In Appendix 1, I outline a detailed approach for sequencing work on consonants, according to how a particular student works. This detailed approach is one way of working, but acknowledging the above general patterns and being open to experience are the main prerequisites for planning phonics work.
I close this chapter with a case study which shows how one small gourd facilitator uses a long-range plan to direct her work. Like the facilitators in the previous case studies, this facilitator combines the basic techniques described in this chapter in ways that respond to the particular student that she is working with at the time. Like them, she incorporates these techniques into meaningful reading, writing, and discussion.
Case Study
Working from a Long-Range Plan for Phonics Work
In her small learning group at the Peel Literacy Guild, Anna follows a plan in presenting phonics. Anna follows a definite order and style of presentation. The timing is flexible. The material that students work with varies, because it comes from their reading, writing and discussion. Different learning styles are respected. But always, at the back of her mind, Anna keeps track of a sequence of phonics guidelines.
When students first join Anna’s group, they become involved in discussion, dictating stories, and reading back what they have dictated. They will work this way until they are comfortable recognizing words on the page. Anna says that there is no way of specifying in advance when this will be. What is important is that Anna and the students feel comfortable, and ready to move on.
When Anna and the students are ready to move on, Anna will bring phonics into the foreground for a while. She will ask students to listen for speech sounds at the beginnings of words. She starts with consonants that can be prolonged in speech, like “m”, “l”, and “s”. (For a full list of consonants that can be prolonged in speech, see Appendix 1.) She will use words from someone’s writing or from a discussion. For example, after a discussion about street maps, she might say, “Can you hear the ‘mmm’ in ‘map’?” After she has worked on two or three consonants in this way, she will add two or three short vowels, for example, the “a” in “map”. Then she will work with the students until they can build words with these sounds. For example if the students know “at”, she’ll tell them that you can put “m” in front of “at” to create “mat”. Then she’ll ask the students if they can create any other words with “m”. Or perhaps she’ll ask them to create a rhyming word family starting with“ mat”. Or she might ask the students what word you would get if you changed the A in MAT to an E.
Once Anna and the students feel comfortable with this word building activity, phonics work will get moved into the background again, as an adjunct to the language experience work.
Anna doesn’t feel that it’s necessary to work extensively on every single consonant and vowel. She believes that once students are exposed to some guidelines, they can usually figure out the rest from experience. “Reading is exposure,” she says. But the phonics work continues to go on in the background, and can be sued to help individual students with specific problems.
After introducing guidelines for initial consonants and short vowels, Anna will introduce other guidelines, in a particular order. She will introduce these guidelines when she feels that students are ready and willing to move on with their phonics work. Her order for introducing these guidelines is as follows.
The students in Anna’s group like her step-by-step approach. They also like the variety of work that goes on in the group, and they like the way members of the group work together on phonics. Here is what they had to say about this approach on the day that I visited the Peel Literacy Guild.