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In nutshell………

Synthetic Teaching: The best way to teach the technical skills of (decoding) and (encoding) in the English is to teach the core code knowledge of The English Alphabetic Code in systematic steps and the three core skills of:

1. READING - sound out and blend (synthesise) the sounds () represented by the letters and groups () all-through-the-printed-, from left to right (.. see ‘tray’, say “// // /ai/”, hear and say “tray”).

2. SPELLING - (or split up) the smallest identifiable sounds (phonemes) all-through-the-spoken-word (e.g. hear “tray”, identify /t/ /r/ /ai/) and then pull letter/ from memory to spell the word ‘tray’.

3. - record the correct shapes of the letters or letter groups (graphemes), from left to right, which represent the phonemes identified from segmenting the spoken word from beginning to end.

The English Alphabetic Code: We can identify around 44 phonemes (the smallest identifiable sounds in ) in the but there are only 26 letters in The to represent the 44+ sounds. Single letters and letters combined into letter groups act as code for the sounds, for example; the ‘ie’ is pronounced /igh/ as in the word ‘tie’. The English Alphabetic Code is complicated by the fact that it has many ‘spelling alternatives’ and ‘pronunciation alternatives’, for example; the grapheme ‘ie’ can also be pronounced /ee/ as in the word ‘chief’. The Alphabetic Code, therefore, needs to be taught explicitly and systematically for both reading and spelling. The chart immediately below illustrates the sounds and spelling alternatives of the Phonics International programme as featured on the many versions of The Alphabetic Code Overview Charts (all free in unit 1) and The Alphabetic Code Frieze Posters (provided throughout the 12 units of the Phonics International programme):

sounds words with spelling alternatives sounds words with spelling alternatives

/s/ snake glass palace house cents scissors /igh/ night tie behind sky bike eider /a/ apple /ee/ eel eat emu sunny key chief sardines /t/ teddy letter skipped /or/ fork dawn sauce chalk oars snore four // insect cymbals // zebra jazz fries cheese breeze /p/ pan puppet /ng/ gong jungle // net bonnet knot engine /ngk/ ink uncle // kit cat duck chameleon bouquet // violin dove /e/ egg head said /oo/ book should // hat /oo/ moon blue flute crew fruit soup move /r/ rat arrow write rhinoceros // fox books ducks cakes /gs/ exam // map hammer thumb welcome // chairs patch /chu/ picture // dig puddle rained // sheep chef station magician admission /g/ girl juggle guitar ghost catalogue // thistle // orange watch qualify salt /th/ there // umbrella son touch thoroughfare /kw/ queen // ladder shell // ouch owl plough /ul/ kettle pencil hospital camel /oi/ ointment toy // feathers cliff photograph laugh /yoo/ unicorn statue tube new pneumatic // bat rabbit building /er/ birthday nurse earth world // jug cabbage gerbil giraffe fridge /uh/ () mixer humour theatre // yawn /ar/ artist father palm half calves /ai/ aid tray table sundae cake prey /air/ hair hare bear where // web wheel /eer/ deer ears adhere cashier oak bow -yo oboe rope dough television treasure courgettes collage /oa/ /zh/ Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 1

The Systematic Steps: The Phonics International programme (program) provides many ‘strands’ of useful, flexible teaching and learning resources divided into 12 units. The letter/s-sound correspondences featured on The Alphabetic Code Overview Charts (select from the many versions free in unit 1) are introduced or revisited in the following order:

Please note that this order of introducing letter/s-sound correspondences can be used flexibly when Phonics International is used as a spelling programme for older learners. For example; focus on a specific sound and teach all the spelling variations for that sound using resources from whichever units these are featured. Phonics International can also be used as an ‘intervention programme’ for learners of all ages with gaps in alphabetic code knowledge.

