Primary - Phonological Awareness and Phonics

The pupil may have a difficulty with the sequencing of sound 

He / she may have a difficulty with blending and segmenting sounds

• Assess alphabetic knowledge first using the alphabet arc:

Teacher Guidance: Alphabet Arc Activities 

• Assess phonological awareness (Link to Assessment)

Never assume learning is secure but plan intervention to target a pupil’s individual needs 

• Teach manipulation of phonemes in cvc and cvcc, words, for example, change, ‘pat’ to ‘rat’, change ‘pat’ to ‘chat’:

  Teacher and Pupil Printable: Anchor Chart

• Teach familiar patterns of words to develop phonological and orthographic awareness (awareness of word patterns
• Onset and rime and the teaching of initial blends and final blends will develop a pupil’s orthographic knowledge of letter clusters)- follow a sequential, cumulative, multisensory, phonics -based approach working from cvc to ccvc to cvcc and ccvvc, for example: 
• Teach letter names and sounds
• Consonant digraphs, that is, two or more letters that come together and make one sound, for example-/sh/, /ch/, /th/
• Short vowels (a, e, I, o, u)
• Blends
• Assimilation (mp, nd, nch, nk)
• End blend /ng/
• Vowel-consonant digraphs (ar, or, er)
• Rules for ‘w’ and ‘v’ words
• Double letters (ll, ff, ss, ck)
• Magic ‘e’
• Hard and soft ‘c’ and ‘g’
• Wall words (tch, dge, gu)
• Long vowel sounds (ai, ay, oa, ow, ou, oo, ew, ue, igh, y, ee, ea, oi, oy)
• Encourage the pupil to apply this knowledge when reading

Use mirrors and photos of the mouth - focus on lip and tongue placement as well as sensations in the throat and with the air - “When you say the /h/ sound, what do you feel your breath do?” 

• “In the picture, my mouth is saying the sound /a/. Can you say /a/ too? Tell me what shape your mouth is making
• “Display word walls with commonly used words, spelling rules and word patterns to scaffold the pupil in the classroom: 

Teacher Guidance: Advice for Teachers on Spelling Rules

• Sound wall/vowel valley charts, displayed in the Key Stage 2 classroom or as a printable for the individual pupil may support the pupil in choosing letters and sounds (a significant minority of pupils with orthographic and working memory difficulties will find decontextualised sounds difficult and therefore this resource will be unhelpful)

• Provide opportunities for the pupil to practise changing the onset, for example:
• spend to lend, tank to sank
• trip to trap, snip to snap
• Practise changing the rime:
•  flip to flop to flap

Teacher Guidance: Procedure for Segmenting and Blending a Word

• Find patterns of rhyme and complete rhyming activities
• Sing songs with actions to recognise rhyme
• Introduce musical/ rhyme-based activities 
• Provide visuals of the words to support the pupil 

• Link the vowel to the consonant (as some pupils are unable to distinguish between the vowel sound): 

Teach the pupil how to blend and segment the sounds in common rimes:

                a rimes: ab, ad, ag, am, an, ap, at

                e rimes: eb, ed, eg, en, ep, et

                i rimes: ib, id, ig, im, in, ip, it

                o rimes: ob, od, og, om, on, op, ot

               u rimes: ub, ud, ug, um, un, up             

• Beginning, Middle, End Exercise - this helps to consolidate new learning. Ask the pupil where he / she can hear the /sp/ sounds or blends. He / she can use counters to mark the position on a BME chart:

      Teacher Guidance: Beginning, Middle and End Procedure

• Use a voice recorder to listen to the sounds:
• The teacher can record a model
• Then the pupil can record and can listen to the sound being made and correct if necessary

• Provide visual of the cvc words in an anchor chart, displaying the change in onset:

  Teacher and Pupil Printable: Anchor Chart

• Explain the strategies which help to identify a syllable in a word:
• A syllable is a beat in a word that can be heard and felt (put your hand under your chin to feel it as you speak)
• Clapping
• Punch/stamp/kick it out
• Use phonological awareness routines to manipulate syllables:
• Delete a syllable from a two-syllable word. ‘Say “bookcase.” Now say “bookcase” but do not say “case.’
• Delete a syllable from a three-syllable word. ‘Say “December”, Now say, “December'' but do not say “de’
• Delete an initial sound from a single syllable, ‘Say “feet”. Now say “feet” but do not say /f/.’

