
Twenty-six letters and perhaps 50 major 'written sounds' make up
the Phonics code.
For children with a solid foundation in Phonemic Awareness,
learning letter-sounds is very much like learning the names of other
objects.
The child sees a tree and says,
"Tree."
The child sees letter M and says "m-m-m."

There are strategies to help the learning process go smoothly.
Stay at the level of the child’s success by adjusting the
task so that the student is generally about 85% successful--or
better.
When students practice getting the ‘right answer’--with
whatever help--they develop independence in knowing the ‘right
answer.’
When students practice struggling in any way, struggle is
what they are learning! So keep with success.

Matching
is the easist task.
In matching, you give the child a sample letter, and let her
pick out another one just like it from a small group of letters.
You can use the opportunity to ‘feed in’ the sound of the
letter she is looking for: “Here’s a ‘s-s-s’ . . . Let’s see . .
. where’s that other ‘s-s-s’?”
(Use this strategy for combinations, too: with ‘oa’ you can
say “Here’s ‘Oh’ . . . Hmmm . . . Do you see the other ‘Oh’?”)
If the child makes a mistake, just say “Look again.”
Pointing
is the next-easiest task.
In pointing, you show a small group of letters and say the
sound of one of them. “Show me ‘s-s-s.’” The child points to the
one you say.
By pointing, he is demonstrating that he knows which letter
goes with the sound, even if he could not think of the sound
quickly on his own.
This is like being able to point to a slightly familiar
person named at a party, even if you could not think of their
name quickly on your own.
Pointing is a great warm-up for the next task . . .
Naming
is the hardest task, and the reason for
practicing the others.
In naming, the child sees a letter and says its sound.
Naming can be aloud, or in the ‘Mind’s Ear’ when the child is
reading silently.

The critical aspect of Phonics for reading, is
Rapid-Accurate Naming of the letter-sounds.
Rapid-Accurate Naming means thinking of the names of things,
quickly and correctly.
chair table window tree
Letters are objects, too; and they have letter-names like Em,
Jay, Ess; and sound-names like m-m-m, j-j-j and s-s-s.

Children learn Rapid-Accurate Naming of letter-sounds by plenty
of accurate practice.
The ‘rapid’ part develops with experience--as
long as the ‘accurate’ part is there.
Children need to practice at about 85% accuracy--better than 8
out of 10 correct responses.
Stay with the easier ‘pointing’ task until your student is ready
to ‘name’ new sounds accurately.
Once your student is naming a set of sounds, do not hesitate to
warm up with the pointing task before having her name the sounds--to
be sure that she practices accurately.

Children eventually learn Rapid-Accurate Naming of
common syllables, too.
They may or may not need to drill these. Successful reading is a
drill in itself.

Turn a task inside-out for best learning.
For maximum power, it is always a good idea to learn something
forwards, backwards, and inside-out!
The child sees a tree and says,
"Tree."
The child sees letter M and says "m-m-m."
The child hears the name 'tree'
and thinks of a tree.
The child hears 'm-m-m' and thinks of letter M.
Students should practice writing the sounds and words they are
reading.
Say a sound and the student writes it (opposite of Naming).
Say a short word and the student writes each sound (opposite of
Blending).
You can give a small choice of letters at the top of the page
if you need to simplify this task for accurate practice.
A good way to practice from all angles is ‘You Be The Teacher.’
After a round of ‘pointing’ practice, say “You be the
teacher.” The child names a sound, and you point to it.
(If you make a mistake, he has to ‘catch’ you.)

Keep practicing Blending and Segmenting.
Your student is already skilled in blending separate sounds into
words, and familiar with pulling apart or segmenting words into
pieces, from his Phonemic Awareness training.
Continue blending and segmenting games as you practice with
phonetic words he is reading.
Remember that blending is for reading, and segmenting is for
writing.

Use Phonic readers that follow along with your Phonics program.
Children need an opportunity to practice each new letter-sound
they are learning, in some actual reading.
Phonics readers are not particularly ‘natural’ sounding, because
the author is so limited in the words she can use; but research
shows that this kind of reading is vital to a good Phonics program.

