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Do
you have a view about teaching phonemes in a set order (as many
schools do)? Do you have a recommended order? |
Phonemes can be introduced at any time. As is
stated on the back of the THRASS PROFILECARD, "There are ten stages to be taught
and assessed but you can introduce the information and/or skills from any stage
at any time. The appropriateness of the information and/or skills will depend on
the age and ability of the learner, the circumstances and your teaching method
and style! For example, there is nothing wrong with telling three-year-old
“Chloe” (or Chris) that her name begins with the digraph ‘c’ ‘h’ and she is
looking after the ‘school’ on the picturechart - because her ‘c’ ‘h’ represents
the same phoneme as heard in “school” (the phoneme /k/) - but not the phoneme
represented by the ‘c’ ‘h’ digraph in ‘chair’ (for Charlie and Chelsea) and
‘chef’ (Charlotte and Michelle). It is the actual assessment of the stages, not
the introduction of information and/or skills, that tends to go in a linear
direction from stage T1 to stage T10."
Generally speaking, I believe that formal work on phonemes should begin once
children have good speaking and listening skills, are able to name and correctly
form both the lower-case and capital letters, are able to name graphemes (e.g.
'one-ers' are graphs, 'two-ers' are digraphs, 'three-ers' are trigraphs and
'four-ers' are quads) and they understand that print conveys meaning. That is,
there have successfully completed the outcomes for stages T1-T5:
T1. Picture Location: teach your learners to locate and name the outline
pictures.
T2. Letter Location: teach your learners to locate and name the letters.
T3. Letter Formation: teach your learners to name and correctly form the
letters.
T4. Grapheme Location: teach your learners to locate and name graphemes.
T5. Keyword Location: teach your learners to locate and name the keywords.
In terms of recommended order, I suggest that teachers start stage T6 (Phoneme
Location: teach your learners to locate and articulate the phonemes) with row C1
and work down the chart to V4. But this should not take too long, using the Raps
and Sequences CD, the teacher using synthesis (using the Phoneme-Grapheme Cards
and the Magnetic Graphemes) and playing such games as "I hear with my little
ear" (p62). Ideally, they should soon be working on stage T7 Keyword Synthesis
(teach your learners to blend, read and spell the keywords) - where they blend,
read and spell all the one-hundred-and-twenty keywords (using the sixteen tracks
on the CD) - and get lots of experience hearing and saying these phonemes at the
beginning, middle and end of syllables/words.
Ask Alan |
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