• Count syllables through games (resources available via links below):

  Literacy Service - Initial Contact Support Portal - If staff members do not already have access to the portal, please complete the staff details form linked below.

  Literacy Service: Initial Contact Support Portal - Staff Details Form

  Read stories that use alliteration and stress sounds as you read  

Use assistive technology tools and applications to support any pupil with phonological awareness difficulties- provide opportunities for the pupil to hear the sound repeated. Immersive reader breaks a passage up into syllables

• Ensure new learning is connected to prior knowledge to aid retention
• Use visual supports to reduce the burden on working memory
• Consolidate and reinforce regularly

• Introduce a new sound each week and use a Guided Discovery Approach:
• Auditory introduction-Listen to these words and tell me what is the same in all the words- ‘boat’, ‘coat’, ‘float’? The pupil should identify /o/- ‘oa’:

EA Guidance Video: Guided Discovery (auditory) (3:10 mins)

• Visual introduction-ask the pupil to read the first three words – ‘bloat’, ‘float’, ‘coat’- encourage them to identify the similarity

• Teach Stimulus Response Routine to consolidate and build automaticity with new sounds. This repetitive approach develops automaticity in learning: 

  EA Guidance Video: Stimulus Response Routine (1:51 mins)

  Teacher Guidance: Instructions for the Stimulus Response Routine

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• Teacher makes the sound /ă/
• Pupil moves around the other three points in a clockwise direction: says ‘a’ (letter name), writes ‘a’ and then says the clue-word ‘apple’
• The teacher then starts from step 2 by saying the letter name and the pupil responds by going ‘clockwise’ around the other 3 steps
• The routine is repeated until all four starting points have been used by the teacher. Once familiarity with the steps has been established, it should become a quick routine to develop automaticity (less than 1 minute)

• Use multi-sensory approaches when introducing a new sound and engage all the senses-visual, auditory and kinaesthetic. This will consolidate learning for the pupil

  Following up auditory discovery with either visual or tactile consolidates, ensures the teaching of new letter sound is multisensory:

  EA Guidance Video: Introducing the grapheme (1:59 mins)

• Follow a daily Flashcard routine for overlearning.  Flashcards help connect knowledge of letter and sound(s). They include a clue-word and picture to provide context and support the pupil’s memory and recall. They can be used to build automaticity and fluency: 

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• Beginning blend, for example /fr/ 
• Clue word ‘frog’ 

• Representative picture - ‘frog’ or pupil’s own picture: 

  EA Guidance Video: Introduce the flashcard and flashcard routine (1:03 mins) 

• Write the word containing the new sound (use cursive handwriting to develop the motor memory)

• It is important for the pupil to say the movement as he / she writes a letter 

  Simultaneous Oral Spelling Instructions 

  EA Guidance Video: Simultaneous Oral Spelling (SOS) (4:39 mins)

• Overlearning and repetition of all new learning helps the pupil to consolidate the knowledge 

Computer games (linked to learning) increase pupil motivation and enjoyment Then and ask the pupil to say each letter name as he / she writes the word:

The pupil may have difficulty holding several sounds in his / her short-term memory

The pupil may be unable to hold the individual phonemes in words in his / her working memory for long enough to blend them together

• Break phonics lessons into smaller, manageable chunks of information for example:
• Teach blend beginnings or consonant blends-/fl/, /gl/, /cl/
• Teach consonant digraphs-/sh/, /ch/, /th/
• Teach assimilation-/mp/, /nd/, /nt/, /nch/, /nk/
• Teach vowel-consonant digraphs-/ar/, or/, /er/
• Rules for ‘w’ and ‘v’ words
• Double letters (ll, ff, ss, ck)
• Magic ‘e’
• Hard and soft ‘c’ and ‘g’
• Wall words (tch, dge, gu)
• Long vowel sounds (ai, ay, oa, ow, ou, oo, ew, ue, igh, y, ee, ea, oi, oy)
• A helpful strategy is to teach “anchor” words, for example, “at”, “an”, “it” so the pupil has some concrete images stored in memory to link new learning to
• Repeat key concepts and skills frequently to reinforce learning and provide additional opportunities for a pupil to remember and practise

