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Phonics learning rarely goes smoothly.
Here are some common problems that you may encounter. Level 0 Most children learn the letter sounds easily, but many have trouble learning to blend the sounds to read and segment them to spell. Follow our programme suggestions first as we deliberately follow a set of order of teaching. This will give your child the best start. Then remember that some children do need lots and lots of practice before they can do these things. So it may just be a matter of needing yet more practice and time. NEVER move away for CVC words until your child can blend. This is the NUMBER 1 mistake many make in their rush to see their child progress. You must go at your child's pace. The rest of the programme will not work unless your child can blend and segment easily. If your child has trouble hearing the initial sound, may be s/he is not developmentally aware yet. Try doing a lot of listening games before trying again. In addition, you may like to read this post. Levels 1 - 4 When learning new sounds each week, some children will not need much more help than to be introduced to a new sound, and then the child will absorb that information, begin to see the sound in words that are not even on the list, apply the rule and will not encounter any difficulties, or will do so only rarely. These children still do best with a structured programme. Others, however, will encounter difficulties. These are the most commonly occurring difficulties. If you run into others, do research for a means of helping your child over them before moving on. The most common problem is: The child cannot sound out a word to see the error in either/both of spelling list and dictations Be constantly assessing your child as you teach and watch the child working. If a child cannot sound out the word to see the error, then something is wrong, and the problem must be identified and put right before moving forward. Always assess, as problems will not go away without intervention. Ask questions of yourself:
If the child cannot sound out his/her own word, have him write the word again and remind him/her to SOUND IT OUT. The child MUST SOUND OUT, unless s/he has stored the word into the long-term memory, in which case it will be spelled correctly.
Nobody can quite predict the form in which a wobble can take place. Troubleshooting examples Child 1: wobbles briefly with blending every time a new sound is introduced. The teacher has to repeat blending, starting with oral blending, in relation to the new sound being taught, to help him/her to see that we are just adding a new sound, not changing the way we sound out. Did the pupil start Level 1 too early? No, as blending at Level 0 was very good and the child can basically blend. Is the child guessing? No, it is just the brain trying to come to terms with a new sound. Does the child need more tracking exercises? This child will always need more tracking exercises, but this is not affecting the ability to blend. Child 2: did a different phonic programme for reading and is just doing RMS for spelling. S/he has just started Level 1 and completed /ee/. S/he met the word 'Ann' in the phonic workbook and had a wobble when s/he saw the double 'nn'. The child tried to sound it out and kept making it 'and'. The parent was concerned. The parent ruled out guessing after trying another day and finally concluded it was a wobble, which the child later confirmed by telling the parent that having learned double /oo/ and double /ee/, she thought that 'nn' must have changed too. Solution: reassure the child that the rule about only saying a double consonant sound once is still the same, supply the word by modelling sounding out to reassure the child and move on. Child 3: is doing Level 2 for spelling and can already read fluently. S/he reached /i-e/. In the dictation s/he just could not spell 'bike'. S/he wrote bick, bicke, and bicek, before finally resting on bike. The parent was concerned. Had the child started Level 1 too soon? No, s/he had coped well so far. Was the child guessing? Yes, the child was going by the visual look of a word and trying to remember the spelling rather than applying sounding out. Solution: the parent reminded the child of the /ck/ rule. (that we only use /ck/ after /ack/, /eck/, ick/, /ock/ and /uck/. The child was asked to sound out 'bike' orally: three sounds were heard: b -ie -k. The child was asked: Can you hear /ick/? Answer no. Therefore the word does not have /ck/. The parent then asked the child to sound out the three incorrect words s/he had written. S/he needed help to do this as now s/he was having a brain block and could only sound out what s/he wanted the word to say. None of the words sounded out correctly. Therefore the parent helped the child to sound it out correctly: "How are we going to make the /ie/ sound? Can you remember how we make /ie/? The parent pulled out the list of /ie/ word and had the child read them. the child then applied the rule and was no more confused about /ck/. The parent understood that this child would probably need help to apply the /ck/ quite often for a while. The dictations give plenty of practice. Back to: How to teach Level 1 Comments are closed.
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How to teach RMS The weekly lesson schedule explained How to do a dictation Make sure you do it correctly! Where to start your child Troubleshooting What to do if you hit a problem |