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Teaching Systematic Synthetic Phonics in Primary Schools
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Teaching Systematic Synthetic Phonics in Primary Schools

Third Edition (Revised and Updated Edition)


January 2019 | 352 pages | Learning Matters

The government prioritizes systematic synthetic phonics as a key strategy in the teaching of reading and this is your guide to teaching systematic synthetic phonics in primary schools.

This text supports trainee teachers working towards primary QTS through the exploration of a range of aspects of phonics teaching.  It gives a balance of research and practice and allows trainees to develop and in-depth understanding of what works in phonics teaching, and why.

It begins with the subject knowledge that underpins effective teaching - key aspects of the alphabetic code from discriminating sounds and phonemes to teaching long vowel phonemes and their different spellings and pronunciations. It goes on to explore pedagogy from the early years to Key Stage2 giving guidance on, among others, systematic progression, intervention and multi-sensory and interactive methods.  The title includes a review of different popular phonics programmes, set against the DfE (2011) criteria for high-quality phonics teaching.

What's new to this edition?

  • Audit and test sections at the end of every chapter so students can test themselves and see how much progress they’ve made

  • A new chapter reviewing the use of technology to support the teaching of phonics.

 
Section 1: Subject knowledge for teachers
 
1. Discriminating sounds and phonemes
 
2. Challenges
 
3. Grapheme–phoneme correspondences and ‘tricky’ or common exception words
 
4. Decoding and encoding text
 
5. Long vowel digraphs – the advanced alphabetic code
 
6. Phonics into spelling
 
Section 2: Effective pedagogy
 
7. Teaching phonics in the early years
 
8. Multi-sensory and interactive methods
 
9. Teaching a systematic structured progression
 
10. Planning for phonics
 
11. Tracking and assessing pupils’ learning and effective intervention
 
12. Teaching phonics in Key Stage 2
 
13. Using a range of programmes and resources
 
14. Using technology to support the teaching of phonics

While Phonics instruction is crucial knowledge for students, it is probably not central enough for foreign language education to make it the only method I teach in my class on teaching English as a foreign language in elementary schools. If I were to teach a course on beginning literacy I would likely use this text.

Professor Quint Oga-Baldwin
School of Education, Waseda Business School
January 19, 2021

Compulsory reading for all my students.

Ms Jan Ashbridge
Education (Lancaster), University of Cumbria
December 18, 2019