|
The British Government is
withdrawing the two main phonics programmes implemented over
the last decade so schools are now free to choose commercial
programmes if they wish. It is due to publish a new
resource but has advised schools that they should not delay
selecting and using an effective phonics programme. Last year,
the Government published criteria to help schools select a
high quality programme and the THRASS phonics programme scored
full marks against all these criteria. THRASS UK is now one of
the first publishers to submit self-assessment details of its
programme for publication on the Government’s new dedicated
phonics website.
The THRASS (Teaching
Handwriting Reading And Spelling Skills) phonics programme,
has been pioneered by British phonics expert and educational
psychologist, Alan Davies, who has twice been invited by
OFSTED to present papers on phonics at its invitation
seminars, so it perhaps not surprising that THRASS scores so
highly.
The THRASS programme meets
the Government’s core criteria in the following ways:
a. THRASS is a '10-skills'
programme for the systematic teaching of synthetic and
analytic phonics.
b. THRASS 15 Minutes a Day x
2 is a 4-year scheme of work for teaching and assessing the 10
skills, which enables children to start learning phonic
knowledge and skills systematically by the age of 5.
c. The programme focuses on
the 44 phonemes of spoken English, the 120 keygraphemes of
written English (the most frequent graphs, digraphs and
trigraphs) and the reading and spelling of the 500 high
frequency words - taught in discrete daily sessions using the
scheme of work.
d. All skills are assessed by
criterion-referenced tests with observable standards of
achievement, recorded on a Profilecard.
e. Simultaneous visual,
auditory and kinaesthetic activities (VAK skills) are
encouraged throughout so the programme is multisensory.
f. In Keyword Synthesis,
learners are assessed on their ability to blend, read and
spell. The free THRASS Phoneme Machine software has a
SYNTHESIZE THE WORD button for blending the phonemes, from
left to right, 'all through the word' for reading, in 500 high
frequency words.
g. Most of the THRASS
resources show the phoneme/grapheme relationship, through
having all words clearly separated into their graphemes - to
demonstrate how words can be segmented into their constituent
phonemes for spelling.
h. Learners are taught the
many different 'jobs' that letters do in the high frequency
words, so they are competent and confident with the alphabetic
principle, even if a word is not completely phonically
regular.
i. Learners read and spell
500 high frequency words. The spelling is taught using the
THRASS 'Say Name Cover Write Check' procedure and the use of
Spelling Logs. This ensures that learners practise words that
do not conform completely to grapheme/phoneme correspondence
rules.
j. In the early stages of
THRASS, especially Picture Location and Keyword Location,
teachers, assistants and parents work together to develop
essential speaking and listening skills by acting-out,
matching, naming, describing, categorizing and discussing 120
key pictures and the associated keywords with their children.
The creation of phrases, sentences and stories is also very
much encouraged to develop imagination, competence and
confidence. Learners are also encouraged to turn over the
pages of a book, with the help of an older child or adult, to
'pretend-read' a favourite story.
In addition to meeting the
core criteria, the THRASS programme has good 'Fidelity to the
Model' (consistency in the teaching of the programme), which
is achieved through high quality accredited training.
Thousands of Professional Development Course evaluations,
amassed from hundreds of courses over the last decade, can be
viewed on the THRASS website.
But the THRASS phonics
programme also offers much more than is required by the
published criteria. It provides an extensive picture-based
training website for schools and parents with easy access to a
wide range of resources and support materials and extensive
evidence of the widespread success of THRASS. Teachers,
parents, educational psychologists and speech and language
therapists in thousands of schools in the UK, Europe and
Africa use THRASS and the website includes a number of
demonstration lessons and shows THRASS being used very
successfully in a wide range of schools, including new schools
like Oxley Park Primary School, Milton Keynes (assessed as
outstanding in its recent OFSTED inspection) and also
challenging inner city schools like Windsor Clive Infants
School, Cardiff, both of which are Centres of Excellence for
teaching THRASS.
And the THRASS programme also
provides the Phoneme Machine, a groundbreaking computer
programme that is free to download and uses moving human lips
and the International Phonetic Alphabet to teach children, and
indeed learners of all ages and abilities, to read and spell
in an entertaining and fun way. The Phoneme Machine has
recently received software accreditation from SMART for use on
its interactive whiteboards in the countries that THRASS UK is
licensed to serve and, in addition, it is to be showcased at
Microsoft's African Schools Technology Innovation Centre.
A ‘snapshot’ assessment
of what the THRASS phonics programme offers and how it meets
the criteria overall, together with further detailed
information about how the programme meets each of the criteria
is on the British Government’s dedicated
phonics website www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/phonics.
It is also on THRASS UK’s main website at
www.thrass.co.uk/dfes.htm,
and there is a downloadable PowerPoint for schools and
universities.
The THRASS extensive
picture-based training website for schools and parents is at www.thrass.co.uk
For a summary of the main
features and benefit of THRASS (including comments from
teachers and parents), visit www.thrass.co.uk/keyfacts.htm
The phonics papers presented
by Alan Davies at OFSTED invitation seminars in 1999 and 2003
can be downloaded from www.thrass.co.uk/downloadsdocs6.htm
and
www.thrass.co.uk/table.htm.
Demonstration lessons using THRASS can be viewed as
videostreams or downloaded as wmv or Ipod files from www.thrass.co.uk/tvc.htm
For information about the
Phoneme Machine and to register for a free download of the
software, visit www.phonememachine.com
Issued by: THRASS UK News Media Centre www.thrass.co.uk/nm.htm
Mike Meade, Media Director,
+44 1829 741413 Mob: 07970 151 738 mikemeade@thrass.co.uk
Chris Griffiths,
International Development, +30 266 203 1207 chrisgriffiths@thrass.co.uk
Return to TOP
| 
