Phonics

According to Hill (2006) phonics is an instructional method and strategy for being able to identify words and learning how to spell. Phonics concentrates on the relationship between letters and the sounds of language in both reading and writing, and that letters in written words, either singularly or in combinations, represent specific sounds (also known as the alphabetic principle). Teaching children phonics will allow them to recognise letters and sounds, which is a key step in them learning to identify words when reading or spelling.
 * __PHONICS __**

media type="youtube" key="V8uoxWwwB0Y&hl=en" height="355" width="425"

The English language consists of 26 letters that create 44 'phonemes' or sounds when used alone or in different combinations, according to the alphabetic principle. For example, the word 'poke' contains only 3 sounds, but is created from 4 letters. This is because in the word 'poke', the 'ke' is one single sound or phoneme. Phonics are a good place to start teaching so that children can build up their knowledge of words. Children will start by learning to identify letters and sounds, then progress to phonemic awareness (for example, sounding out unfamiliar words), to eventually being able to read complete words that they associate with meaning. Illustrated by Buck Jones, 2005

**The five content areas of phonics**  According to Hill (2006) there are five content areas of phonics. // STAGE 1 - LETTERS OF THE ALPHABET // In this stage, the child learns to recognize, say, and write the letters of the alphabet in both upper and lower case. The English alphabet is made from 5 vowels and 21 consonants. Consonants can be hard for children to pronounce, as children can have difficulty controlling their tongues to speak letters such as /r/. It can also be confusing as many consonants can make more than one sound depending on the context in which they are used, such as /k/, where it can be hard like in 'kite', or it can be silent, like in 'knife'. Vowels are sounds made in the mouth with no contact of lips, teeth or tongue. There are 5 short vowels.

//STAGE 2 - ONSET AND RIME WORD FAMILIES// In this stage, familiarity with word families can be improved by playing games using onsets and rimes, which many children find easier than phenomes. The onset in a syllable is any consonant/s that come directly before the vowel. The rime is the vowel and the consonants that come after the onset, e.g. l-uck. Children can use familiar onsets and rimes to help identify unfamiliar words. For example, if they know luck (l-uck), they should be able to read and recognize truck (tr-uck). // STAGE 3 - BLENDS // Blends or letter clusters are made from two or more letter combinations. Phase 1 - 2 letter initial consonant blends e.g. bl st cl sm Phase 2 - 2 letter final consonant blends e.g. ft ty nd ng Phase 3 - 3 letter initial consonant blends e.g. scr str squ // STAGE 4 - DIGRAPHS AND OTHER LETTER COMBINATIONS // Digraphs are two letters making a single sound, and can be a combination of consonants or vowels to make a sound which neither letter can produce alone.  Phase 1 - consonant digraphs e.g. ch (child) sh (shout) th (throw) Phase 2 - vowel digraphs e.g. ai (bait) ea (each)  ue (clue) Phase 3 - harder vowel digraphs e.g. ou (our) oe (toe)  au (caught) Phase 4 - other letter combinations e.g. air (hair) ear (hear)  igh (light) // STAGE 5 - STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS // Making structural changes to a base word, such as changing the ending to swap tense, plurals, prefixes and suffixes, and compound words.