Jolly Phonics Reader
Barton Ostby
Can you help Ive recently tuned in to a web debate about not mixing the two as the approaches are so different.I work in a school where the ORT is the main reading scheme I am just able to buy some jolly phonics books and do teach the leter sound using jolly phonics.What do you think?
I started JP last year in January. It went well, although my childrne needed a slower pace. I only used the Phonics and Patterned Stories of the ORT and not the truck series... well, only the "First Words" ones but when they had the character's names... not books like "The Pancake", which is pure guessing.
We use JP too. Our reading books come from a wide selection of schemes and are based on the Cliff Moon book bands. We use a lot of ORT, Ginn and sunshine spirals amongst others. 30% of our children achieved a level 3 in reading at KS1 SATs last year, so it works OK for us
I think books like The Pancake are perfectly legitimate for the children to read because although they may not be able to decode the words they are able to use initial sounds and picture clues to help them and these are both skills they need too. Having said that I am also a fan of phonic schemes
I use Jolly Phonics in my classs alongside Ginn Oxford reading Tree Rigby etc. I feel there is a valid arguement for providing children with a range of skills and experiences to promote reading. Not all children are able to use phonics. My own son never really developed any phonic skills in primary school due to his particular learning difficulties, but was an excellent reader. When tested by the Ed Psych he had a reading age almost 5 years above his chronological age ( at 8 his favourite independent reading was a NATO defence document )
We also teach Jolly Phonics. We used ORT, Story worlds(which are lovely) and at Easter we got the Jelly and Bean books. They were really good for our weaker readers at that time of year. I did find they moved on very rapidly and soon became too difficult for them but they did help the children secure their cvc knowledge and decoding skills. I'm not sure if there were other books in the series that moved a slower pace.
How did he do it? I am interested in this since I also believe that each child has his/her individual needs and maybe a particular method might not suit him/her... so I am open to hear about your own experiences. Thanks in advance !
Many children are good at remembering words, each child has the capacity to remember a number of words, then they need phonic skills to build on this number. For some they don't know many, but others can remember loads. Apparently many children with Downs Syndrome are good at remembering words, this is true for a child in my class who can no read initial sounds etc but can find the name cards for 4 of the 8 children in my class.
We also use Jolly Phonics with our main redaing scheme being ORT and find that it works well. we also use a range of other books based upon Cliff Moon, we achieve well in KS1 sats which proves that we must be doing something right.
Home educator here (please don't eat me!)
DD (age 5.6) has just finished the blue/level 4 JP reading books and says that she wants "books with harder words in them". If we were to move onto the Oxford Reading Tree - how do the schemes transfer across? Which ORT level/band/colour would she be on?
And is she doing reasonably OKish for an end-of-reception child?
I wouldn't start her on ORT. She hasn't completed her phonics learning yet and the ORT books will be full of words she won't be able to decode (unless you go for the decodable ORT books. In which case you'll need to match them to the correspondences she already knows).
I suggest you look at //www.oxfordowl.co.uk
It had 250 free ehooks and you can try books from different bands to see how your son gets on. I suggest you look at stage 4/ stage 5 books. I have never used blue jolly phonics books, but if they are harder than the green books your child would be ready for the magic key books. Stage 4/5 books will look a lot easier than jolly learning books, but it's better to start off being too easy than too hard.
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Jolly Phonics, a reading program based on a systematic synesthetic phonics approach, was developed by Sue Lloyd (previously a teacher at Woods Loke Primary School, Lowestoft, England) and Sara Wernham (publisher: Jolly Learning, the UK, owned by Christopher Jolly).
Jolly Phonics caters to children of all abilities and is multisensory, child-centered and fun. Jolly Phonics teaches literacy through synthetic phonics using a child-friendly approach. Multi-sensory methods are very motivating for children. It is supported scientifically by evidence and has been accepted around the world.
To introduce children to the letters, a multisensory approach is used. Each sound is given a storyline and an action, as well as a Sound Sheet. The children will be more likely to remember what the sound is by doing something associated with it.
Children are taught how to correctly form each letter as they learn the letter sounds. Initially, the teacher will have the children form the letters simultaneously in the air. After the first 12 weeks, most children will be able to form letters correctly by feeling and writing each letter.
The children must learn the sounds and how to mix them to form words. This begins on the first day. It is important that children hear the sound when their teacher speaks. For example, "Listen carefully, what word do I say... d-o-g?" Some children may hear "dog". A few more words are possible, such as 'su-n' or 'boy' or 'mou-se'.
After children have learned the letter sounds and are able to read simple regular words, they can take the 'Word Boxes home' for practice. Word Boxes are simple words made from the first set of letter sounds. Children who learn to blend sounds quickly become fluent readers.
Once the children have finished the Word Boxes and discovered some uncommon keywords, they should be given storybooks. Tell parents that your child won't be allowed to bring home a storybook until he or she has mastered the art of blending. Parents should encourage their children to talk about the books they have read.
As the children speak, the teacher writes the letters on the chalkboard. The children then look at the word and make the sounds. They blend the sounds to read it. This will give you a better understanding of the process of reading and writing. This skill can be developed by practicing a few examples each day.
A child can begin to write independently once they are able to hear and write the sounds. Although they won't be able to spell correctly at first, their work can still be read. By the end of their first year, most children should be able to write simple stories and news independently. They will write exactly what they want, as they don't have to stick to the words that they know. Learning to spell correctly takes time, as well as reading books and learning the alternate vowel sounds.
After the first month, most children are familiar with 18 letter sounds. They have also been learning how to blend regular words together as a group activity. Then they can start to learn tricky words. Tricky words are words that cannot be merged. These words can be introduced slowly using the Jolly Phonics Tricky word Cards. Take a look at the 'tricky" part of each word. For example, "was" has an /o/ sound instead of an/a/ sound. You should be able to teach 2-3 times per week and keep on top of spelling and reading.
Jolly Phonics was extensively researched and found to be extremely effective. Here are some quotations from three research projects that dealt with synthetic phonics. One in England and one each in Scotland and Canada. A synthetic phonics method emphasizes both teaching individual letter sounds and how they can be combined to form words. This is Jolly Phonics' core approach to teaching.
What is phonics?
Phonics is the knowledge of phonemes and graphemes and how these are used to read and spell words. (Phonemes are the sounds that are made by a single letter or group of letters. A grapheme is the written equivalent of a phoneme).
High-quality phonics teaching helps children develop their reading, writing, spelling and general communication skills. It helps secure the crucial skills of word recognition that enable children to read fluently, allowing them to concentrate on the meaning of the text.
At the beginning of Year 2, children revise previously taught sounds from Phase 5, in order to support them with their spelling. Children will then begin Phase 6 with the aim of supporting children in becoming fluent readers and accurate spellers. During this Phase, the children are developing their ability to read a wide number of words either automatically, or decoding these words silently or aloud.
The children will then move onto applying spelling rules and patterns into their independent written work, using the Spelling Shed scheme. E.g. adding suffixes ed, ing, the kn and gn silent letters, homophones and the use of contractions.
With fun actions to teach the 42 letter sounds, as well as games, stories and songs, our multi-sensory phonics sessions allow pupils to revise their knowledge, learn new sounds and use and apply their reading and writing skills in a highly engaging way.
Intervention
As well as our instructional programme for phonics, regular assessments allow us to track where our children are according to our expectations and ensure that pupils access appropriate teaching and interventions to develop their reading skills. These set a benchmark for coverage and consistency by all staff to ensure that by the end of Year 1 our children meet the Phonics Screening Check standard.