Explicit Systematical Phonics Curriculum Design

and Rationale

English Course Design 102-1Advising Pro: Dr.Yu-Lin Cheng

Sean Chen陳智文

Contextual Environment

Where to teach? Elementary school classroom

Whom to teach? EFL 4th-5th graders

How long?An hour a week for 5 weeks

Curriculum Aim

This curriculum aims to equip with knowledge of phonics generalization, letter combinations and explicit skills to sound out paired vowels and r-controlled vowels in a word.

Objectives

Given a word reading test administered individually, a student will orally read a set of words with vowel pairs and r-controlled vowels correctly and independently in a reasonable period of time as judged by the teacher.

Curriculum Content

Sounds of R-controlled vowels

In some pairs the first vowel dominates.

In some pairs the vowels "cooperate".

In some pairs a new sound is created.

(Burmeister, 1968, p. 2)

What rules to teach?

Clymer, T. (1963). The Utility of Phonic Generalizations in the Primary Grades [with Comment]. The Reading Teacher, 16(4), 252-258.

Johnston, F. R. (2001) The utility of phonic generalizations: Let’s take another look at Clymer’s conclusions. The Reading Teacher. 55; 132-143.

Content Scope & Sequence

Structured based on:

*patterns with high utility of phonics generalization

*patterns that are variable and less reliable but still common

Lesson No.

Reader Title

Phonics Skill(No. of words out of 3,000 most frequent words+regularity%) (Johnston, F. R. 2001）

High-Frequency Words

1 •Cookie’s WeekR-controlled Vowels:ar er ir ur

dirt water garbage Thursday Saturday

2

•Two Feet Up, Two Feet Down

•Sea, Sand, Me!•I Don’t Like Peas!

Vowel Digraphs: ee 70 95.9% ea 88 49.6%

feet each sea beach eat pea seashell see

3

•We Play on a Rainy Day

•A Rainy Day•I Can Draw

Vowel Digraphs: ai 76 75% ay 38 96.4%aw 11 100%

rain play stay draw

4

•The Animal Circus•See Our Show•The Rainbow•Barney Owl•Monster Town

Vowel Digraphs: ow 50 68% (snow) 24 31.9% (how)oa 16 95%

show rainbow yellow owl town goat boat throw

5

• Sue Likes Blue Ambiguous Vowels: oi 14 oy 8 both 100%ou 81 43.2% (out) 33 17.8% (touch)ue unidentified

Sue blue glue true

Schuele, C. M., & Boudreau, D. (2008). Phonological awareness intervention: Beyond the basics. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 39(1), 3.

Implement Resources

Elkonin Sound Boxes

1. Identify number of phonemes

2. Place phonemes in order

3. Change phonemes into letters

4. Spell by writing words in the box

Implement ResourcesVideos : *Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read Second Grade Level 1*http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/alphablocks/*Selected readers

Teaching Methodology

Synthetic phonics approach

Students are taught to associate an individual letter or letter combination with its appropriate sound and then blend the sounds to build word recognition.

Why Synthetic Phonics?

Ofsted’s (2010) report "the diligent, concentrated and systematic teaching of phonics is central to the success of all the schools that achieve high reading standards in Key Stage 1".

Why Synthetic Phonics?

"Having considered a wide range of evidence, the review has concluded that the case for systematic phonic work is overwhelming and much strengthened by a synthetic approach,"(Rose, 2006, p. 20)

Assessment

Word Reading Test

Adapted from Phonological Awareness Test (Robertson & Salter, 1997)

Subtest Item

Decoding

Vowel Digraphs

R-controlled vowels

Implications of Better Practice

"When y is the final letter in a word it usually has a vowel sound." works with a utility of 84%

"When y is the final letter in a word it acts as vowel," becomes applicable 100% !

(Johnston, 2001)

Implications of Better Practice

Teachers should put greater emphasis on the development of children's speaking and listening skills due to their intrinsic value and their provision of foundations for high quality phonic work. (Rose, 2005, 2006)

Implications of Better Practice

In spite of the formality in design of best work, teachers should use multimodality to teach creatively considering individual differences in children's learning rates and styles. (Rose, 2006, p. 20)

(Rose, 2006, p. 86)

L2

L1

confident & fluent