Steve's Corner
10 Ways to Improve your Phonics Program
by Steve Tattum

The following ten changes will greatly improve your phonics instruction. These suggestions are in order of importance and assume that you are using the F.A.S.T. Reading System books for your pace.

1. Follow the books. Always reinforce the skills that are the focus of your current book, but prepare for the next book at the same time. This produces a natural pace. For example, your kids will love The Fog so much they will read it in their free time, which will force you to prepare for the next book, Ghost Ship.

2. Be more intensive in your instruction. It is possible to teach the entire code in twenty hours. The entire code includes all the short vowels, consonants, r family, diphthongs, other vowel teams, endings and prefixes. This can be done effectively if you have at least two hours a day for reading. The schedule gives you time for phonics and reading the books.

3. Go as fast as you can, and as slow as you must.  In most classes, you can check the consonant sounds, cut the short u sounds off the consonants, and teach the short vowels in the first few days of class. You can also have students work with complex syllables (blends) and start reading The Fog within the first week.

4. Spend half your instruction period reading books. This includes reading the words, phrases, and passages, and a written summary or reaction to the reading.

5. Do repeated readings. Upper elementary and middle school kids can read one paragraph they enjoyed anywhere between three and five times to work on fluency. Early elementary students should be rereading books up to three times if they find them enjoyable.

6. Reduce your talking. Increase students’ involvement by having them point to sounds as you say them, read sounds as you point, spell and read syllables, and do basic reading.

7. Incorporate partner work. Students can alternate pointing to sounds as their partner reads, or have students alternate moving sounds into syllables for their partner to read. While reading, they can alternate reading sentences or paragraphs with their partner.

8. Use whisper reading. Have students read in a whisper while you float through the class and listen to them read. Check that they are utilizing phonetic principles in their reading.

9. Use words from the books to reinforce spelling concepts. Take words from books that fit a phonetic principle, and use these words for daily spelling. When working with one-syllable words, have students say each sound as they write it. When working with multisyllable words, have students say the syllables as they write the word.

10. Use the “Spell & Read” technique for sounds, syllables, and words.

a. “Spelling Sounds”: Xerox the sounds you have taught. As you say the sound, have students echo the sound and point to the letter or letters that represent the sound.

b. “Reading Sounds": Point to a sound, the child says the sound. Give your students a xerox sheet of sounds and have them work with a partner. The students alternate pointing to the sounds and reading them.

c. “Spelling Syllables”: Make moveable letters of sounds you are working with. Arrange the letters into a syllable, and then give the student a series of changes to the syllable, changing only one letter per time. For example, you might begin with “ra” and ask the student to make the change to “rat” then “cat” then “cut” and so on. As the student makes the change, they say the syllables.

d. “Reading Syllables”: Using a large moveable alphabet or syllables written on the board, have students read the syllables as you change them, making one change from syllable to syllable. For example, if you are working with diphthongs your series of changes might look like this:  faux, foix, floix, floux, sloux, slout, sloot, ploot, plout, ploit, gloit.

e. “Spelling Words”: Give 8-10 words each day that use the sounds the students have learned. When working with one-syllable words, have them say the sounds of the letters as they write them. When working with multisyllable words, have them say the syllables as they write them. 

f. “Reading Words”: Give students words that work on specific skills, like closed syllables, breaking, and suffixes. After they read a category of words, you say a word and the class echoes and points to the word. Do this for most of the words they read. Then give a definition for the words that they don’t know while they point to the word and say it. Read phrases in chorus, as a class, until students can read them quickly. Then move to the reading.  Have students read the selection in a whisper and move through the room to listen to them read. If you do group oral reading and the student makes a mistake, key their mistake by reading a word or two before their error, then take over the reading at the next sentence. For problem readers, always let them know the sentence they will read before you begin the oral reading. 

g. “Written response”: 1. Summary: students answer who, what, where, when, and why questions. 2. Reaction: students discuss why they liked or disliked a story and why. 3. Reflection: students discuss something in their own life that is related to the reading. Finish the writing by directing the students through COPS: C is for capitals, O is for organization, P is for punctuation, and S is for spelling.

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