Phonics with Year 7/8...

With my inquiry in mind I have been actively looking for opportunities within our class programme that I can use to reinforce reading strategies. The blog post below outlines one way I am doing this. We call it 'phonics' and it runs alongside our formal guided reading sessions as part of our reading rotation.

Earlier this year our senior syndicate attended a phonics professional development workshop. Phonics is most commonly used in early literacy programmes. While my data showed the need was there, I felt it was important to make some adaptations so the programme would be more suitable for my year 7/8 learners. To do this I merged ideas from the phonics PD, the 'Chunk, Check, Cheer' spelling programme and my own knowledge. Linda, our LS2 Teacher Aid and I worked together to put together a programme that she felt comfortable running and would meet the learning needs of the students we work with. Once this was in place we invited Donna Ryan to observe what we do and give us her feedback. The pretest Donna shared helped us to identify the specific blends/chunks that need to be targeted.

Each session begins with the phonics element. I have repurposed activities that help unpack a blend/chunk. This involves:

• A timed challenge to list all the known rhyming words that have the focus blend/chunk in them on individual whiteboards. These lists are then shared and help to create the master list, or as we call it the 'chunk' family. To add an additional challenge element the students use dictionaries to help them add to the master list by finding words with 7+ letters. Something that has been really well received from the outset as the competitive aspect of finding the longest word has hooked everyone in.

• We then select an activity that involves circling all the 'chunk' family words in a paragraph, putting words from the 'chunk' family in alphabetical order and completing cloze sentences/paragraphs to add in the fun element.

• The next part involves establishing the meaning of any unknown words, something that helps strengthen understanding. Each student chooses a word then writes it in sentences (one simple, one compound and one complex), which allows for sentence structure and punctuation reinforcement. 

• After these sentences are shared, the students are given a challenge to write as many of the 'chunk' family words in a paragraph. We use Chromebooks for this task. The finished paragraphs are then proofread and edited in pairs. This writing becomes a blog post as well as providing an opportunity for further reinforcement.

• The final part of our phonics session involves a reading component and means all pens are put down. We use the Key Into Inference text to help strengthen connections to this strategy. The students read the text together, listen to the teacher read it, read in pairs or read silently before having a group learning conversation to unpack the questions.

Everything is recorded and stored in folders which are then used as modelling books. Although the session is run by Linda, we plan it together. This allows me to focus on the same blend/chunk she has focussed on when I am doing my guided sessions. Since this intervention began we have noticed a huge increase in self efficacy, engagement, active participation and comprehension levels. My learners are excited to participate in a literacy challenge they can do because it is hard to be the person who is 'learning to read' when the rest of the class is 'reading to learn'.

This began as an intervention for my target group but has grown and now reaches a much wider audience. We have two groups who work with Linda, and one who after suggesting it to me, that works independently.