Demonstrate that some words are not completely Phonics-friendly.
If you write Natural Language Stories with your student (see
Connect to the Tree section of The Reading Treehouse), you will find
examples of words that follow the common Phonics rules, and those
that do not.
Listen:
bone, cone, lone, tone, zone . . . done, gone.
You might say, “‘I come home’ . . . That looks like it should
be ‘I c-ohhhm home.’ ‘Come’ doesn’t follow the rules very well.”

Students should not attempt to ‘sound out’ every new word
exactly.
Consonants are fairly reliable.
Vowels are often tricky.
Students can gain ‘vowel flexibility’ by using Phonics clues plus
sentence clues together, to come up with a new word.
When students think of sentence meaning along with Phonics,
they are plugging in the language system.
This is a good thing, necessary for comprehending what they
are reading.
Remember: All of the skills of reading work together as a system.
Do all readers need Phonics?
YES! All readers need all the tools, if at all possible.
If we had to recognize all whole words by sight alone with no
sound clues, it would be overwhelming.
Should all readers begin with phonics?
NO.
'Phonemic Awareness' games prepare beginners for phonics by
strengthening the 'Mind's Ear.'
Well-prepared children with strong Phonemic Awareness can
generally breeze through phonics,
compared with children who are not prepared.
Well-prepared children gain fluency (and comprehension) more
easily than others.
Once children are on the right track, Phonemic Awareness
continues to grow as they learn phonics.
Some students need a lot of practice to build the strong
auditory skills that make Phonics really work.
Meanwhile they can practice reading fluently, and applying any
simple Phonics they may already know, via the Natural Language
technique (see Connect to the Tree section of The Reading
Treehouse).

