Effective phonics programs

Author	Comment
Margaret Cameron 19/11/08 11:35	In the latest issue of the Bulletin, two commercial phonics programs were reviewed as examples of systematic synthetic phonics. We invite teachers, tutors and others to contribute their comments and evaluations on phonics programs they have used with children with learning difficulties – what has worked well? What has not?
nawar 25/03/09	I have been working as a teacher fo 9 years and I have tried many ways to teach phonics the best way was through songs and printable stories .making the lesson more exciting then students are to recognise the shape of the letter with its sound .for students with learning difficulties it is better to teach two different letters at atime .My question is that how can I teach my clas how to join the letters to form aword .
Margaret 25/03/09	What your are talking about here is blending, and I refer you to an excellent teacher resource by Isabel Beck: 'Making Sense of Phonics: the Hows and Whys' (ACER Press, 2007). Published phonics programs also include ideas for this process. Briefly, it is important to teach children blending and segmenting skills in oral language games and activities, so that the added element of reading the letters builds on phononolgical awareness established orally. For this Love and Reilly's book, 'A Sound Way' (Longman) has an excellent range of activities. Their website (search 'Love and Reilly) also has excellent newsletters with practical information on this topic. Perhaps other readers of this forum can add further ideas.
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