Phonics only instruction

Children learnt and revised phonological rules for 25 minutes. Table 3.4

presents the scope of rules covered in the phonics lessons, which followed the sequence of rules of Anglo-Saxon words in English developed by Calfee and Patrick (1995). Table 3.4

Scope of the Phonics Rules

Consonants

Single Blends Digraphs

b, d, f, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z Exception: c, g (two sounds) Initial bl, br, cl, cr, dr, fl, fr, gl, gr, sl, pr, tr, sc, sk, scr, spl, sm, squ, sn, str, sp, st, sw, tw, thr, Final ft, mp, nt, lk Initial th, sh, ch, wh, gh Final ng, ck, sh Vowels Single: short Single: long

r and l controlled Digraphs

a: mad e: pet i: time o: hop u: cut a-e: made e-e: Pete i-e: time o-e: hope u-e: cute r affected ar: park er: her ir: bird or: for ur: fur l affected al: fall, ball, walk, talk One sound ai-ay: rain-play ee: meet ie: piece oi-oy: oil-boy oa: boat au-aw: sauce-law ew: new Two sounds ea: beach-head oo: moon-book ou: house-soup ow: cow-tow ei: seize-rein

Source: Calfee and Patrick (1995, p. 108) Note:

to all ability groups

to “well below” ability group only

to “ well below” and “below” ability groups only

There was no sentence context or storybook context. The phonics only group received no metacognitive strategy training to transfer this phonics knowledge to actual reading, but received 5 minutes of phonemic awareness training through a “TurtleTalk” training programme each week (Gough & Lee, 2007). This was done by selecting five to eight words and stretching them out, so that pupils talked slowly like a turtle (e.g., sh- ar-k for “shark”). Instead of just a listening and sounding out activity, the researcher modified the “TurtleTalk” by showing the printed words to the pupils on the whiteboard while they were “turtle-talking”. As the National Reading Panel (2000) suggested, “phonemic awareness with letters helps learners determine how phonemes match up to graphemes within words and this facilitates transfer to reading and spelling” (p. 33). A description of the kind of phonics instruction used in the present study is shown in Table 3.5. An example of the lesson plan and words selected for the phonics lesson is shown in Figure 3.1.

Table 3.5

The Description of the Kind of Phonics Instruction Used in the Present Study

What the phonics instruction in the present study does do……

What the phonics instruction in the present study does not do……

x It teaches specific rules for mainly Anglo-Saxon words

x It is based on phonics lesson plans and ideas in The Phonics Handbook (Nicholson, 2005), rules for Anglo- Saxon words in English in Calfee & Patrick (1995), and rules for syllable breaking in Henry (2010) and Moats (2010)

x It uses explicit instruction

x It uses TurtleTalk phonemic awareness activities

x No sentence context x No decodable books x No Big Books x No analytic phonics

x No teaching of consonant blends (except for a quick review in lesson 1 for “well below” and “below” groups)

Figure 3.1. An Example of Words Selected for a Phonics Only Lesson (“Well below” Ability Group Lesson 4: r-affected vowels)

For the phonics “wellbelow” ability group, the first session started with revising the 26 letter sounds of the alphabet, with the vowels restricted to short vowel sounds, and basic two- and three-letter words. According to the Ministry of Education (2010b), after the first year at school, children should have phonemic awareness and know all letters by name. The “below” ability group started at a higher level, with consonant blends and digraphs (e.g., bl, cl, dr, gr, gl, ch, wh). The “at” ability group began at an even higher level, for example, vowel digraphs (e.g., ai-ay, oi-oy, ee, oa, au-aw, ea, oo, ou), and syllable breaking (i.e., cvc/cvc).

The 30 minute lessons started with a quick revision of the previous phonics rule, then moved on to another new rule, phonemic awareness practice (listening and

sounding out words exercise), and ended with a quiz based on the phonics rule from the previous lesson. Appendix F1 presents detailed lesson plans for the first, sixth and twelfth lesson.

Here is an example of a lesson for the “below” ability group. The lesson was adapted from The Phonics Handbook (Nicholson, 2005).

Introduction: recap from last week’s lesson (“ea” pattern)

Researcher: Can anyone remember what sound “ea” makes? If you cannot, maybe you can think of a word that had “ea” in it. Yes, “EAT” is a good example (the researcher writes the word “eat” on the whiteboard). How about the word “head”? Can you hear the /ea/ sound in “head”? Yes, it has the /e/ sound (writes the word “head” on the whiteboard). /ea/ has either the /ee/ or /e/ sound.

Lesson: vowel digraphs /oo/ and /ou/

Researcher: Today, we are learning the digraph OO and OU. Let’s have a look at the digraph OO first. The first sound is /oo/ as in book and look (words presented on the whiteboard, so the pupils can see them). The second sound is /ue/ as in moon, soon or kangaroo. An easier way to remember that /oo/ has two sounds is to remember this sentence “look at the moon”, so you have the /oo/ sound in look, and the /ue/ sound in moon.

Words from The Phonics Handbook OO /oo/ OO /ue/

cook * took * roof * spoon * school * understood * good *

Researcher: Let have a look at the list here (in A3 size). I want you to look at the OO in each word. Does it have the sound of /oo/ or /ue/?

(The researcher says the words, and pupils choose the correct sound for each word).

Researcher: The next digraph is OU. It also has two sounds. The first sound is /ow/ as in house, out or shout; the second sound is /ue/ as in soup, you or group. So, both OO and OU can share the same sound /ue/ (pupils see the words

Good, let have a look another list (in A3 size). Do you think these words have the /ow/ or /ue/ sound?

Words from The Phonics Handbook OU /ou/ OU/ue/

mouse * soup * house * count * group * you * hour *

Researcher: Well done, the final task we are going to do is “TurtleTalk”. Have a look at these words on the whiteboard. If I say /c/-/oo/-/k/ (slowly), what is the word? Great, let’s try another one….. Good. Now, I want you to choose a word and say it as slow as you can…yes, just like what I did before… talking slowly, just like a turtle.

mouse m-ou-se soup s-ou-p house h-ou-se cook c-oo-k took t-oo-k good g-oo-d

Researcher: Great job. You have done so well. Let’s finish the lesson by completing the Quiz on /ea/.