05/13/10

 Basic Phonics Terms 

Analytic Phonics is phonics that begins with a whole word and breaks it down into simpler and simpler phonemes. Analytic Phonics should be introduced to a child ONLY after the child has mastered Synthetic Phonics and only after he has learned to read words and sentences in a left/right sequence. The left/right reading sequence is learned by ALWAYS beginning a word "at the beginning of the word" and then reading that word all the way through to the end of the word.  If Analytic Phonics is placed into a reading program at the correct time and in the correct way,  it enables children to do two things:
 
                       a) To identify common word families in a set of words.
                            For example: tab nab cab
                                                    king sing fling
                                                    Hank bank sank  

                      b) To break down any whole word into individual phonemes. Analytic phonics should always follows Synthetic Phonics teaching.  Without the skill of Synthetic Phonics, a child will always have a a tad of fear when approaching a new word, because there will always be chunks within words that he does NOT KNOW, and he will NOT have  the "synthetic" skills necessary to "sound out" those unknown chunks.  

Explicit Phonics teaches the rules of phonics and presents fully formulated instruction in those rules where, for instance,  sound-spelling relationships are directly taught. Students are told, for example, that the letters ea can represent three distinct and different sounds: long e in leaf; short e in bread; long a in steak.

Fluency is the ability to read words quickly and accurately. Fluency builds a bridge between reading the words on the page and understanding the meaning of the words on the page. When a child has learned to read fluently, he has learned to read quickly, accurately, and with expression.  Word recognition increases fluency. Ultimately, reading fluency improves reading comprehension since children are not struggling with decoding and are able to devote their full attention to making meaning from text. Inadequate decoding is
characteristic of poor readers.

Implicit Phonics is the phonics taught in our public school systems. Implicit phonics begins reading instruction with a whole word and works down to smaller parts. Blending and building a word from left to right is NOT taught.

Linguistic Systems of Phonics are planned-out networks of phonics instruction that teach the English Alphabetic Code in a systematic, explicit manner, working from simple to complex. Linguistic Systems of Phonics include mnemonnics (those rules and special terms such a "silent letters," "silent e," and beginning, middle and ending phonemes")

Mnemonnics are those rules and special terms such a "silent letters," "silent e," and beginning, middle and ending phonemes")

Phoneme - A phoneme is the smallest part of spoken language that makes a difference in the meaning of words. English has about 41 phonemes. The word if has two phonemes i and f. The word check has three phonemes: ch e ck

Phonemic Awareness is the ability to hear, identify and manipulate the individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. Phonological awareness begins to develop during the preschool years. Unless children are given help from teachers, parents, or other adults, those with low levels of phonological awareness will continue to be delayed in this skill from the late preschool period forward. Researchers have found that phonemic awareness and letter knowledge are the two best school-entry predictors of how well children will learn to read during the first two years of instruction (Share, Jorm, Matthews & Maclean, 1984).

Phonics is the relationship between letters in written form and the sounds of the those letters. A primary goal of phonics instruction is to teach students to read words in or out of text.  Phonics is the understanding that there is a predictable relationship between phonemes (the sounds of spoken language) and graphemes (the letters and spellings that represent those sounds in written form). Phonics is a skill that develops AFTER phonological awareness. Most children who have difficulty reading have trouble with phonological awareness, that is, when children lack the ability to say whether or not two words rhyme, to say the beginning letter sounds of words, or when they lack more advanced phonological awareness where children can identify word chunks within words and demonstrate how to break apart words into individual phonograms.   Understanding that words are made up of smaller sounds helps children "break the code" between written language (written letters) and spoken language (sounds).  So phonics skills are gained when children learn the relationships between letters and sounds, how to recognize those relationships in print, how to blend phonograms together, and how to spell words when they are audibly heard by using the knowledge of phonograms, spelling rules, and syllables.  All of these skills are gained through the use of a systematic (linguistic) phonics program that uses a step-by-step progression of teaching.

Phonograms are the individual symbols that represent individual letter sounds, blends, word chunks, and syllables.  Phonograms can either be individual letters or groups of letters that represent a particular sound.  Thus the letter "p" is a phonogram and the group of letters "ough" is a phonogram.  The consonant digraph "st" is a phonogram and the word ending "ed" is a phonogram. 

Phonological Awareness is a broad term that includes phonemic awareness. In addition to phonemes, phonological awareness activities can involve work with beginning letter sounds, rhyming sounds, rhyming syllables, rhyming words, and playing with words by repeating expressions of rhyme or alliteration.    

R'sA Phonics (Rhyme, Rhythm, and Alliteration) gives children a reading atmosphere that is "fun." Just as a "spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down," children also learn best when they are offered "fun" words and phrases. Words and phrases become "fun" when they are placed inside sentences with Rhyme and Rhythm. Likewise, Alliteration, when placed inside patterns of Rhyme and Rhythm, is "fun." In The Candy 4WAY Phonics Program, R'sA Phonics is sprinkled into the charts and readers in measured doses at correct times. Rhyme, Rhythm, and Alliteration is intermingled with both simple and complex  sentences, dialogue, and normal poetic selections so that children are introduced to all forms of written expression. 

Syllable is a word part that contains a vowel, or in spoken language, a vowel sound.

Synthetic Phonics takes individual phonemes and synthesizes them (blends them) together.

Systematic Phonics Instruction teaches beginners a definite scope and sequence of the major grapheme-phoneme correspondences and how to use these to decode and spell words. It also teaches phonemic awareness which is the ability to analyze and manipulate phonemes in speech, for example, how to break the spoken word teach into three phonemes, /t/-/ea/-/ch/, or how to blend these phonemes to say the whole word. Systematic Phonics includes short and long vowels as well as vowel and consonant digraphs such as oi, ea, sh, th.   It also includes blends of letter-sounds that form larger subunits in words such as onsets and rimes.  Because the writing system in English is more complex and variable than in some other languages, it is harder to learn. This makes systematic phonics instruction even more important to teach, because children will have difficulty figuring out the system on their own. 

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