Phonics Handbook

One in four school students struggle to read. The Phonics Handbook has been written to give assistance to teachers in helping students with reading difficulties. Taking a phonological approach, the book is set out in the form of lesson plans designed to be used instantly, requiring no preparation.

The book is based on the wisdom gained from working with hundreds of students who have attended the authors after-school reading clinic. This is reflected in the practical approach to helping students of all ages including those with English as a second language and those with a range of difficulties including, special needs, motivational and attention problems.

Phonics Handbook includes lesson plans for every phonics skill from the basic alphabet sounds through to blends, digraphs, syllable breaking and decoding Latin and Greek words. Each lesson is followed by a worksheet for students. Using this format, the book incorporates diagnostic assessment to measure what students need at the outset of teaching, as well as measuring whether the tutoring has been effective. Additional teaching strategies are given to reinforce spelling and assist reading comprehension. Strategies for hard to teach students and information on reporting to parents are included, incorporating research on the best tutoring methods.

Table of Contents

Introduction.

Acknowledgements.

PART 1: ASSESSMENT AND REPORTING STRATEGIES.

1. The importance of a needs assessment: where do I start?
2. Student profile.
3. Alphabet assessment.
4. Gough-Kastler-Roper phonemic awareness assessment.
5. Basic decoding skills.
6. Informal reading inventory.
7. Formal assessment of reading attainment: the Burt Word Reading Test.
8. Invented spelling test.
9. Story writing task.
10. Attitudes to reading.
11. Reporting to parents.

PART 2: TEACHING STRATEGIES.

12. How to help the difficult student.
13. How to teach phonics.
14. How to teach spelling.
15. How to teach syllabification.
16. How to teach comprehension.
17. Lesson planning and design for the reading tutor.
18. Research on the phonics handbook approach.

PART 3: LESSON PLANS TO TEACH BASIC DECODING SKILLS.

19. Phoneme sounds of the alphabet: consonants and short vowel sounds.
20. Reading two- and three-letter words.
21. Consonant blends.
22. Consonant initial and final digraphs.
23. Long and short vowel sounds.
24. The soft sounds of C and G.
25. The r- and l-affected vowels.
26. Vowel digraphs: one and two sounds.
27. Compound words.
28. Silent letters.
29. Syllable breaking.
30. Greek spellings.
31. Latin words.
32. Greek words.

PART 4: APPENDICES.

• Appendix A: 300 sight words.
• Appendix B: Advanced sight words.
• Appendix C: Decoding charts.

Index.

"I can see that this text should become a valuable resource for all teachers."
- New Zealand Education Review, October 2006

"...immensely valuable..."
- SPELD NZ Record, October 2006

"...a resource that will allow practitioners to assess, plan and implement more focused literacy instruction to those who require it."
- The Journal of Reading and Writing, January 2007