Synthetic Phonics actually work!

[FuriousGeorge]

DD1,who is only just 4 & in reception,is being taught to read using synthetic phonics.I was quite dubious about how effective it would be,as it didn't seem to make any sense at all to me.

But tonight she sat & read out a list of words,including go,to,no,and & the.She sounded them out & got every one right.I am astounded and really pleased that the school is using this system,as I don't think all schools are at present.

I think all schools are supposed to use it, govts. been on a big drive to make them.

Glad it's working for your dd!

agree FG, ds (4) is getting the hang of reading really quickly using the phonics system.

The only downside I can see are the words that dont follow the phonics rules (to, we, no etc) he is getting quite frustrated when i explain that these words are 'tricky' and he has to learn them by sight.

Tis good apart from that though.

sorry to gatecrash, i am a mum and a regular user but also a reception teacher.

Most reception teachers use a synthetic phonics programme, jolly phonics, one of the most well known was written in 1988 and hasnt changed since so hardly a new initiative, just that the government has realsied it is the most effective way of teaching phonics. Typical eh!

brilliant to hear your children are doing well with their reading. I use it with my reception class and cant wait til dd is old enough to start on it (she is 2 atm, so not for a while)

and at least with tricky words children arent required to leanr sight words which the gov previously used in its scheme - this included things like and/mum/dad which are clearly phonetic.

But to get to the point, I am wonderign what information your schools gave you about synthetic phonics - as this is somthing I know we are not good at???????

gingernut..your dd might surprise you with the phonics. DD1 recognises the letters,sounds and actions now as ds was given jolly phonics stuff to do as part of his SALT. They are just about to start doing it at school nursery with ds so am glad they are following the same path.

thb I don't see how you can say she sounded out 'the' which clearly isn't a phonetic word.
But good to hear your dd is progressing.

gingernutlover I agree with you - the government have just realised they shouldn't have changed the approach to reading in the first place. However from what I have seen at my DDs school whilst they are doing phonics there doesn't seem to be a planned approach to it. They don't seem to be using the actions or the songs to re-inforce and help different learning styles. I had to point out that they weren't using a reading scheme that supported phonics, was made to feel that I was wrong and then the books promptly changed to phonic reading books!!

As regards communication, my DDs schools is shocking (probably one of the reasons why it is in special measure mind you). I do feel that there should be much much more communication and help for parents to support their childrens learning. Yes many of us go out of our way to find out what is needed, buy any resources that we know will help but for people who aren't possibly very well educated themselves and perhaps who don't even know where to start, understand what is available, have the money/time to help it is very difficult.

I meant to add in regards to communication fromt he nursery re phonics etc they were naff..we had parents day last thurs and I was asking what phonics programme they use and teacher couldnt even tell me..then today we recieved a big letter home with all sounds and actions so have a feeling I wasnt the only parent asking..lol

ChasingSquirrels, 'the' is a 2 sound word which can be sounded out: /th/ is quite regular, followed by the tricky bit /uh/ (which is the schwa sound). No English word is completely opaque.

is another description called sounds write?

think that is what dd is doing?

chocolatespiders, Sounds-Write is a synthetic phonics programme though its authors would prefer it to be called a linguistic phonics programme

IMO there are minimal differences between these two particular styles of phonics and both work very well if taught with fidelity by a well-trained and enthusiastic teacher

HTH

can i buy things anywhere to assist dd at home, she is in a large class and may benefit from a small ammount of work at home, i have only seen jolly phonics things?

but if there is a tricky bit then it isn't totally phonic, NOT every word is phonic, and the is definately one that isn't. Reading ISN'T JUST phonics, it is a mixture of a variety of methods, some of which will work better for different children.
My own ds, despite being taught phonics, sight reads. While phonics will undoubtable help his spellings, it is definately not the way he has learnt to read.

Anecdotal evidence really doesn't cut the mustard, CS.

Yes, children can and do learn to read in different ways, but the English written language is based on the one and only Alphabet Code -and, like all codes, it needs to be taught correctly using the method that is fully backed by the scientific evidence -synthetic phonics.

Properly taught (first, fast and only) synthetic phonics will enable at least 95% of all children to read. Mixed methods have always failed a large percentage of children -the NLS, even with an addition of phonics, struggled to achieve more than about 80%.

For information on how tricky words are taught in synthetic phonics, have a look at the DCSF 'Letters and Sounds' programme - I think that page 64, 91-2 covers it, plus p15-16 in the notes of guidance.
www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/clld/las.html

www.aowm73.dsl.pipex.com/dyslexics/teach_your_child.htm

I haven't given anecdotal evidence, I have said that phonics is NOT the only way that children learn to read and mentioned how my own son has learned. I didn't use that to say that phonics doesn't work.
Regardless of this phonics does not work for every work in the english language, it just doesn't and to pretend that it does is wrong. The IS an example of such a word, as as you said yourself it has a tricky sound - ie it DOES NOT follow the rules, so how can it be spelt out?
I am not saying that phonics is a bad thing, or that it doesn't work. It undoubtable does. But there are a number of words that can not be decoded phonically and to pretend otherwise is just ignoring facts.

, , , , , and , are the only high frequency words that MAY need to be memorised as whole units i.e. are true 'sight' words, though no English word is completely phonologically opaque.

If you are interested in learning more about the regularity of the English Alphabet Code then I recommend that you read the following (long)booklet:
www.sounds-write.co.uk/documents/spelling_theory_and_lexicon.pdf

chocolatespiders, re. your query about things to assist dd at home -have a look at these books and worksheets based on the Sounds-Write programme:
www.phonicbooks.co.uk/index.html

The Candocubes are suitable for use alongside any synthetic phonic programme:
www.candocubes.com/synthetic-phonics-products.php