Phonics for Kids – Keep it Simple
Once upon a time when I decided I’d like to join the business world the only job I could get was that of a sales representative marketing educational products to primary schools in the state in which I lived.
A sales job!
At the time I didn’t think a sales job was all that great. But I needed the job.
How wrong I was. I loved it. I loved the freedom to drive around and visit lots of schools and meeting teachers I would never had met if I had stayed teaching in a school.
I saw that all schools have their own style for it depended on the interaction of the teachers, students and parents. Some schools were happy and some had unhappy staff. A few were well resourced and others had little funds to spend on the resources I was selling.
I visited over 100 schools and made many contacts.
I also learned the principles of salesmanship. I saw how important the sales profession is.
One of the sales courses I attended introduced me to the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) Principle.
The lecturer was trying to tell the class that sales are lost when the prospect has no idea of the value of the product and how it could be of benefit. I have seen many children who feel this way about reading and writing. They don’t understand what is being taught.
I think the KISS Principle should be applied to phonics teaching and to the teaching of reading in general. Give beginning readers texts that challenge but don’t overwhelm.
I will never forget the morning I was talking to a consultant employed by the education department.
She knew I was a teacher so we had something in common.
“Have you heard the latest educational theory?” she asked. Without waiting for my response she told me. “Whole Language,” she laughed.
“What does that mean?” I enquired. “Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing,” she replied.
“Oh!” I thought. “The wheel has been reinvented.”
I began a search for the books I learned to read from. I learned to read in 1950. I don’t remember it being all that hard and I really enjoyed working through a graded set of readers.
I found the six books that comprised the series and phonics for kids was part of each book.
Over three years I became a fluent reader reading a collection of family stories, traditional stories, poetry and phonics activities. I was surprised at the wealth of reading material contained in each graded reader (book).
Books not students were called readers in the 1950′s!
The phonics’ knowledge a beginning reader needs to know can be outlined in half a foolscap page.
I also remember many of the stories. I remember writing stories, using words in sentences and listening to stories read by teachers. Whole language!
Although the publishing industry was not as prolific in the decade after the Second World War I also had access to books to supplement what I did at school.
My mother made sure I received lots of reading material.
Reading and writing are about language. Writing is using letters to encode the sounds in words and one aspect of reading is decoding the sounds into recognisable words. The simple thing to do is to systematically explain the letter sound relationships of English and introduce them in graded texts. I don’t mean artificial language but in well written material. Phonics for Kids does not need to be a big deal but it needs to be taught.
The absolute miracle is language. We use language to listen, speak, read and write.
We blend a number of sounds chosen from around 44 unique speech sounds into words.
These words are used in sentences which adhere to grammatical rules.
The people who speak a language agree what these sounds and words means.
As children grow their vocabulary knowledge hopefully develops. This needs to have input from written as well as spoken language.
Vocabulary, comprehension and thinking skills which are part of literacy development are higher order skills that hopefully develop throughout life.
Like any skill reading and writing take effort and commitment. They are complex skills.
Whenever I hear someone speak a language other than my own and I have no idea what they are talking about I am reminded about the miracle of language.
It is language that enables us to learn to read and write.
The computer age has opened up access to information. Computer software can enable students to work at their own pace. Phonics as part of reading can be learned through an online program called ClickN Read Phonics.
For more information click on the ClickN Read icon on this page.
