Reference: Davies, A. (2006) TEACHING THRASS. Overview, p11.
Publisher: THRASS UK, Chester, Cheshire, England. ISBN 1 904912 00 1.
© 2006 Alan Davies

SYNTHETIC AND ANALYTIC PHONICS

Some teachers ask if Word Level Teaching should be 'synthetic phonics' or 'analytic phonics'?

Synthetic phonics usually involves part-to-whole learning, that is, children being taught 'letter sounds' (in a 'word-free' stage) so that they can blend (synthesise) the 'letter sounds' (the parts) to create words (the wholes). Analytic phonics usually involves whole-to-part learning, that is, children analyse lists of words (the wholes), usually learnt by sight in a 'phonics-free' stage, to determine the parts (starting, usually, with the 'letter sound' at the beginning of the words).

We believe that children should be taught to use both processes, starting first with guided part-to-whole learning (Keyword Synthesis is taught at Stage 7) and progressing to interactive whole-to-part learning (Keyword Analysis is Stage 9). However, we do not believe that this learning should be through using the artificial and restrictive 'letter sounds' of "Old Phonics" (also known as the One-Letter-Makes-One-Sound-Method or the acronym OLMOSM) because teachers using 'Artificial Synthetic Phonics' are only able to help their learners decode a very small percentage of the five-hundred basewords of English, many of which occur frequently in even the most basic of books.

We believe that synthetic and analytic learning should be through using the 'phoneme-grapheme' (phonographic) method of "New Phonics", that is, phonics teaching that exposes learners, from the very start of the literacy process, to all the forty-four phonemes of spoken English and the graphs (one-letter graphemes), digraphs (two-letter graphemes), trigraphs (three-letter graphemes) and quadgraphs (four-letter graphemes) of written English. As is evident from the class Picturechart, THRASS learners are exposed, from the very start, to one-hundred-and-twenty keywords (wholes) that each contains a bold keygrapheme (part), representing a specific consonant phoneme (part) or vowel phoneme (part) that are explained, discussed, understood and assessed at the appropriate sub-stage or stage. Unlike "Old Phonics" learners, THRASS learners do not identify letters by 'letter sound' because this method is artificial and restrictive, and requires the learners, even in the very early stages, to ignore things that they should never have been taught, if they are to read the tens of thousands of English words that contain digraphs, trigraphs, quadgraphs (quads) and graphs that do not represent the one and only sound that they have been taught.

This unlearning is all the more of a problem if the learner is vulnerable because of intellectual difficulty or social disadvantage - as is the case, in today's modern computer-literate world, when learners have been taught to use a lower-case 'QWERTY' keyboard and only associate each letter with one specific phoneme (known as "Artifical Keyboarding'). As is stated in the Teacher's Manual (p30), "….by referring to all letters by name, children readily understand why pressing the capital letters on a 'QWERTY' keyboard may result with lower-case equivalents on the screen."

Many children and adults, in educational institutions worldwide, try to read the five-hundred English basewords, which contain large numbers of digraphs, trigraphs, quads and graphs by giving each letter a specific sound, the one and only sound they have been taught (such as trying to read the basewords 'do', 'to', 'no', 'so', 'boat', 'book', 'coin', 'moon' and so on, as if the 'o' represented only the sound heard at the start of "octopus" or "orange") and try to spell these basewords by using an artificially limited range of graphemes (such as spelling "hedge" as 'hej', "said" as 'sed' and "was" as 'woz'). In terms of the information required for reading words, these learners display behaviours that clearly indicate that they are "phoneme deprived". In terms of the information required for spelling words, these learners display behaviours that clearly indicate that they are "grapheme deprived". It is a fact that, of the five-hundred basewords of written English (listed, and strategically placed in sentences, in the THRASS 500 Big Books and Guided Readers) only about fifty words, only ten percent, can be correctly read or written if learners decode or encode the words by associating each letter with one specific sound. THRASS learners, on the other hand, are not subjected to the unnecessary 'letter-sound' method used by "Old Phonics" teachers. THRASS learners identify letters by name (as we do with people, places and products) so that they have, with appropriate guidance, the natural opportunity to blend (synthesise) and segment (analyse) all of the forty-four phonemes of English, as represented by the bold keygraphemes on the class Picturechart and class Graphemechart. With the THRASS "New Phonics" method there is no need for any unlearning to take place, before there is progression to all of the forty-four phonemes of English and their graphemes, because the learners have been exposed to the 'whole-picture', the truth, from the very beginning of the literacy process, that is, "English has forty-four phonemes, lots of graphemes and we identify letters by name".

In terms of the information required for reading words, THRASS learners display behaviours, including self-correcting behaviours, that clearly indicate that they are "phoneme rich". For the non-word 't-ear-ch' they may pronounce the "Ee" "Ay" "Ar" with reference to the trigraphs in such words as ear-th, n-ear, p-ear or even h-ear-t - indicating that both the size and efficiency of the Phoneme Bank (Sound Store) are good. In terms of the information required for spelling words, THRASS learners display behaviours, including self-correcting behaviours, that clearly indicate that they are "grapheme rich". For the non-word 'tearch', if it were to rhyme with "search", they may write terch, tirch, turch or even 'torch' - indicating that both the size and efficiency of the Grapheme Bank (Spelling-Choice Store) are good.

STAGED INTERACTIVE PROGRESSION

We believe that the best way to teach learners about the building blocks of Word Level Teaching, that is, the forty-four phonemes and the hundreds of graphemes of written English, is to follow a staged interactive progression that begins in early childhood. In the first instance, children should locate, identify and discuss all of the one-hundred-and-twenty outline pictures on the Picturechart so that they begin to develop essential speaking and listening skills. This then develops to explanations and discussions about the one-hundred-and-twenty keygraphemes, through using the various THRASS resources (involving a variety of different media) and other words in picture books, cross-curricular books and environmental print (e.g. signs). THRASS learners are also taught about, and assessed on, the thinking processes (the metacognitive processes or, more formerly, the Phonographic Metacognition) involved in learning to read and write at Word Level. That is, when reading 'we change graphemes to phonemes' and when spelling 'we change phonemes to graphemes'. In this way the class or individual Picturechart (or associated class Graphemechart or individual Grapheme-Word Chart) becomes established as a useful life-long 'whole-picture' reference chart for questions relating to the reading ("Does the word sound right?") and spelling ("Does the word look right?") of English words - including when, as parents, they teach their own children about the building blocks of spoken and written English. In summary, THRASS Whole-Picture Keyword Phonics is based on one-hundred-and-twenty keywords and a large class chart - a chart that provides concrete evidence, from the way that individuals, groups and/or classes use the chart, that phonographic learning has taken place!

T-50: TEACHING THRASS

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