Part 1: What is the best approach to teach children to read, is it phonics?

What is phonics? Phonics is simply the system of relationships between letters and sounds in a language. Words are made up from small units of sound called phonemes. Phonics teaches children to be able to listen carefully and identify the phonemes that make up each word. This helps children to learn to read words and to spell words.

In phonics lessons children are taught three main things:

• Identification of sounds

Children are taught all the sounds in English language in a systematic way, starting with the sounds of the twenty six English alphabets e.g. /s/ /a/ and then the phonograms e.g. /ch/ /sh/

• Blending

Children are taught to be able to blend. This is when children say the sounds that make up a word and are able to merge the sounds together until they can hear what the word is. This skill is vital in learning to read. Example - the sounds /c/ /a/ /t/ says the word ‘cat’

• Segmenting

Children are also taught to segment. This is the opposite of blending. Children are able to say a word and then break it up into the phonemes that make it up. This skill is vital in being able to spell words. Example - crocodile can be broken down into /cro/_/co/_/dile/.
External researcher view: Reading and writing in English provides different challenges. The latest research, from a study done by the National Reading Panel (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2001) concluded that children must be taught phonetic sounds explicitly in order to learn to read.
Montessori philosophy and discovery on reading: Maria Montessori recognized that children as young as two had an interest in written letters. It had an advantage when teaching in Italy; Italian is mostly phonetic. Once the basic phonetic sounds were learned, reading proceeded quite easily.

Our experience in the 6-9 age group (class) at the Prunelle School: In our class, we have adopted the phonics method. Our Phonics sessions are entirely interactive; it is made up from games, songs and actions and these sessions only last for 15-20 minutes per day. Our children generally enjoy these sessions and always want more. Noticeable progress in reading and spelling has been made by all my pupils; I am so proud of them all; thanks to phonics method of teaching,

https://www.logicofenglish.com/resources/spelling-rules

Written by Olu.