National Priority Briefing Paper
Teaching early reading using systematic synthetic phonics (SSP)
The purpose of this paper is to support all those involved in Initial Teacher Education
at The Institute of Education with an overview of
•
the rationale that makes this area a national priority
•
information to support an understanding of student progress within the priority
•
key references.
N.B. Within the context of this paper systematic, synthetic phonics will be referred to as
‘phonics’.
Terms underlined are included in the Glossary at the end of the paper.
The main audience will be primary ITT tutors, colleagues from their partner schools
and trainee teachers. However, all providers of primary and secondary ITT need to be
aware of this priority area and its implications for training all teachers to support the
reading needs of the pupils they work with (Teaching Agency (2012) Guidance on
systematic synthetic phonics).
The rationale that makes this area a national priority:
The teaching of phonics is seen as an essential component of the teaching of early
reading.
This is emphasised in the new Teachers’ Standards as follows:
Standard 3: d
A teacher must demonstrate good subject and curriculum knowledge
(if teaching early reading, demonstrate a clear understanding of systematic synthetic
phonics)
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This emphasis in the Teachers’ Standards formalises the importance of student
teachers, particularly those in primary school, having secure knowledge and skill in
teaching phonics. With this knowledge and skill they are able to support children to
apply a knowledge of the alphabetic code and the skill of blending to
accurately decode unknown words. This ability to make accurate correspondences
between sounds and their representations in written form provides children with a
strategy to support their independent reading.
Developing context behind the rationale
The role of phonics in the effective teaching of early reading was highlighted in The
Independent Review of Early Reading led by Jim Rose (2006). This made a range of
recommendations for the teaching of early reading and phonics. The review led to the
publication of ‘Letters and Sounds’ in 2007 (DfES).
In 2010, The Coalition government’s White Paper, The Importance of Teaching (Nov
2010) stated the case for systematic synthetic phonics. It said that it would:
‘ensure that all children have the chance to follow an enriching curriculum by getting
them reading early. That means supporting the teaching of systematic synthetic phonics
and introducing a simple reading check at age six to guarantee that children have
mastered the basic skills of early reading and also ensure we can identify those with
learning difficulties. (para. 4.6).
This led to a pilot of the Phonics Screening check for Year 1 pupils in 2011, and the roll
out of the Screening Check to all schools in June 2012.
In his speech on 15th March 2012, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector (HMCI) proposed
steps to raise national standards in literacy. This included sharpening the focus on
phonics in inspections of all initial teacher education provision.
In 2012 the Coalition Government made clear that proficiency in phonics was the
expectation for all teachers and those training to teach. This expectation is now
reflected in the new Teachers’ Standards
Information to support an understanding of student progress within the priority
area:
In order to meet this standard trainee teachers should, by the end of their training and
with appropriate induction support:
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•
know and understand the: recommendations of the Rose Review; and
the Simple View of Reading and be able to apply this understanding to their
teaching of reading and writing. (The Independent Review of the Teaching of
Early Reading, Final Report, DfES 2006)
•
know and understand the alphabetic code
•
know and understand the Criteria for assuring high quality phonic work (DfE,
2011) and be able to recognise how they are met in a range of phonic
programmes
•
be able to apply their knowledge and understanding of the Criteria to the
teaching and assessment of phonics using a school’s phonic programme
•
be able to identify, and provide targeted support for, children making progress
both beyond and below the expected level.
Taken from: Teaching Agency (2012) Guidance on systematic synthetic phonics.
This understanding needs to be applied within the context of a language rich curriculum,
supporting the development of vocabulary and communication skills in speaking,
listening and writing, and within a learning environment where there is a focus on
reading for purpose and pleasure.
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Key References:
The following weblinks and publications will provide essential context and background
knowledge:
DfE (2011) Criteria for assuring high-quality phonic work
DfE (2012) Encouraging reading for pleasure
DfE (2012) Phonics products and the self assessment process
DfE (2012) Phonics Screening check
DfE (2012) Teaching the higher levels of phonics
Ofsted (2010) Reading by Six: how the best schools do it.
Useful publications to support phonic subject knowledge:
Rose. J. (2006) Independent review of the teaching of early reading: final report DfES.
(Rose Review)
W. Jolliffe & D. Waugh, (2012), Teaching Systematic Synthetic Phonics in Primary
Schools, Learning Matters, Sage Publications.
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Glossary:
Alphabetic code - the grapheme - phoneme correspondences (written representation
(grapheme - a letter or combination of letters) of sounds (phoneme) in a language). In
English the code is often described as ‘simple’ followed by ‘complex’ because there is
not a one-to-one correspondence match with one written representation for each sound.
A single phoneme can be represented more than one way, e.g. /aw/ as ‘or’, ‘saw’, ‘haul’,
‘caught’, and a grapheme can represent different sounds e.g. ‘ow’ as in ‘crowd’ or ‘low’.
Sounds are taught in alphabetical order but in order of usefulness within the English
language, and from simple to complex code.
Blending - blend the sounds together to read a word. Segmenting is the ‘reversible
process’ to blending i.e. you should also be able to identify and break down (segment)
the individual sounds in a word you hear to spell it. To spell the word, you need to
represent each sound you hear by the grapheme – a letter or more than one letter.
Decode - apply your knowledge of grapheme-phoneme correspondence to correctly
pronounce written words.
Letters and Sounds, DfES (2007) - a programme of resources to support a systematic
teaching of phonic knowledge and skill throughout EYFS and KS1.
Phonics screening check - ‘The phonics screening check is a short and simple
assessment of phonic decoding. It consists of a list of 40 words, half real words and half
non-words, which Year 1 children read to a teacher. Administering the assessment
usually takes between four and nine minutes per child.
The check is designed to confirm whether individual pupils have learnt phonic decoding
to an appropriate standard and have grasped the essential skills that underpin good
reading.
Pupils who have not reached this standard at the end of Year 1 should receive extra
support from their school to ensure they can improve their phonic decoding skills. They
will then have the opportunity to retake the screening check in Year 2.’ (Quoted
from www.education.gov.uk)
Simple View of Reading The model (see below) was designed to show that skilled reading requires two
processes:
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•
that the reader recognises and understands the words on the page (that is,
word recognition processes or decoding)
•
the development of language comprehension (that is, written texts as well as
spoken language are understood and interpreted).
These are both necessary, and neither is enough on its own. Teaching reading needs to
give attention to both dimensions: word recognition and comprehension.
(Diagram from University of Cumbria, 2010)
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Systematic, synthetic phonics Systematic phonics refers to phonics teaching that is done regularly, discretely,
explicitly and in an agreed and rational sequence.
Synthetic phonics has nothing to do with the word ‘artificial’; the reference is to the
process of blending (synthesising) the individual sounds in a word together, working
from left to right, to read them.
Synthetic phonics work can begin simply with oral blending, that is, the children listen to
sounds and then blend them. They also learn to say sounds, in order, that are
represented by individual letters and pronounce these together to say a word (e.g. the
sounds /c/, then /a/ and then /t/, blended together to say /cat/). Synthetic phonics also
teaches children to break down (segment) a word they hear into its individual sounds,
starting from the first sound and working systematically through the word. For each
sound they hear, they choose the letter (or combination of letters, such as ‘ch’ or ‘ai’ or
‘th’) to represent that sound in order to spell the word.
Systematic synthetic phonics programmes bring these two definitions together.
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