• A pupil who struggles to remember multiple mappings may learn best by using a repetitive approach with word families
• Introduce a new word family each week

• Using pictures for matching or producing rhyming words 
• Model in shared reading, books which contain rhyming words

• Provide a structured, consistent approach each day
• Teach patterns in words-‘clamp’, ‘stamp’, camp’
• Consolidate new word learning using different activities (provide frequent exposure to the same words):
• Cloze procedures
• Crosswords
• Interactive games

The pupil may have difficulty isolating sounds in words 

He / she may have difficulty following directions

• Use a voice recorder to listen to the sounds-the teacher can record a model and then the learner can record a version and listen to the sound being made, correcting if necessary
• Speak clearly and slowly. Use short sentences and repeat important information 
• Minimise background noise to help pupil to focus on the speaker
• Seat the pupil strategically near the teacher

• When teaching vowel sounds, link the vowel to the consonant, as some pupils will continue to have difficulties determining the correct vowel
• Vowel/Consonant songs may help pupils with phonemes, the pupil can attempt to discriminate between the phonemes
• Use of analogy may help:
• Show the pupil the word ‘’hit’, and ‘bit’
• Ask can he / she read the word ‘sit’ 

• Using mirrors and photos of the mouth develop a conversation around the actions and feelings of each phoneme, focus on lip and tongue placement as well as sensations in the throat
• When introducing letter sounds, similar sounds sound be separated to avoid confusion

• Rhyming activities to support the pupil’s recognition of words that rhyme, and words that do not. These activities should be done orally alongside visuals of the words
• When reading a rhyming story, ask the pupil to put his / her hands on his / her head or thumbs up when a rhyming word is heard

• A syllable is a beat in a word that can be heard and felt (put your hand under your chin to feel it as you speak)
• Prompt the pupil to clap, stomp or tap the syllables to help them split up the units in a word

• Use assistive listening devices -such as FM systems or personal amplification to support learning of new vocabulary
• Picture Sorts- show a pair of pictures which display the words, for example, ‘match’, ‘patch’. Say one of the words and the pupil can point to the correct picture. This can work both ways by having the pupil say a word and the teacher points to the correct picture
• Match the cut-up picture pairs:
• Put one set of words in a bag and the other on a table
• Take turns picking a picture from the bag and saying the word
• The other person must point to the matching picture 

The pupil may find it difficult to sustain attention and focus

The pupil may become easily distracted as he / she is overwhelmed by the amount of information given 

Takes longer to process the spoken word- attention may be impacted

• Provide opportunities for the pupil to practise chunking information -break down complex instructions into smaller more manageable chunks
• The teacher could write the instructions in bullet points on a personal whiteboard or on post-its on the pupil’s table
• Provide clear instructions both verbally and visually
• Avoid lengthy explanations or instructions
• Break instructions down into simple sequential steps and provide repeated reinforcement
• Provide a “help box” or “help board” of written instructions for a pupil to refer to and use as required

Slow completion of tasks

Difficulty with timed activities

• Allow extra time to complete tasks and assignments
• Reduce the content and focus on quality of work completed

Sounding out every phoneme

Slow decoding of words 

• Scaffold and develop decoding skills (use of grapheme-phoneme knowledge and patterns in words) and allow the pupil additional time using prompts such as “try that again” or “can you find a pattern you know?”  
• Teach whole words and develop sight word recognition

Inefficient access to stored information

Retrieval difficulties

The pupil may find it difficult to remember what a particular letter looks like, HFWs or topic words for a task

The pupil has difficulty in visual sequential memory as often information cannot be held in memory long enough to recall (once the visual has been removed) 

