds, why aren't you reading the word' isn't from the check (he's only just started Y1), but more from the stuff I've read about phonics which is very much about 'not leaving children behind', 'not failing children' etc - it reminds me a little of when I took ds2 to the GP with what appeared to be measles, and they said 'has he had MMR?', and on hearing that he had, said they wouldn't test for measles, because MMR was 100% effective....you can see the flaws there!!!

In principle I agree that a 'screening check' is not a bad idea. But along with that goes the idea that schools will be judged and 'punished' if not enough kids 'pass' - it's very much the language of the government.

DS2 was the 1st year to do it, and for him it was fine, he got 39/40 I think, and the only 1 he got wrong was just because he turned an 'imaginary' word into a 'real' word because he went too fast and forgot it was supposed to be a made up one. it was low stress, and not a problem, but he really clicked with the phonics, and it really was an easy path to reading for him.

For ds3 I just worry that it will cement his idea that he is 'not clever' and the problem is that when a child decides that, it can affect their aspiration - so there's no point aspiring to do REALLY well, because they won't....even if they could. It's one of the reasons I don't like the new YR baseline tests or the idea of linking GCSE targets to KS2 data....but that's a whole different thread!!!

"It definitely isn't a case of getting it out of the way and then stop teaching phonics because it only covers the very basics."

If a very able child has mastered basic phonics then surely they would be better to spend their time learning the more complex code. I agree that the level required for the year 1 phonics test is not enough. Maybe there should be an additional phonics check to mark an end point when a child has enough phonics teaching to be proficent.

I feel that there is a tempation to give up on phonics when a child really just needs a bit more time. Children with learning difficulties can learn phonics including the extended code, but may need more repeatition than other children. It might be appriopiate for children in year 11 at a MLD special school to sit and pass a phonics test.

"To me it's perfectly logical to screen early before a child begins to struggle rather than wait until they have fallen so far behind self esteem is damaged."

A half decent teacher will be able to predict which children will pass phonics screening and which will not. I see little point in putting a child in for a test that they will fail. I would rather a school waits six months until that child is ready and have a plan for getting that child ready for the phonics check. If the pressure is to get a certain percentage of a cohort through the phonics check by the end of year 1 then the test will still put pressure on schools to make sure that their phonics teaching is good.

Certainly we want strugglers to get help early, but is it really necessary to label a child a failure at six (or even five in some cases) in a school report to the parents.

Strugglers should be identified and given help long before the phonics cheque at the end of Y1. That test is totally pointless.
It certainly has NOT dramatically improved the standards of reading and writing in England.

The most damaging thing that SP advocates do is to be so witheringly dismissive of everything but phonics.
They constantly give the impression that the use of word recognition, reading for meaning, the use of pictures for clues and the learning of key words is completely wrong. Anything but phonics gets put under the umbrella of 'guessing' and is dismissed.

This leaves many parents unduly worried about how they help their children with learning to read and write.

In truth, anything that helps children with decoding/accessing/working out the right sound for tricky letters like o (on, only, once), ea (ear, early) or ou (shout, should, shoulder) is absolutely fine. The best readers cotton on to this faster than the rest and thus make faster progress.
One of my grandchildren told me soon after starting school, 'Phonics is fine, grandma, but u can't decode everything. U can't decode 'was'.

Phonics evangelists wd come out with all their bla, bla, bla about how u can, but the faster a child learns to read a word like 'was' as a whole, the better for them.

With English spelling being what it is (with different spellings for identical sounds and identical letters with different sounds), phonics is simply not the whole answer.

Remind me again, Masha, how many classes of children you've taught to read again?

Remind me again, Masha, how many classes of children you've taught to read again?

Well I for one have taught none. But I listen to my daughter read more than her teacher does. I think this is one of the main floors of phonics, in reality parents/ grandparents don't really understand it. But we are expected to teach our dc reading. Then scoffed at for not being experts, er no surprise there......

LB why should the check "cement the idea he's not clever " ? Do you plan to tell him his score? I really don't understand

ReallyTired 3 excellent teachers (and a not so excellent one) plus 3 Educational Psychologists failed to realise that my son hadn't a clue when it came to phonics. They kept telling me not to worry because he was an excellent reader and his writing would catch up ... It never did! Finally in secondary school his problem was identified by a test similar to the PSC when they wanted him to start phonics sessions ... Seven years too late IMHO

I don't mean the check will, I mean that for him, the whole phonics approach has made him feel 'unclear' - whereas I think he would have flourished under the systems ds1 was taught with.

It's not an argument against the whole system, it's just an anxiety for me about him personally iyswim.

Would you rather that they wait for seven years And then decide that there's a problem?

mrz your son's problem was that there was no phonics check for the whole of primary. All I am suggesting is that children who stand no chance of passing a phonics check are allowed to defer 6 months. If an informal check had discovered your son's lack of phonics then it would have rang alarm bells.

At the moment it is very hard to disapply a child from the phonics check unless there is a special need. I believe that children with moderate special needs should not be disapplied from the phonics check forever.

Surely there are ways of having a phonics check without it being quite so formal. The key stage 1 SATs were relaxed with the way that it was administered and I don't believe that not having key stage 1 SATs externally marked has lowered standards. Why can't the phonics check be administered in the same way as the old key stage 1 SATs. Its not even as if the phonics check results appears in league tables.

Sorry, tobysmum77, but with all the information available, starting with CBeebies Alphablocks, and then educational web sites, books in WHS, and numerous other places, there is NO EXCUSE for any literate adult of any age (and I am 77 - Shock, Horror!) who wants to make the effort, to not be able to cope with things that 4yr olds often manage.

There can be difficulties and confusions, I agree - viz 'floor' and 'flaw' - but SHARE the experiences with your children, and you will all benefit in the long run.

My point was that it's Masha who scoffs, tobysmum, without knowing anything about the reading teaching she denigrates. She has invited several times to come and watch a phonics session to see how it works, but always declines.

It can be administered that way. In many schools it is and children don't know they are being tested.

I do think a number of schools are putting pressure on children to make up for their inability to teach phonics properly, which is a slightly different issue.

No ReallyTired my son's problem was that he was a precocious reader so professionals simply looked at his reading age and IQ and decided that he was just lazy.

It's actually quite easy to disapply a child from the phonics check.

I've administer the check since it was introduced and it's very informal for the child. The only formal element is reporting whether the child reached the expected score or not.

Ferguson teaching is that easy then, no need for teacher training they can just watch cbeebies and crack on. O.....K..... The issue is people think they understand stuff they don't c-a-t = cat isnt the end of it. Triphemes (sp?) I came across last week.

Actually I think it was trigraph but whatever!