Phonics+and+Learning+to+Read

 = Phonics and Learning to Read = HOME NEXT

([|www.reading-with-kids.com])  PHONICS Phonics teaches children how to read through the relationship between letters and sound. In the reading and writing process it concentrates on sound- letter relationships. There are 26 letters in the alphabet, with approximately 44 sounds. This demonstrates how complex the English language is, showing that numerous sounds can be created through several letters and letter combinations. For example ‘ck’ creates one sound but uses two alphabetic letters; such as in tru//ck.// 

Letter identification is apart of the alphabetic principle. If a child knows the letters of the alphabet it enables them the foundation of being able to further develop into learning about sounds and spelling. With the majority of letters having a close relationship with their sound, it introduces children into recognizing symbols and producing words.

__ACTIVITY__: Here is an activity demonstrating phonics where children have to recognize sounds and letters in words and colour in a picture [|click here]  LEARNING TO READ As both teachers and parents it is beneficial to read aloud to children. Allowing children to interacte with books before school helps develop awareness into the world of language. Reading aloud can help improve punctuation and also expands their vocabulary. As babies, they may not understand the narrative, but listening to a person's voice reading and hearing different tones is already developing their reading skills. As we develop and learn to read, we embrace the reader by asking questions and can understand the text with assistance of pictures. This can also help build children's confidence of using and developing new words. Big books are a great way to engage students and are easy for them to follow, as there is both text and visual references.

Below is a Youtube video that demonstrates reading Oh the Places You'll Go by Dr Suess. It rhyms throughout and has illustrations to show meaning of the text. This would be a great big book to read aloud to children as it would engage children by its language and colours used. media type="youtube" key="x7XqNLAgJhM&hl=en" height="355" width="425" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7XqNLAgJhM)  Reading Development Children use cues in order to help them read actual print.
 * Semantic Cues-** relates to information that comes from the world, books or personal experiences. For example, if a child read 'pig' and has had a chance to go to a farm and see one, they will be able to relate the word to a personal experience.
 * Syntactic Cues-** comes from the structure and word order of written language. The syntax pattern is 'Jill went up the hill' when read aloud makes sense to the audience whereas 'hill the up Jill' does not sound right to the ear.
 * Grapho-phonic Cues-** relates to the phonemes and letters associated to those. With word meaning, visual information is important for meaning. For example whether/weather sound the same but mean and are used in different contexts.

(Hill, 2006)    <span style="DISPLAY: block; COLOR: #9224d6; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: center"><span style="DISPLAY: block; COLOR: #8200ff; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: right">

<span style="COLOR: #8200ff; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif">"Reading is the process of constructing meaning from print and from other symbols."
(Hill, 2006 pp. 139) <span style="DISPLAY: block; COLOR: #9224d6; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: center"><span style="COLOR: #8200ff; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif"> <span style="DISPLAY: block; COLOR: #9224d6; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: center"><span style="COLOR: #8200ff; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif"> <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: left">