The pupil may confuse the letters, ‘b’, ‘d’, ‘p’, ‘’q’

• Have tabletop prompt cards-for the pupil during writing activities:
• target sounds 
• letter names
• HFWs (High Frequency Words)
• Topic words
• Provide opportunities for the pupil to practise Visual Sequential Memory Routine with alphabet arc and letter strings on a small card (starting with 2 letters and progressing to 5). Think of strategies which help:
• Build a picture of the sequence in his / her mind’s eye
• Imagine the letters on a wall or on coat pegs
• Group the letters in twos to aid recall:

     EA Guidance Video: Visual Sequential Memory (2:20 mins)

• Mnemonics will provide a memory prompt on directionality of letters:

  Printable Resource: Letter Orientation Prompt

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• Ensure these mnemonics are explicitly explained, Do not assume prior knowledge has been linked. English readers, read letters left-right across the page. A pupil may be confused as the ball could sit on either side of the bat. Explain that you draw the bat first and then the ball (left to right)
• Thumbs up for ‘b’ and ‘d’, thumbs down ‘p’ and ‘q’
• Explain that in the alphabet arc Mr ‘b’ comes first and he must face Mr ‘d’ who comes after ‘c’, as he wants to chat’; ‘b’ and ‘d’ stare at each other and poor ‘c’ is stuck in the middle. Then comes Mr ‘p’ who needs to face Mr ‘q’ also to chat. The teacher can model this using his / her thumbs and demonstrate the 2 letters chatting:

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• Follow a structured, sequential, cumulative, multisensory and phonics-based programme:
• Break phonics lessons into smaller, manageable chunks of information for example:
• Teach blend beginnings or consonant blends-/fl/, /gl/, /cl/
• Teach consonant digraphs-/sh/, /ch/, /th/
• Teach assimilation-/mp/, /nd/, /nt/, /nch/, /nk/
• Teach vowel-consonant digraphs-/ar/, or/, /er/
• Rules for ‘w’ and ‘v’ words
• Double letters (ll, ff, ss, ck)
• Magic ‘e’
• Hard and soft ‘c’ and ‘g’
• Wall words (tch, dge, gu)
• Long vowel sounds (ai, ay, oa, ow, ou, oo, ew, ue, igh, y, ee, ea, oi and so on)
• Provide lots of opportunities for consolidation
  Teacher Guidance - SOS Routine

Unable to segment and blend words into individual sounds, for example c-a-t

Unable to unitise sounds, for example put the letters c-a-t together and say the word “cat”

• Ensure letter/ sound knowledge of the alphabet is secure
• Introduce word families and show words with similar rime pattern- sit, fit hit-maintain the rime in the same colour but change the onset to show the changing initial sound (teach the pupil to recognise whole words)

     If secure at cvc level progress to 

• cvcc- sand, hand, land
• ccvc-flip, flop, flap

The pupil may have difficulty recalling high frequency words (irregular spelling patterns)

He / she may have a difficulty selecting the correct phonemes in a word while spelling

• Provide explicit instruction on spelling rules, patterns, and syllable rules (further resources available via the links below):

Literacy Service - Initial Contact Support Portal - If staff members do not already have access to the portal, please complete the staff details form linked below.

