Step by Step to Literacy with Fast Phonics

April 27, 2017 3:02 pm Published by Alonah Reading Cambridge

Good news at last on the education front. The latest classroom development, announced by the Daily Mail of 15.04.2017, ‘Union members refuse to teach unruly pupils.’ For too many years teaching staff, inadequately equipped to deal with consistently recalcitrant children, have faced knives, abuse and standoffs from a spattering of young thugs. Again and again, day after day one child’s truculence has resulted in an entire lesson being disrupted or lost for the rest of the class.

Quoting from the above article, ‘Some (teachers) are refusing to teach out-of-control pupils who have brought knives into school or threatened to set staff on fire and some as young as eight have been allowed to stay in lessons despite the risk they pose to teachers and classmates.’

In any other job or profession, if employees were subjected to such excoriating criticisms, both professional and personal, they would not just down tools and walk away, but would possibly take legal action.

A teacher’s sole remedy has been to report a problem to the head teacher, who would in turn speak to the parents. Some parents would bend over backwards to cooperate with the school and help the child through a difficult period. Others invariably and ironically, whilst wanting their child to have an education would defend the culprit’s right to express an opinion or to show he, or she, was bored by texting or calling out in class. Many will even parrot that, ”Kids should be allowed to be kids,” then, laughing cite their own childhood anti social behaviour in an effort to dilute their child’s actions. What they forget is that, in the past, schools had the option of corporal punishment, parameters would be set and, overall a calm teaching environment could be maintained. This remedy was removed and very slowly children, in many cases, now feel they are in charge. But at last teaching staff are calling an end to abuse and threats, just like any member of the public they can state their own human rights. As for the public, we need our teachers, we need to keep our teachers, so above all we need to value our teachers.

I hope your teaching skills are moving apace as your child’s reading gathers strength and confidence.

And now for our next group of sounds, to be printed as always in red felt pen on white cards:

ay (a) as in say, pay, day,way.

ey (ee) as in key, donkey, monkey.

oy as in boy, toy, coy, royal.

ai (a) as in rain, gain, main, grain.

ei (ee) as in ceiling.

ie (ee and eyed) as in field, wield, pie.

ied (eed and eye) as in carried, married, cried.

ies (ees and eyes) as in carries, marries, cries, spies.

oi (oy) as in toil, foil, soil, boil.

ui (oo, i and eye) as in fruit (oo), build (i), guide (eye).

And that’s it for now, taking your sounds to:You, the, they, I, me, a, no, little, your, we, beautiful, come, go, to, be, she, saw, my, house, was, do, for, he.

Y on the end of a word.

Double letters.

oo, ee, sh, wh, th, ck, ch.

Magic e.

ang, eng, ing, ong, ung.

ar, er, or, ur, said, oh, are, one, friend, magic, colour, their, great, who.

all, ell, ill, ull.

tion, sion, cean, cien, tious, cious, ous, cial, sial, tial.

oa, ea.

glow.

oh, ah, qu.

ay, ey, oy, ai, ei, ie, ied, ies, oi, ui.

Amazing! Well done. With plenty of practice and plenty of revision your reader can manage:

”The children whispered as they travelled on. The Magic Caves of Alonah were so deep no daylight had ever penetrated their secret depths. Stalactites and stalagmites sprang from ceiling to floor, forming long, silvery white stakes that sometimes met in the middle to form slender, rock hard, milky pillars. From everywhere came the drip of water, as regular as raindrops and just as wet.

Words were soft, speech frugal.

After they had gone on for what seemed like the best part of an entire day, Lampyris asked the children to stop, he needed to regain his strength. He explained that keeping his light on was, for him, exactly like running quickly was for them. It used up his strength very fast and he might only boost it if he turned the light off for a while!’

(From The Magic Caves of Alonah by Robyn Dalby-Stockwell).

Good luck and good reading.

This is Teaching Post 13

Link to Teaching Post 14

Categorised in: early childhood reading, early literacy, fast phonics

This post was written by Alonah Reading Cambridge