Phonics

This is a post I knew I needed to write from the time I set out on a quest to document my first year teaching Kindergarten!

Of all my posts, this is the most symbolic of me as an inquirer - genuinely questioning, wondering, doubting, crafting and refining my own theories, experimenting and wrestling with ideas that sometimes appear to be in opposition! In a recent webinar for Toddle, Kath Murdoch stated, "Personal inquiry is as much about inquiring inwardly as it is about inquiring into the world around us." Developing these weekly blog posts, I have been able to reflect on, question and sharpen my own beliefs about learning and teaching. These include playful learning, curiosity, responding to children's working theories, conceptual learning and play, and, of course, supporting children to develop as readers and writers. This post is the outcome of this process of inquiry and a reflective practitioner in action! It is where I am in my thinking as of March, 2022, but my learning and my curiosity will continue. 

I value learning that involves children themselves as thinkers and engaged in a process of meaning-making. I also want children to find value in what they learn so it is framed in authentic and meaningful contexts. There are many varied approaches to developing phonological and phonemic awareness, but being clear about my values helped me to develop playful routines so children became more confident and skilled in using phonics to read and write more independently. I would like to again acknowledge Jo Fahey and her workshop 'Playful Literacies'. Although this post is not a summary of how Jo approaches phonemic awareness, conversations with her have been inspiring and insightful in the past two months. 

This past week, children have been writing secret messages in 'invisible' ink that are then revealed with UV light, decoding the names of countries in the atlases that groups have become curious about, using a keyboard to type in role play, writing and illustrating a story on the SmartBoard and spontaneously generating words that rhyme with 'million' to test which ones are real numbers. 

The children are applying knowledge, skills and understandings that have been explicitly and systematically planned for and modelled in the classroom. Through the year, we have developed a culture of interest, enjoyment and being playful with sounds, words and language in a language-rich environment. 

How?

- Understanding that the alphabet is an abstract code. Reggio reminds us that children need to 'destructure' and 'restructure' this code for themselves using a socio-constructivist approach. 

- Approaching phonological awareness developmentally. Although there are shared learning engagements, a 'low threshold, high ceiling' approach means that all children can access some learning points, but there are no limits placed on the depth and breadth of learning. 

- Recognising that phonemic awareness is a crucial aspect of our language curriculum, but one that sits alongside other components. This video reminds us of the importance of meaning so that phonics lessons are not decontextualised! It refers to English as a morphophonemic language. A morpheme is a unit of meaning. Yesterday, Kindergarten looked at 'image' as a morpheme and made connections to our unit of inquiry on 'imagination' and connected words such as images, imagine, imaginary, imagining... 

- Using playful resources and tasks such as making words from the letters in longer words, word searches, scavenger hunts for sounds or words in messages, texts and environmental print, alliterative tongue twisters, jokes and rhyming games. 

- Using the children's connections, contexts and interests as the base to support meaningful learning of phonics. 

OK... but really, HOW?

Most weeks, we focus on two sounds explicitly and systematically. 

Monday - We do air writing of the graphemes (letters) that match the phonemes (sounds) we are focussing on. Children then think collaboratively in groups to generate words that start with the particular sounds. They then draw pictures to represent these words. This gives all children opportunities to say, hear and challenge sounds and visualise what these words look like in real life. Since it is done collaboratively, all children's vocabulary is reinforced, broadened and deepened. I make a note of words children are generating to highlight the patterns and connections the children are making. 

Tuesday - I rotate through trios of children who tell me which words they would like to spell with the focus sounds. It is a wonderful opportunity to differentiate based on children's interests, prior knowledge, meaning and structure. The children use whiteboards to write their words and respond to the question, "What sounds do you hear?" each time. Children draw horizontal lines to correspond with the number of sounds heard. For example, "sheet" has three sounds (sh/ee/t) so three horizontal lines are drawn. The children have alphabet strips that model which letters sit on, go above and go under the line so letter formation, directionality and positioning can all be reinforced. Since the children choose the words they would like to spell with the focus sounds, stories and personal connections are often shared about the words so that meaning-making is always paramount. 

Wednesday - Children work in pairs with manipulatives (magnetic letters, letters on interlocking cubes, wooden letters etc) to spell words linked to the focus sound. The children are asked again, "What sounds do you hear?" They count the number of sounds and find that number of horizontal lines from a keyring of lines. There is also an arrow to remind children about starting on the left and going to the right. They then spell the word with the manipulatives they think best correspond to the sounds they hear in the word. The list of words is built from the words the children drew on Monday and wanted to spell on Tuesday so there is meaning attached. We remind children about the positioning of letters. The words are given in sentences, acted out and/or supported with visuals so the phonics is supported by meaning and structure. I need to be more intentional in using the same morpheme in multiple words with different prefixes or suffixes to reinforce morphemic understanding. 

Thursday - Children again work in pairs to spell words using whiteboards and whiteboard markers. The routine works exactly like Wednesday's. The words for children to spell are carefully sequenced so that phonemes can be manipulated and ideas such as rhyme, alliteration and short vowel sounds can all be explored. 

Friday - We play games to reinforce and synthesise our learning about specific sounds. Children work in pairs to read words I write on the SmartBoard. The children then tell me words with the focus sound for me to spell. I write the word correctly and also with a deliberate mistake. The pairs have to observe carefully and tell me which word has the correct spelling and how they know. We also play "I Spy..." using objects with the focus sound. 

Reflection questions:

What connections can you make to how phonics is approached in Kindergarten?

What new ideas might you like to try or process?

What challenges you in this post? What are you wondering?