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SOME PRACTICAL TIPS FOR USING PHONICS WITH POST-16 LEARNERS


The following ideas are included in Post-16 Phonics Approaches: A Toolkit, which can be downloaded for free from the Education and Training Foundation’s (ETF) Excellence Gateway. By Tricia Millar


T


he Functional Skills reforms came into effect in September, including spelling tests at each of the Entry Levels: 10 words chosen from


long lists which are meant to be learnt via phonics approaches. Teachers doing Post-16 Phonics training have found building words with sticky notes a very helpful new strategy for both spelling and reading.


Using sticky notes to explore words as puzzles is pure linguistic phonics in action: • start with saying the word syllable by syllable;


• then match each puzzle piece to the sound it represents. Starting with a learner’s own voice is significant for people who’ve felt intimidated by text. It gives them power over words, creating order out of the chaos experienced in written English. Learners working towards Entry 1 will


start with Basic Code Plus (ETF Phonics Toolkit chapter 6). Box A (Toolkit, page 48) includes simple words with one letter to each sound, as in pat/pet/pit/pot/putt. Some will know many Box A words but not how to use them to spell longer words. Start with words where each syllable is


stressed: combat, upset, laptop. Or where the unstressed syllable sounds very close to natural speech: credit, debit, fantastic. Syllables are decided by the speaker


according to how they’ll find the word easiest to remember: de-bit or deb-it? The puzzle for debit looks like this:


Ask them to change quit to quite, then


quite to quiet, over-emphasising the syllables: qui-et As they move the puzzle pieces, say the sounds and write each word, they gain power over three visually similar strings of letters. Adding the aural to the visual (the essence of post-16 phonics) emphasises the differences. Beyond Basic Code Plus, learners work with the concept that there are many ways to spell some sounds (toolkit chapter 7.2). A learner might be tempted to write Thersday because they can hear an /er/ sound. Avoid this type of error by being explicit about the many ways to spell a sound (Toolkit, page 65) and using puzzle pieces to limit choice.


Say the syllables, attach a puzzle piece


to each sound, then write the whole word. Some will write sound by sound and others syllable by syllable. Some will copy and others will already be spelling. Assessment is built into the activity. By the end of Basic Code Plus you can conquer the dreaded quit, quite and quiet. Give each learner the following puzzle pieces and ask them to build quit.


If learners mix up Tuesday and Thursday


when reading, puzzles are a great way of exploring their differences. Add T and ue to the Thursday puzzle and ask the learner to change Thursday to Tuesday. Reading with an awareness of graphemes means the word starting Th can’t be Tuesday and the word starting T can’t be Thursday. Learners can practise reading sentences you create based on what you’ve been learning and also in authentic text. This is the tiniest taste of Post-16 Phonics and the ‘aha’ moments it generates. You can download and explore Post-16 Phonics Approaches: A Toolkit from the ETF’s Excellence Gateway. If you are reading your digital version of the English supplement (available to SET members who log in) then simply click on this link bit.ly/ETFPhonicsToolkit Or scan this QR code:


You can also ask questions on Twitter with the hashtag #Post16Phonics. Training is available too via the ETF (normally subsidised for SET members). Search for maths and English courses on the website.


Once they’ve built the word and written it, ask each learner to identify the bit of the word they need to remember.


Tricia Millar is the creator of That Reading Thing and That Spelling Thing, linguistic phonics approaches for teens and adults upon which the Post-16 Phonics resource is based.


InTUITIONENGLISH • AUTUMN 2019 9


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