Synthetic Phonics News

News about Phonics

• Sound reasons for return to learning language through phonics - The derisive cheers that greeted the Government's statement that from now on children will be taught to read using the synthetic phonics method was quite understandable and, arguably, well deserved. After all, millions of us in the past were taught to read that way and most of us acquired the skill early. (Dec 19th 2005)

• The AIOs of Teaching Phonics - The ABCs of reading are more like the AIOs. When children are learning to read, it's best to teach them the easiest skills first, usually identifying the short sounds of vowels - such as the A in cat, says Wendy Bronfin, vice president of product development for Hooked on Phonics. (Oct 16th 2005)

• Kelly Bows to Pressure for Teaching by Phonics - The UK Government has bowed to pressure for a return to traditional methods of teaching reading - by ordering a review of its flagship national literacy strategy for primary schools.. (3 June 2005)

• Researchers Verify Reading Ability Gets a Boost From Phonics - A study has confirmed the premise of the Bush administration's "Reading First" initiative that systematic phonics instruction is essential in teaching young children of all backgrounds to read successfully.

The study, just published by researchers of the National Institute for Early Education Research and Rutgers University in New Jersey, re-examined findings of the National Reading Panel (NRP) in 2000.

The study gives even greater weight than the NRP to the importance of intensive phonics, which is systematic instruction of letter-sound relations in English and how to use them to read texts with controlled vocabulary.

• Ruth Miskin - Thriving against the odds - If Tony Blair claimed his three priorities to be "education, education, education" the headteacher of one of the most successful primary schools in England emphasises the importance of "books, books, books".

Ruth Miskin, the energetic headteacher of Kobi Nazrul school in Tower Hamlets, East London, says learning to read and write is central to pupils' development and she firmly asserts that no one should leave primary school without a strong grasp of literacy skills. Kobi Nazrul is among the primary schools identified as "particularly successful" by the Office for Standards in Education, an achievement that is made all the more impressive by the social factors stacked up against it.

• Clackmannan Program Research - In 1998, Joyce Watson and Rhona Johnston reported on a study of three hundred Primary 1 children (ages 4/5) in Clackmannanshire, Scotland, in which they examined the effectiveness of a synthetic phonics teaching program compared with a traditional analytic phonics programme.

At the end of the 16 weeks, the reading and spelling of the children on the synthetic phonics programme were around seven months above both their chronological age and the children on the traditional analytic phonics programme.

• Newspaper Reports about Synthetic Phonics - A pilot study that uses a traditional method of teaching children to read has produced dramatic improvements. After four years of "phonics" lessons, boys of eight have developed skills two years ahead of the average reading age for boys while girls are 18 months ahead.

The St Andrews University research in eight primary schools in UK Clackmannanshire has followed 300 children from the age of four. The emphasis has been on teaching the whole class rather than dividing into smaller groups ... Now all nineteen Clackmannanshire primary schools are using this method.

• Phonics Readers Outperorm Their Peers - Children in Clackmannanshire in Scotland who have been taught to read using "synthetic phonics" are more than three years ahead of their peers by the end of primary school, a study has found.

The program, piloted in nineteen primary schools, was part of a seven-year study conducted by psychologists at St Andrews and Hull universities. From Year 1 stage, three hundred children spent twenty minutes a day learning the technique.

• Dundee's Big Hopes for Phonics - Dundee eight-year-olds who were unable to read made a month's progress in a week using a modified synthetic phonics approach.

Grethe Thomson, a psychologist with the city council, said that remarkable results had been achieved since 1999 when the project was tested with small groups of non-readers in four primary schools.

• UK Government Spells Out Bigger Role for Phonics - The Government in England is to push for more phonics in infant classes. David Hopkins, director of the standards unit, which oversees the literacy strategy, has pledged to look at the teaching of phonics in the early years. A solid literacy grounding at infant level is seen as vital in the drive to raise standards.

• OFSTED Publishes 'Teaching of Phonics' Paper - In October 2001, the UK's OFSTED published a paper on the teaching of phonics. It stated that although good practice exists in schools and there have been improvements since the implementation of the National Literacy Strategy, it remains the view of Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Schools that there is still a significant proportion of schools in which the importance of phonics in improving pupils' reading and spelling has not been recognised.

• Intensive Phonics Course for the UK National Literacy Strategy - A new intensive phonics course has been developed by the UK National Literacy Strategy in the hope of significantly accelerating the rate at which young children learn to read.It is to be introduced by state primary/elementary schools in England by summer 2000.

Early indications from schools already using the material with four and five-year olds in reception classes and six-year olds in year 1 suggest the 15-minutes-a-day of phonics produces a spurt of between three and six months in learning to read.

• Phonics in the Early Years of the UK Literacy Hour - Half the UK primary teachers implementing the literacy hour in schools are boycotting the phonics element of the strategy, according to the first evaluation of the strategy by Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools. The report into a two-year pilot scheme in 250 schools - and on the early days of the literacy hour, showed that children in some schools took only 8 weeks to learn the letter sounds, while in others it took up to three years.

• Synthetic Phonics Outperforms the UK Literacy Hour - According to the UKTimes newspaper, a radical way of teaching children to read has out performed the Government's preferred literacy strategy where a literacy hour is taught every day in primary schools in England.

The one year pilot study of three hundred schoolchildren in Scotland showed those taught using 'synthetic phonics' were 7 months ahead with their reading and nine months ahead with their spelling compared to the Government's strategy.

• A Seven Year Study of the Effects of Synthetic Phonics Teaching on Reading and Spelling Attainment - "We have carried out a study on around 300 children of the effectiveness of a synthetic phonics program that was taught in Primary 1. Performance on this program was compared with performance on a typical analytic phonics program, and also with performance on a similar program that included a substantial element of phonological awareness training. The synthetic phonics program was by far the most effective in developing literacy skills."

• Phonics Benefits Dyslexic Adults - A Winston-Salem research team has shown that dyslexic adults' reading skills improve after 112 hours of phonics-based instruction. The major change researchers saw was the adult's ability to understand how the language works. Adults in the study also became more accurate when reading simple words and words in text ... Participants have started to read entire books for the first time, have gone back to school and graduated.

• A History of Phonics - dates of the main events in the development of phonics teaching.

• A Progress Report on Reading - Is reading instruction now based on phonics, or are the schools still muddling through, counting on the parents of most of the children to have taught the children before classes begin?

Synthetic Phonics Controversy

• Expert warns against government phonics plans - Government plans to teach children to read using phonics "fast, first and only" will turn reading into a chore for many young people, a reading expert warned today. Jonathan Solity, of Warwick University, said the "back to basics" drive recommended by the recent Rose review of teaching methods would be no improvement on the strategies used in the 1960s. He said that although there was a general agreement that children should be taught to read through synthetic phonics, this should be combined with "real books" rather than books written for reading schemes. (Jan 4th 2006)