Smooth phonics

Demonstration in the video. Explanations in the page below

Sounding-out without the gaps

Some research has indicated that children learn to blend more easily when they sound out continously (mmaann), rather than with gaps between the sounds (m , a , n)..... even when the gaps are small and the sounds are pure.

The problem with gappy phonics

Most children do learn blending in spite of gappy phonics.

But some children can’t cope with the gaps, so they don’t get blending.

The invisible sound which can block phonic blending.

The problem is that these gaps are not empty. They are filled with a tiny sound that we don’t notice in English, the glottal stop. Arabic even has a symbol to represent the sound: I’ll use an asterisk. It’s that East-Enders sound that replaces the tt in butter: “buh*uh”. It was adopted by Tony Blair when wanting to sound less posh. We use it all the time without noticing, especially when words start with a vowel: “*Amazing! *Extraordinary!” It’s even there quietly at the beginning of other sounds: “*Mmm!”.

When you make separate vowel sounds, "a, a, a” you have to use the glottal stop in order to start and stop the sound. So when a child sounds out separately, “m, a, n”, he can’t help putting the invisible sound into the gaps. So he really is saying “*mm, * aa, * nn” It’s those hidden sounds which can block his blending.

Most children intuitively learn to “delete” the invisible sound from their auditory imagery in order to blend just the three visible phonemes. But some children can’t cope with this extra task. So let’s remove that burden.

Another problem with gappy phonics

Much of the character of a consonant comes from the way it joins to the vowel. You can see this especially with w and y. The "pure sound" of w, without any "uh" has to be "ooo", and the pure sound of y can only be "eee". (You can see this in the way the french spell "oui" when we would write "wee". The first sound is a quick "ou" )

But it's really rare to hear a teacher teach w as "oo", and I have never heard a teacher teach y as "ee". That's because the pure sound doesn't really sound much like our idea of the way w or y sounds in words. We only hear the characteristic w sound when it's combined with a vowel as in "we".

For many children, my guess is that it's the same for lots of the letters. For them, the "mm" in "mm, a, nn " doesn't sound much like the m sound in "man".

If we teach smooth phonics, with continuous sounding, for win, we say "oooiiinnn", and then the characteristic sound of the w appears in the transition to the i. With smooth phonics, the w sound you hear in slow blending, is almost the same as in a real normally spoken word.

Teaching smooth phonics

I've sketched out some logical stages for teaching continuous blending for CVC words.

The idea is that the children get to be accurate and fluent on each step before moving on to the next. For some children each step could take days or weeks of brief daily practice, especially to unlearn old habits. Other child could get the point much quicker.

Maybe: USE A HANDFUL OF EASY LETTERS

I suggest that instead of going though each step with all the letters, it could be better to choose handful of easy letters that the child knows really well. Go through the steps just with those easy letters. This means that she can get on with learning the blending processes, without coping with letters which are difficult for the child. So you could leave out those troublesome letters that the child confuses, or which they have trouble saying properly.

When the child can do all the steps with the handful of favourite letters, then she, hopefully, will have got the idea of blending. Then you can go back through the steps, and practice with all the other more tricky letters.

"mmmm"

Put your finger on the left of the line. Move sharply to pause under the "m"

When your finger touches the button start sounding mmmm (pause while you sound)

Move your finger sharply to the right and simultaneouslly stop sounding.

Demonstrate with different lengths of mmm, short and long.

Get the children to practice with all the letters

Step 2: Vowel+stretchy (Vowel+continuous consonant)

Teach phonic words with a vowel and one of the continuous consonants:

examples: am an, Al, em, en, if, ill, in, Om, on, Oz, off, ox,

(Don’t use irregular words like as, of )

Use nonsense words too, for practice. Make them up from the list.

step 2a

Teaching “say it slow/ say it fast” without gaps

(listening practice: no visible letters)

Demonstrate slow to fast (without looking at any letters):

I'll say it slow, then I'll say it fast:

"aaaaammmm.......... am" (demo with other words)

Get the children to copy you.

Their turn:

You say it slow..... First they copy your slow version, then they say it fast.

Demonstrate fast to slow

I'll say it fast, then I'll say it slow:

"Oz....... OOOOzzzzz", "ill...... iiiiillllllll"

Their turn

You say it fast; First they copy it fast, then they say it slow.

Step 2b

Teaching “Say it slow” while pointing to letters

Write up a word, e.g. “am”.

"aaaaaammmm"

Demonstrate:

Put your finger on the left end of the line. Move sharply to the first button: "aaa"

Then, without a gap, move sharply to next button: "mmm".

Move sharply off the button, as you stop the mmm sound.

So there's no gap, just "aaaammmm".

Practise with very long and shorter soundings.

Get the children to sound it as you point.

