Synthetic Phonics

C is for computer: ABCs move into the age of technology

Phonics is being taught a little differently this year in the Pine Bluff School District, as a virtual leprechaun named Clancy began administering phonics tests to the elementary students.

The computerized character is part of the intensive phonics software installed in computers across the district and at Southwood Elementary School's sleek new computer lab this year.

"I like Clancy because he teaches me," said Chandler Tate, taking a break from writing his ABCs on Thursday morning. The Southwood kindergartner was already on his Gs and working on pronouncing the word "goose."

The lab opened at the beginning of the school year, and so far students and teachers at Southwood are benefiting from the new computer instruction.

Each school has the software that tests students from kindergarten to 12th grade. "It's a sign of the day," Sharon Fletcher, literacy facilitator at Southwood, said about integrating computers further into the classroom. "They think they're playing almost," Fletcher said.

Students are able to hear instructions and words pronounced through a pair of earphones connected to the desktops before having to say the words themselves. "I like staying in here," said Safah Albadani as she jetted through her lessons.

Since the software arrived this year, students are able to progress at their own pace through each of their lessons so some students won't feel left behind. Meanwhile, others will no longer have to wait for their classmates to catch up, Fletcher said.

They're still taught phonics skills by a human teacher, said Lyna Johnson, a kindergarten teacher at Southwood, but students practice lessons and take tests through their computers. "The computer is just a reinforcement of what we learn in the classroom," Johnson stated.

"They're progressing at their own levels," Fletcher said, checking on Johnson's classroom. "I think it's really an asset," she said. "And in this age of technology they do need to learn and become comfortable with computers. "They're going from early phonics to spelling and being able to write two- to three-letter words."

The program also requires each child to take a phonics pretest before going into the lab so teachers know if they need to start the child out at a beginning, middle or advanced stage. "They can't go onto another lesson until they master it," Johnson said.

This aspect could help prepare students for the array of standardized tests they will have to take later this year.

The program also shows teachers how the class as a whole fared so teachers know if they should reteach a particular lesson. "It has tremendously helped me," said Johnson, a teacher of 21 years. "It's a systematic approach to learning. "The transition has been smooth. We didn't think so at first," Johnson said of sitting kindergartners in front of complex computers. "But we didn't have those problems at all."

By Wilson Brown
October 14, 2005

With many thanks to the brilliant 'Pine Bluff Commercial' website.