The Finger Phonics Books were developed to support the teaching in The Phonics Handbook. Each page illustrates the story linked to the letter sound. The pictures are full of detail, which encourage class discussion, as well as helping to develop a wider vocabulary and improved language skills.
The first page is for the /s/ sound. The story is about a family going out for a walk. The dog starts to bark and suddenly a snake rears up and goes /sssss/ and slithers away. Then the children are told that this letter has a /ssss/ sound linked to it. It looks a bit like the shape of the snake.
After the lesson each child can take a turn at putting his or her finger in the groove and feeling the shape of the letter. If they say the sound /ssss/ at the same time it helps them to learn that letter sound. The next part of the lesson is to listen for that particular sound in words. For example, ‘What is this? (teacher points to the sun) Yes, a sun. Is there a /ssss/ in sun’. Repeat for other words such as dog, snake, mouse. Where does the /s/ come: at the beginning or end of the word? This is the start of learning how to segment words, which is identifying all of the sounds in words.
In each of the pictures there are several objects that have the sound in them, such as in this case ‘stripes’, ‘sandals’, ‘socks’, ‘spots’, ‘stick’, ‘snake’, ‘mouse’, ‘nest’, ‘snail’ and ‘sand’ etc. There are no words to blend at this stage but it is possible to do auditory blending, which is hearing the word after an adult has said the sounds. For example, ‘Can anyone see a /b-ee/ or a
/f-i-sh/? This prepares the children for the next stage, which is blending words by themselves.
At the bottom of each page there is an illustration of the action, with a description at the side. On the next page the /a/ story is illustrated. There are ants going up the girls arm and causing her to say /a/. The children feel the shape of the letter and then look for objects with an /a/ in them. The teacher then asks, ‘Is there an /a/ in ‘cake’? Is there an /a/ in ‘jam’?’ etc. After that auditory blending again, ‘Can you see an /a-pp-le/ or the /n-ie-f/? etc. (ideas demonstrated)
There are Finger Phonics Big Books, which are suitable for the whole class to look at. As you can see they have the same pictures as the smaller version.
All Links
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Ideal for the teacher who wants to gain a thorough understanding of how to teach children to read and write using Jolly Phonics.
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Jolly Phonics training is given by independent, experienced teachers who use Jolly Phonics extensively in their schools.
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Ideal for the teacher who wants to gain a thorough understanding of how to teach children to read and write using Jolly Phonics.
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An audio of the letter sounds is available on this website.
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The words are organised in a progressive way. There is a set of words, for the children to blend and read, that use each new letter sound, as well as the ones that have previously been taught.
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There are many black and white pictures that are suitable for auditory blending - as used in Part 4 of 'Preventing reading and writing problems'.
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This font is frequently used in schools, as well as in the Jolly Phonics materials.
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These standardised tests have been made available on the Reading Reform Foundation website. It is advisable to read the instructions carefully before using them.
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This is one of several pieces of research on the Sound Discovery website.
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Debbie Hepplewhite's online synthetic-phonics course for teaching reading and writing.
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This chart clearly shows the many alternative spellings linked to the sounds of English. Teaching guidance is also provided.
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It is always helpful to keep in mind the basic principles of synthetic phonics teaching. This set of principles was developed by members of the Reading Reform Foundation.
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This link is to Debbie Hepplewhite's website, which has several types of alphabetic-code charts.
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King Wizzit Series - decodable readers
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Decodable Readers - particularly suitable for children who struggle with reading (beginners, advanced and mature readers)
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Decodable Readers - Levels 1 - 4
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Decodable Readers - Sets 1 - 10
Free online flash version available -
Decodable Readers
Dandelion Launchers - initial (simple) code
Dandelion Readers - extended (complex) code
Series of books for older struggling readers -
Decodable Readers - Sets 1 - 7
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Decodable Readers - several sets starting with simple letter-sound correspondences and gradually progressing to complex
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Decodable Readers - Stages 1 - 6
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Decodable Readers - Levels 1 - 6
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Decodable Readers and online decodable ebooks
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Irina Tyk is an expert in synthetic phonics and has enabled many children to read and write successfully. The standards achieved have been exceptionally high.
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Sound Discovery was developed by Dr Marlynne Grant and is particularly suitable as an intervention programme for anyone wishing to teach children who have problems with learning to read and write.
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Mona McNee has been a strong campaigner for synthetic phonics and has successfully taught struggling children for many years. Her book is particularly helpful for parents.
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Sound Foundations was developed as an intervention programme for the children who struggle to read and write. The authors have had a huge amount of experience and success with this type of teaching.
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Sound Steps to Reading was written by Diane McGuinness, who is a leading expert on the nature and structure of writing systems and how this applies to teaching reading and spelling. It is a successful Linguistic Phonics programme, which has similar principles to synthetic phonics.
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The Sound Reading System was developed by Fiona Nevola and is based on the work of Diane McGuinness, Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of South Florida. Fiona Nevola founded the charity 'Our Right to Read', provides training to teachers and tuition to struggling readers.
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Phonics International is an online course developed by Debbie Hepplewhite. Debbie is a synthetic phonics expert and has a wealth of experience in teaching synthetic phonics. Her online course has a huge amount of teaching guidance and resources in it. She also works as a consultant and provides training in the UK.
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This article is incredibly interesting and enlightening. It is well worth reading.
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This list of synthetic phonics principles was compiled by members of the Reading Reform Foundation.
http://www.rrf.org.uk -
The RRF is an organisation dedicated to campaigning for better teaching of reading in the English language. This website has something to offer everyone who is interested in the teaching of reading.
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This link provides access to experimental research, which was commissioned by scientists wanting to test the effectiveness of synthetic phonics teaching (Jolly Phonics).
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Many teachers have measured the improvement of their children's reading and spelling ability on standardised tests. Several of them have written case studies about their results and experiences. These can be seen on the Jolly Learning website or through this link.
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This list of synthetic phonics principles was compiled by members of the Reading Reform Foundation.
http://www.rrf.org.uk -
Dr Bonnie Macmillan describes the findings of experimental research on beginning reading instruction. Research points decisively to the need for direct teaching of certain key skills in order to produce maximum reading success.
This book is well worth reading. -
Prof Diane McGuinness combines her own scientific and clinical experience with a synthesis of modern research on reading, to show how different methods of teaching reading could successfully improve standards of literacy.
This book is highly recommended. -
Dr. Beth Robins is the presenter for this webinar. For her doctorate she studied the research linked to beginning reading instruction in the US and UK.
She is a retired teacher and provides training in synthetic phonics.
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Elizabeth Nonweiler is the the presenter for this webinar. Elizabeth is an excellent consultant and trainer in synthetic phonics in the UK. She has given training in 19 countries.
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An audio of the letter sounds is available on this website.