“Say it slow....say it fast”

After say it slow, say it fast: aaaammmm, am

For “say it fast” you move your finger fast along the word

Get the children to do the same

Step 3:

Stretchy + vowel (Continuous consonant + vowel )

You might skip this step with some children

"zzzaaa" (as in zap)

Same method as in the previous section. But only nonsense words are available: ma_, za_, sa_, le_, ru_. sounding like ma(t), za(p). Not "mar, sar..."

made from f j l m n r s v w y z sh th plus vowels.

These are really CVC words, with the final consonant lopped off.

Remember to pause under both letters.

Step 4:

Stretchy+vowel+stretchy

CVCs with continuous consonants.

Start with lots of listening practice for say-it-slow, say-it-fast, without visible words.

Get the children to copy you in saying CVCs slow then fast.

Then you say some slow, they have to say fast.

You say some fast, they have to say slow.

Teach say-it-slow, while pointing to letters

Same method for pointing and sounding as for am in Step 2

"ssssaaaaammm"

Plenty of real words now: Sam, fan, jam, man, sun, fun, run, ran, van, fin, fill, mill,Jill, sill, will, nil, chill, chin, shin, Val, Sal, shall, sum, mum, …...

Step 5 Vowel+bouncy Vowel+stop consonant

So far we have avoided the consonants that can’t be sounded continuously.

These are the stop consonants:

b d k p t Plus the hard sounds of g and c

In Read Write Inc, they are called the bouncy ones

"aaaat"

My suggestion here:

Your finger starts on the left end of the line, pauses on a button "aaaa", moves along to touch the t.

Immediately bounce off the t as if it was red hot

You don't pause under the t.

You say "aaaat" without any gap. Say the "t" just as you bounce.

Teach some real and nonsense VCs this way: at, ad, ap, od, eb, eg, Ug, Og.

Say-it-slow, say-it-fast.

Step 6

Stretchy+vowel+bouncy

Continuous consonant + vowel + stop consonant

"sssssaaaaat"

Demo, making a continuous sound, without gaps:

So you say, without any gaps: "ssssaaaat"

Demonstrate, teach and practise this.

Do say-it-slow, say-it-fast.

Word examples: mat, mac, mad, map, mag, sat, sac, sad, sag, Sid, sit, sick, lot, lit, fat, fit, fob, fog, fig, fag, rat, rap, rag, rig, rep, (loads of these)

Step 7

bouncy+ vowel (stop consonant +vowel)

"baa"

E.g. ba.... sounding like the beginning of "bat" (not "bar")

This is where special pointing skill is needed, as this is the hardest step yet.

It is a crucial join, which many children can't make when they do gappy phonics.

Demo:

Say: "Get your mouth ready for the start" ... and we're going to land on the aaa"

Your finger starts at the left end of the line.

As soon at it touches the b, it bounces off, making a quick dip, and immediately onto the a. (As if the b is red-hot.)

As you make the bounce, you say "ba", and continue the "aa" as you pause on the a

Then stop as your finger moves sharply to the end of the line.

Don't pause on the b

You are getting the children to slide from their "b" mouth straight into saying the "aaaa", with no gap. It's a special kind of "aaa", the "baa" kind.

Practice this with the children, for lots of combinations, all the vowels, starting with the stop consonants, which are

b d k p t Plus the hard sounds of g and c

ba, be, bit, bo, bu, ca, ke, ki, co, cu, ga, ge, gi, go, gu..... you get the idea

Say-it-slow, say-it-fast

Step 8

Bouncy+Vowel+stretchy

Stop consonant + vowel + continuous consonant

Examples:

ban, bin, bun, can, cam, pin, pan, pill, pal, till, Tom, tum, Tim, gun, gum, Gus, bus,

"caaannn"

You move along the line steadily.

As soon has you hit the C, you bounce immediately onto the a .

Pause on the a, move sharply to pause on the n, then move sharply along the line.

As you do the quick bounce, say "caaa", and continue the "aa" on the pause dot.

Step 9:

Bouncy+vowel+bouncy

Stop consonant + vowel + stop consonant

Examples: bat, bad, bag, back, dad, dab, dap, cab, cap, dig, big, pig, kick, kip, kit, cat, cop, cod.... plenty

"cooood" ...cod

Step 10:

Consonant -vowel-consonant

(any combination)

So now use a mixture of CVCs which can any of the patterns given above.

You have to quickly bounce off the stop consonants on your way to or from the vowel.

You pause on the vowels and continuous consonants

You do say-it-slow and then say-it-fast on each word.

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Where did these ideas come from?

I learned continuous blending from Reading Mastery (originally called Distar.) This US programme was scientifically validated and written by behavioural psychologists. I was reminded of it when my grandson returned from two years at school in Spain. When he tried phonic blending, he used continuous sounding, very different from current UK practice.