Students should begin in a way that is easy for them.
They can learn to use all the parts of reading more easily, once
they have a successful start.
|
interactive books, educational games, word games, SPS Studios, systematic
sequential phonics, decodeable readers, sequential phonics,reading, explicit
phonics instruction, sound-symbol relationships, decoding, teaching, first
grade,pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, education, reading and writing , teaching
aids, learning aids,language arts, home schooling, workbooks, literacy, reading
comprehension, emergent reader, remedial, reading techniques, learn to
read,phonics games, writing journals, phonics, teaching children, how to
read,learning games, education, home school, learning, educators,
homeschoolers,authentic assessment, authentic tasks, teaching aides, Dolch,
Dolch word list, basic sight vocabulary, sight words, flashcards, activity
books, children's education, educational software, electronic books
http://www.kidsusbornebooks.com
http://www.christmasfilm.com
http://www.learnchild.com
http://www.nethomeschool.com
http://www.learnjesus.com
http://www.learnkids.com
http://www.learnpeople.com
http://www.sitesforjesus.com
http://www.school-house-rock.com
http://www.carmen-sandiego.com
http://www.crayolasoftware.com
http://www.madelinesoftware.com
http://www.needmydomain.com
http://www.thomas-train.com
http://www.tonkasoftware.com
http://www.weightwatcherscookbook.com
http://www.learn-phonics.com
http://www.reader-rabbit.com
http://www.skichild.com
http://www.learnhitting.com
http://www.learnfielding.com
http://www.learnbatting.com
http://www.learnbatting.com
http://www.learnmango.com
http://www.startmango.com
http://www.mangoguy.com
http://www.skiyouth.com
http://www.thespiritualwalk.com
http://www.websitehostingforchurches.com
http://www.youthpastortools.com
http://www.sermoncontent.com
http://www.christianreadinglist.com
http://www.gottaread.com
http://www.mychristianbooklist.com
http://www.mychristianfilms.com
http://www.mychristiangrowth.com
http://www.newspiritualbooks.com
http://www.websitehostingforchurches.com
http://www.themovement.tv
http://www.chrismasmoviesandmusic.com
http://www.DVDSHOWS.TV
http://www.silverlightman.com
http://www.xamlmania.com/
http://www.HIGHDEFINITIONDVDSTORE.COM
http://www.learnjourney.com
http://www.learntrip.com
http://www.discoverbaby.com
http://www.yourkidsread.com
http://www.websitehostingforchurches.com
http://www.buyhostingplans.com
http://www.learnprayer.com
http://www.leopardlaptop.com
http://www.leopardcomputer.com/
http://astore.amazon.com/all-star-20
http://astore.amazon.com/athletes-20
http://astore.amazon.com/bedtimestories-20
http://astore.amazon.com/blockbuster-20
http://astore.amazon.com/blu-ray-20
http://astore.amazon.com/blueray-20
http://astore.amazon.com/buckeyes-20
http://astore.amazon.com/carmensandiego-20
http://astore.amazon.com/cartoons-20
http://astore.amazon.com/charecter-20
http://astore.amazon.com/charliebrown-20
http://astore.amazon.com/child-20
http://astore.amazon.com/chordcharts-20
http://astore.amazon.com/christmasfilm-20
http://astore.amazon.com/cincinnati-20
http://astore.amazon.com/craigslist-20
http://astore.amazon.com/crayola-20
http://astore.amazon.com/destination-20
http://astore.amazon.com/devotions-20
http://astore.amazon.com/drsuess-20
http://astore.amazon.com/dummies-20
http://astore.amazon.com/earth-20
http://astore.amazon.com/eigthgrade-20
http://astore.amazon.com/fifthgrade-20
http://astore.amazon.com/films-20
http://astore.amazon.com/firstgrade-20
http://astore.amazon.com/flashcard-20
http://astore.amazon.com/fourthgrade-20
http://astore.amazon.com/georgelucas-20
http://astore.amazon.com/guitarchords-20
http://astore.amazon.com/hddvd-20
http://astore.amazon.com/highdefinition-20
http://astore.amazon.com/homeschool03
http://astore.amazon.com/hotwheels-20
http://astore.amazon.com/hp-20
http://astore.amazon.com/ikea-20
http://astore.amazon.com/imax-20
http://astore.amazon.com/indiana-20
http://astore.amazon.com/johnnycash-20
http://astore.amazon.com/kentucky-20
http://astore.amazon.com/kidsgames-20
http://astore.amazon.com/language-20
http://astore.amazon.com/learnkids-20
http://astore.amazon.com/leftbehindseries-20
http://astore.amazon.com/lego-20
http://astore.amazon.com/list-20
http://astore.amazon.com/madelinesoftware-20
http://astore.amazon.com/maxlucado-20
http://astore.amazon.com/michigan-20
http://astore.amazon.com/nationalgeographic-20
http://astore.amazon.com/nethomeschool-20
http://astore.amazon.com/newbaby-20
http://astore.amazon.com/ohio-20
http://astore.amazon.com/olympics-20
http://astore.amazon.com/parent-20
http://astore.amazon.com/phonics-20
http://astore.amazon.com/plants-20
http://astore.amazon.com/pokeman-20
http://astore.amazon.com/prayer-20
http://astore.amazon.com/preschool-20
http://astore.amazon.com/president-20
http://astore.amazon.com/readerrabbit-20
http://astore.amazon.com/reds-20
http://astore.amazon.com/rickwarren-20
http://astore.amazon.com/roadtrips-20
http://astore.amazon.com/salesjobs-20
http://astore.amazon.com/santa-20
http://astore.amazon.com/schoolhouserock-20
http://astore.amazon.com/secondgrade-20
http://astore.amazon.com/sermon-20
http://astore.amazon.com/seventhgrade-20
http://astore.amazon.com/sixthgrade-20
http://astore.amazon.com/snowboarding-20
http://astore.amazon.com/soccerjerseys-20
http://astore.amazon.com/speedstacks-20
http://astore.amazon.com/spelling-20
http://astore.amazon.com/superbowl-20
http://astore.amazon.com/superstar-20
http://astore.amazon.com/tabs-20
http://astore.amazon.com/televisionshow-20
http://astore.amazon.com/thesuperbowl-20
http://astore.amazon.com/theworldcup-20
http://astore.amazon.com/thirdgrade-20
http://astore.amazon.com/thomastankengine-20
http://astore.amazon.com/topten-20
http://astore.amazon.com/trips-20
http://astore.amazon.com/unitedstates-20
http://astore.amazon.com/usborne-20
http://astore.amazon.com/usbornebooks0c-20
http://astore.amazon.com/veggietales-20
http://astore.amazon.com/videos-20
http://astore.amazon.com/wal-mart-20
http://astore.amazon.com/worldseries-20
http://astore.amazon.com/worship-20
http://astore.amazon.com/youthpastor-20
http://astore.amazon.com/zune2zune-20
http://astore.amazon.com/zunetozune-20