The Department of Education believe, now, that the best way to teach children is through phonics as it is seen as being the most effective and has introduced a phonics test for six-year olds. However, not all words are able to use the phonics with- David Crystal estimates that 20% of our words are unable to use this strategy. However, the phonics test does not take into account the ability of the children that can read without sounding the words out and ruins the experience of reading that you should be able to have.
The Department of Education did a study into what teachers thought of phonics. 445 teachers completed this survey and the results showed significant facts the department should listen to. Only 7% of the teachers who answered the study believed that phonics were a good thing for children and is the first requirement that a child needs to be able to learn to read. However, more than two thirds of all the teachers who answered believed that although it was an important part, other strategies were vital for children to be able to read. Many believed that through reading using phonics, it meant that the children were unable to grasp the meaning of the texts and this meant that it was pointless them trying to read.
Through the phonics test, many able readers are achieving lower scores than children that do not have the same ability as them. This means that many of them are being side tracked and upset that they cannot achieve even though they can read properly. This is because they cannot grasp the nonsense words that have been given to them by the test. Overall, this seems to show how a teacher’s judgement is not seen as right and it is overruled by a test that is not a real representation of a child’s reading ability as it does not show that they understand what is on the page in front of them.
Surely, this is creating culture where young people cannot understand reading until a later age of their lives and are reading for no meaning. A child needs many aspects for them to be able to read properly and fluently not just phonics.
Different synthetic phonic teachings
Jolly PhonicsJolly phonics is a way in which children can learn how to read. It is 42 actions that go with the synthetic phonics. This is so that the child can understand the sounds of the letters that the words can make. With the sounds taught in an order which is not alphabetical, it allows them to learn the words quicker. It allows a child to learn five key skills
· Letter sounds
· Letter formation
· Blending
· Identifying sounds in words
· Tricky words
Oxford Reading Tree
Oxford Reading Tree has reading
for pleasure at its centre. It teaches a systematic way of teaching of the
phonics for children. The new curriculum supports the use of this teaching with
the use of the test that they will have at the age of six after a year of
learning the phonics.
Reading Development
·
Understanding sounds with text
Individual letters are pointless and do not mean
anything on their own in any form. This means a child must learn how to use
phonemes in order to be able to read. A child has to learn how phonemes
(sounds), which there are around 44 and letters (26) work together in order to
produce a word on the page. For a child to learn language, they must become
aware therefore of phonemes and how they are used within speech. The
application of phonics and phonemes are the beginning skills needed to be able
to read.
·
Development of reading ability
For a child to be able to learn a word, they often
need practice. The pace that a word is spoken is often a sign that a child has
learnt the word and is fluent in saying it. An average child needs between four
to fourteen exposures of one word to be able to fluently say the word that is
on the page in front of them. However, this can differ on every child and the
ability that they have.
Spelling also constitutes the fluency development in
reading of a child. Through a child spelling the word, it allows them to
understand the sounds that the letters can make. It shows them that words are
made up of syllables that are units within a word. It allows them to see that
words are made up of ‘chunks’ (syllables) rather than individual letters.
·
Meaning from text
The end goal of a child being able to read is that
they understand what is being placed on the page with the child being able to
relate what is on the page with what they already know about.
Through looking at, and creating a meaning of the texts, the
child is likely to be able to draw conclusions on what they have read. This is
developed through the skills of a highly trained teacher, which gives them the
opportunity to see if they understand the reading that they are doing. This
component happens in the curriculum each year of the child’s learning.
Phonic Boom, By John Hodgson,
NATE, Teaching English, Issue 4, Page 23
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