‘All things take time to create and great things like the city of Rome take a very long time. So we shouldn’t expect to accomplish something or achieve success immediately’.

Thank you to the many people who have purchased the Jolly Discoveries app ’Phonics Under The Big Top’.

My passion for creating my first app took two years to come to fruition. After seven months since it first went live, ‘Phonics Under The Big Top’ reached number 135 in the category of Education in the App Store. Without the support of the public this could not have occurred!

Thank you all.

Quite simply, the different methods of phonics can be compared to the different blends of fuel we can buy for our cars. At the bowser we can choose to buy either E10, regular unleaded or premium unleaded petrol for our car. However it is generally agreed that premium unleaded is a more effective blend of petrol for our cars long-term performance.

The same comparison can be made with the different methods of phonics instruction teachers commonly use in their classrooms. Each one of these methods has some success with teaching children the phonemes (letter sounds) of the English language, but only one is a more effective method for a child’s long-term performance in the use of phonics. 

What Are the Differences Between The Four Main Methods for Teaching Phonics?

1. Synthetic Phonics: Children are taught all the 44 phonemes (letter sounds) of the English language. They are taught how to use this knowledge of phonemes (letter sounds) to read and write words. Using this knowledge children are explicitly taught how to independently and confidently work out new words.
2. Analytic Phonics: Children start with whole words first and are thus required to recognise a certain number of words by sight. Emphasis is initially placed on teaching the children the 26 phonemes for the letters of the alphabet. With this knowledge they then go back and analyse common sounds they may notice in the sight words they have previously learnt.
3. Embedded Phonics: This is an incidental method of phonics teaching. During a reading lesson, the teacher may notice the children having difficulties with a particular phoneme (letter sound) in a word they have come across. The teacher then stops and gives a lesson on this phoneme. There are no regular formal phonics lessons given to the children.
4. Analogy Phonics: This is another form of analytical phonics. Children are taught how to look for common ‘word families’ or ‘word chunks’ they may notice occurring in words. For example the children are asked to look at a group of words ending in ‘at’…mat, cat, rat, fat, hat, sat. What Form Of Phonics Is the More Effective Form of Phonics? For phonics to be successfully utilised it must be specifically taught.

We cannot run the risk of leaving out vital information when teaching children about phonics. We can teach children the phonemes (letter sounds) of English but we MUST also teach children how to systematically use this knowledge. We MUST show children how to use this knowledge to read words (blending) and to write words (segmenting). Both these two skills do not come naturally. Out of the four different phonics approaches, it is synthetic phonics that achieves all these valuable skills.

Just as premium unleaded is a more effective blend of petrol for a cars long-term performance, synthetic phonics is by far the more effective method for a child’s long-term performance in the use of phonics. As 80% of the words in our English language are considered to be phonetically regular then synthetic phonics is an essential skill for children to acquire.

Have you got our app?

“Phonics under the Big Top” is available to download for your iPad and Android device.

So what does synthetic phonics actually mean?

It is the leading phonics teaching approach currently being adopted throughout the world. Children are firstly taught all the phonemes (letter sounds) of the English language as a basic code. There are 44 phonemes (letter sounds) in English, however these phonemes can be written in words in different ways. Synthetic phonics firstly teaches a basic code; this means one phoneme (letter sound) and one common way of written this sound. As the children become familiar with this basic code they then learn how to use this knowledge of sounds to read and written simple words. The use of phonemes (letter sounds) to build words is another component of synthetic phonics.

So why is synthetic phonics so popular?

It provides the children with another skill they can use to read and write unknown words whenever they are unable to remember a word by sight. It allows the children to read and write words they commonly use in their speech; words that contain phonemes (letter sounds) other than those in the English alphabet. The children can read and write words such as car, shop, tree, park immediately once the basic code is introduced. They can also learn the phonemes (letter sounds) in their own name as not all names are just made up of alphabet letter sounds.

As the children become increasingly familiar with the basic code of synthetic phonics then they are able to easily move onto a more advanced code; other ways of writing the 44 phonemes (letter sounds) of the English language.

Children need to be given a variety of strategies to assist them with the reading and writing process and synthetic phonics is being recognised as one such strategy which is assisting children in a very positive and successful way.

If you haven’t got the App already – below are links to download the App on your iPad and Android.

NSW Institute of Teachers endorsed provider of Institute registered professional development (PD) for the maintenance of accreditation at professional competence. Scope of Endorsement-Professional Teaching Standards for the following courses:

Synthetic Phonics-An Introduction to Jolly Phonics
Bringing Grammar to Life-Jolly Grammar
Extending Your Knowledge of Synthetic Phonics through Jolly Phonics

Jolly Discoveries provides whole school based training in the area of literacy. Contact us to organise staff meeting sessions and professional development days with the staff.