There can be few early years practitioners who remain unaware of the ongoing debate about the teaching of reading and the role that phonics has to play. This debate is not a new one, nor is the suggestion that 'phonics is the answer'.
The first phonics scheme to reach the UK was back in 1898, following developments in the US in the mid-19th century. Since then a wide variety of both methods and resources (the two are not the same!) have been used to teach children to read. You will no doubt remember some from your own childhood, or from the more recent experiences of your own children.
Whatever else children have experienced up until now, phonics has always been included as part of a bank of strategies that children would use to decode the printed word. I cannot think of any practitioner that I have worked with in the last 26 years who has not wanted the children in their care to 'learn their sounds', learn to use phonics as a clue to unknown words or, indeed, to learn to read with fluency, accuracy and most importantly comprehension.
Historically, children have always been taught the names of the letters of the alphabet and the 'sounds' that they make. Best practice in this area has involved linking such new knowledge to young children's growing awareness of the way that the spoken and written word is linked, through high-quality teaching and instruction.
Shared reading and shared writing, pioneered in New Zealand in the 1970s, have been invaluable ways for children to experience direct instruction in both forms of literacy, through clear, well-planned demonstrations by enthusiastic adults.
Children have always been encouraged to use phonic clues as one of several ways to tackle unknown words. In most settings, the distinction between synthetic phonics and analytic phonics (see box) will not have been made, and it will not have been seen as necessary.
Sensitive practitioners will have drawn children's attention to patterns in words, and will have helped children focus on 'initial sounds' through games such as 'I Spy', as well as teaching the skills associated with blending and segmenting.
Big changes
However, things are set to change dramatically, following the findings of the Rose Report. This report, heavily influenced by the findings of the now infamous Clackmannanshire research (incidentally, with a group of children over five, judged on their ability to read lists of words, not books) has recommended that synthetic phonics should be the primary method by which beginner readers are taught to decode print. (See 'Further information'.) It recommends that children be systematically taught sound-symbol relationships and how to blend and segment them in order to read whole words. It is important at this point to note that it is also recommended that the teaching should be multi-sensory and 'compatible with a broad and rich curriculum'.
Practitioners should note that the report also states that the programme of phonic work is 'to be securely embedded within a broad and language-rich curriculum: that is to say, a curriculum that generates purposeful discussion, interest, application, enjoyment and high achievement across all the areas of learning and experience in the early years and progressively throughout the key stages which follow.'
Implications for early years
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework is still under discussion, and the final version is as yet unpublished, so it is important for practitioners to be aware that I have turned to the revised framework for the Primary Strategy for the information given below.
Practitioners familiar with Playing With Sounds (published recently and accompanied by training across the country) also need to be aware that this document will be replaced. In the pipeline is one that schools will be able to adopt when considering how best to adhere to the strict guidelines regarding the teaching of synthetic phonics that are about to be imposed.
The core papers (to be found at www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary) outline various phases in the development of synthetic phonics teaching. The phase that will involve the vast majority of EYFS practitioners is Phase One.
Its main purpose is (for children to) 'develop their language structures and increase their vocabulary. In developing their phonological awareness, children will improve their ability to distinguish between sounds and to speak clearly and audibly with confidence and control. They become familiar with rhyme, rhythm and alliteration.'
It is believed such experiences will pave the way for effective synthetic phonics work later in the child's education. The document phrases the duration of this as: 'This phase reflects the developmental stages for Communication, Language and Literacy in the Early Years Foundation Stage (p24).
Phases 2 and 3 involve children in learning letter sound correspondences at a prescribed pace, within the context of a rich print environment. Debate centres on when Phase 2 and 3 should start. 'By the age of five' is recommended, although it carries the caveat that educators will be able to use their professional discretion to decide if children are 'ready' for this more formal approach.
Best practice
It is clear that, in reading the above statement, many practitioners will be pleased to know that best practice in early years seems to have support.
The benefits of developing speaking and listening skills in young children have always been highly valued by those who work with them, and have been seen as cornerstones of both phonics teaching and the skills that underpin all effective learning.
Promoting familiarity with rhyme and alliteration should also prove little problem for settings, where the communal learning of songs, poems and action rhymes has, again, always been part of good practice. Clearly, such activities also promote positive attitudes to literacy, and are planned to include all children.
Such activities are also of great benefit to bilingual children, helping them to be part of the community within the setting and also helping them acquire important aspects of the English language in a non-threatening environment.
However, it has been recommended that daily sessions of focused synthetic phonics teaching should start before children are five years old. This recommendation obviously has implications for those practitioners who work with children towards the end of the Foundation Stage.
Practitioners will need to use their professional judgement to decide if children are ready for such sessions and how sessions can best be organised. The Rose Report called for phonics teaching to be 'brisk' and 'discrete'. Careful interpretation of such phrases is vital, if the principles that underpin the EYFS guidance are not to be compromised.
'Discrete' should mean that a small group of children would work with an adult on a dedicated phonics activity that the practitioners in the setting have deemed developmentally appropriate.
'Brisk' would mean that the teaching session had a purpose and was pacey and exciting for the children, and kept them actively involved and engaged.
This clearly does not imply the widespread use of worksheets, which engage few, if any, children and offer no real teaching opportunities whatsoever.
Further information
* 'The Rose Report: Independent Review of the Teaching of Early Reading'
can be viewed at www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/rosereview/report.doc
* Johnston, Rhona and Watson, Joyce (2005 CHECK) A Seven Year Study of the Effects of Synthetic Phonics Teaching on Reading and Spelling Attainment can be viewed at www.scotland.gov.uk/ Resource/Doc/36496/0023582.pdf
* Playing with sounds: A supplement to progression in phonics can be downloaded from www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/ publications/literacy/9488
Definitions
* Synthetic phonics refers to an approach in which children are taught that certain sounds are associated with particular letters. Children are then encouraged to pronounce the sounds in isolation and blend them together to form words.
* Analytic phonics refers to an approach in which the sounds associated with particular letters are not necessarily pronounced in isolation.
Children identify (analyse) the common sounds in a set of words in which each word contains the sound under study. For example, adult and children discuss how the following words are alike: mat, mouse, magic. This approach enables children to build on what they already know about written language.
* Phoneme This is the name given to the smallest single identifiable sound - for example, the letters 'sh' represent just one sound, but 'sp' represents two (/s/ and /p/).
* Segment Used as a verb, it means to split up a word into its individual sounds (phonemes) in order to spell it - for example, the word 'dog' has three phonemes: /d/, /o/, /g/.
* Blend Used as a verb, it means drawing individual sounds together to pronounce a word - for example, m-a-t, blended together, reads mat.
* VC, CVC, and CCVC The abbreviations are for vowel-consonant, consonant-vowel-consonant, consonant-consonant-vowel-consonant, and are used to describe the order of letters in words - for example, in, pin, spin.