PHONEME MACHINE
DEMONSTRATION LESSONS

Phoneme Machine 6- and 7-year-olds demonstration lesson

The THRASS Phoneme Machine is a ground-breaking computer programme that uses the International Phonetic Alphabetic and moving human lips to demonstrate the pronunciation of sounds (phonemes) and hundreds of frequently used English words.

The upgrade of Version 3.1, Version 4.1, available at the beginning of 2007, will have new 'autofunctions' dedicated to the teaching of the Weekly Spellings listed in the four-year scheme of work THRASS 15 Minutes a Day x 2. The scheme is primarily for children, from 4-7 years of age (or one or more years later in different countries), who have English as their first language. The scheme can be adapted to suit additional language learners and learners with a disability.

In this videostream we see Alan Davies giving a demonstration lesson using the Phoneme Machine with a group of six- and seven-year-olds in front of a group of adults at a THRASS Open Day at Oxley Park Primary School, Milton Keynes. The children are working on the Phoneme Machine on an interactive whiteboard to analyse and synthesise a series of words including ‘box’ with its non-phonographic spelling of ‘x’, ‘sound’ with its consonant blend ‘n’ ‘d’, ‘fish’ with its digraph ‘sh’, ‘ice’ with its consonant digraph ‘ce’, ‘bridge’ with its consonant blend ‘b’ ‘r’ and consonant trigraph ‘dge’ and ‘street’ with its consonant blend ‘s’ ‘t’ ‘r’.

We see how THRASS empowers children with knowledge and then teaches them to apply that knowledge. The children’s understanding is thoroughly tested and the whole lesson is an excellent demonstration of the depth of their understanding and their ability to apply their knowledge. They all show an exceptional level of understanding for their age and agree that THRASS is really easy.

Resizing the Grids
The size of the Phoneme Machine grids can also be made smaller and moved by using Full Screen Off - making the phoneme-boxes and words easier to reach.

If you would like to view the videostream of the demonstration lesson, click on the link below the picture on the left.

The THRASS Phoneme Machine is available free of charge to parents and schools. More information can be found at www.phonememachine.com.

Return to Top
 

Back           Next