Literacy Service: Initial Contact Support Portal - Staff Details Form

• Teach high frequency words that do not follow regular patterns using LVSCWC Technique or use heart words highlighting the tricky parts of words.  Help the pupil to understand why this part of the word is tricky, for example, ‘the letters that we see, in this part of the word do not match the sounds that we know’ -permanently irregular words. For temporarily irregular words, ‘the letters that we see, in this part of the word do not match the sounds that we know -at this point’:
• HFW & Heart Words Organised Phonetically
• EA Guidance Video: Heart words and Irregular HFWs (8:03 mins)
• Teach mnemonics for tricky words- these can include catchy phrases
• Use mnemonics for phonetically irregular words, such as: people – people eat oreos people like eating any – ants never yawn, said- Sally Anne is dancing:
• After highlighting the tricky bit (as above) provide the mnemonic sentence and read with the pupil
• Ask the pupil to colour highlight the first letter of each word in the mnemonic. Ask the pupil to name the letters they have highlighted and guide them to identify that these letters spell the tricky word
• Give the pupil an opportunity to say the mnemonic as they write the first letter of each word in the mnemonic. Finish by telling the pupil “think the mnemonic, but name each letter as you write the word”:
• Printable Resources: Spelling Mnemonics 
• Introduce assistive technology tools such as spell-checkers or word prediction software to provide real time support for the pupil
• Use multisensory approaches to engage all the pupil’s senses- activities that involve, seeing, hearing and writing the letters and words
• Use Read, Build and Write mats:
• The teacher shows the word to the pupil
• The pupil says the word
• The pupil builds the word using magnetic letters
• The pupil writes the word (Cursive handwriting can help develop a grapho-motor memory of the word): 
• Provide repetition and consolidation to develop automaticity using these strategies
• Using I do, we do, you do approach, allow the pupil opportunities to verbalise the word in his / her own sentence:
• Show pupil flashcard with HFW 
• Teacher writes sentence on reverse of that flashcard 
• Pupil draws a related picture above the sentence

• Use technology-introduce education software, apps or tools that can support the learning process, for example, speech to text software can reduce effort required and provide a visual prop to learning

• Use “Picturize” or “Clicker Grids” on the Clicker 8 App to help the pupil build words and sentences, support writing and reduce working memory demands:

  Clicker 8 Website  

  Teacher Guidance: Installing Clicker 8 on a Personal Device

• Spelling practice- provide opportunities for the pupil to practise spelling words using activities that focus on the patterns and rules of the English language
• Use mnemonics or memory aids to help a pupil remember spelling patterns or rules, such as, the phrase ‘i’ before ‘e’, except after ‘c’ can help the pupil remember the spelling rule for these letter combinations
• Use mnemonics for phonetically irregular words, such as: people – people eat oreos people like eating any – ants never yawn, said- Sally Anne is dancing:

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• After highlighting the tricky bit (as above) provide the mnemonic sentence and read with the pupil
• Ask the pupil to colour highlight the first letter of each word in the mnemonic. Ask the pupil to name the letters they have highlighted and guide them to identify that these letters spell the tricky word
• Give the pupil an opportunity to say the mnemonic as they write the first letter of each word in the mnemonic. Finish by telling the pupil “think the mnemonic, but name each letter as you write the word”:
• Printable Resources: Spelling Mnemonics 
• Teach spelling strategies-if a one-syllable word has a short vowel sound and ends with one consonant double the final consonant link to chapter on spelling 
• Teach spelling rules, such as the doubling rule when adding -ing or -ed:
• “1, 2, double I do” (pupil starts counting at vowel and if followed by a consonant – the word must be doubled) skip = 1, 2, double I do (skipping/skipped) 
• “1, 2, 3, no doubling for me” (pupil starts at vowel and if followed by 2 consonants then there is no doubling) camp = 1,2,3 no doubling for me (camping/camped) 
• The doubling rule: When a word has one vowel before a single consonant, double the consonant before adding the ending: The word ‘sit’ becomes ‘sitting’
• The drop ‘e’ rule: When a word ends in ‘e’ you drop it before adding a suffix, if the suffix begins with a vowel, ‘care’ becomes ‘cared’
• The add rule-if the suffix begins with a consonant, such as (ly, ness, ful, s, less, ment, some, ty) keep the ‘e’ and just add the suffix:
• Provide the pupil with opportunities to practise the Dictated Sentence  Routine and to apply any newly taught phonic skills to simple sentences: 
• Teacher dictates the sentence
• Pupil repeats the sentence
• Teacher dictates the sentence again (to ensure accuracy and correct pronunciation)
• Pupil repeats the sentence
• Pupil writes the sentence
• Dictated Sentence

• Pupil checks the sentences using:

  Printable Resource: COPS Proof-Reading for Dictated Sentences
  Printable Resource: COPS Proof-Reading Prompt

• Develop and practise new skills in reading and writing activities daily