The Sounds Book Activity Sheets: The core Alphabetic Code information and rehearsal of the core skills are provided on the Sounds Book Activity Sheets which are available in all 12 units. There is detailed guidance for the ‘teacher’ on every Sounds Book Activity Sheet and this can be shared with learners’ parents. Other Phonics International resources support the teaching and learning provided on the Sounds Book Activity Sheets. Teachers need to decide how best to select and use the additional support material in their context for their learners’ needs. The Sounds Book Activity Sheets, however, are essential for ALL learners and should be used systematically, regularly - and where necessary - in a ‘layered’ way (that is, go back to earlier work and revise as required whilst pressing ahead with new learning).

Basic Phonics Lesson Format: The standard lesson format for introducing letter/s-sound correspondences has a very simple structure:

1. Revise old learning of the letter/s-sound correspondences of The Alphabetic Code taught to date (see chart above for order of introduction). 2. Introduce new learning of ‘next’ letter/s-sound correspondence. 3. Include the new letter/s-sound correspondence to practise the three skills of blending, segmenting and handwriting at word level using the cumulative word bank (sometimes with an emphasis on a particular skill as decided by the teacher). Note that the Sounds Book Activity Sheets up a cumulative word bank as letter/s-sound correspondences are taught or revisited.

4. Extend to sentence level and text level work with cumulative word bank as appropriate (this will become part of the basic lesson format over time). See variety of resources in each unit for extension work.

The basic phonics lesson format in the government’s guidance ‘Letters and Sounds’ is described as, “Introduction (objectives and criteria for success); Revisit and review; Teach; Practise; Apply; Assess learning against the criteria”. Phonics International can be used to complement ‘Letters and Sounds’ or as a stand-alone programme. Reference document for Phonics International. Keep in planning files. Can be used for teacher-training purposes.

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 2 The Alphabetic Code information and word bank as included on the Sounds Book Activity Sheets of Phonics International

Heading on Code information for the ‘teacher’ as provided Sounds Book on each Sounds Book Activity Sheet for units 1 to 12 Activity Sheet units (Instructions for spelling and editing activities of the Sounds Book Activity Sheets are not described here) 1 sit, sap, sip, sun, nest, mist, fast, pots, bats, sips Model how to say these words. Track under the words with the index finger to correspond with s saying the sounds as you say the words very slowly. You are teaching only the sound /s/ (not “suh”) and the letter shape ‘s’ and how these work in some written and spoken words. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letter ‘s’ as he/she says the sound /s/. 1 ant, apple, act, add, man, bag, cat, hand, lamp, tap, sand, trap Model how to say these words. Track under the words with the index finger to correspond with a saying the sounds as you say the words very slowly. At this , you are teaching only the sound /a/ and the letter shape ‘a’ and how these work in some written and spoken words. Say, “In these words, the letter-shape ‘a’ is the code for the sound /a/. When you see ‘a’, say /a/. Later I will teach you more code using this letter.” The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letter ‘a’ as he/she says the sound /a/. 1 tin, taps, top, ten, hats, cats, spots, sat, cut, plant, tent Model how to say these words. Track under the words with the index finger to correspond with t saying the sounds as you say the words very slowly. You are teaching only the sound /t/ (not “tuh”) and the letter shape ‘t’ and how these work in some written and spoken words. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letter ‘t’ as he/she says the sound /t/. 1 insect, igloo, ink, , hit, miss, pink, milk, is, it, sit, its, sits Model how to say these words. Track under the words with the index finger to correspond with i saying the sounds as you say the words very slowly. You are teaching the sound /i/ and the letter shape ‘i’ and how these work in some written and spoken words. Notice how the volume of the word is mainly provided by the /i/ sound. It is the phonemes (sounds) which provide most of the volume in spoken words. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through- the-words in the third line. Can he/she then ‘hear’ the target words independently? If not, model the sounding out and blending process. Tweak (adjust) the pronunciation of the ‘s’ in the word ‘is’ to sound like /z/. This notion of ‘tweaking (or adjusting) pronunciation’ is very important in the reading process. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letter ‘i’ as he/she says the sound /i/. 1 pit, pat, pits, pats, sips, taps, spat, spits, tip, sip, tap, sap, pip Model how to say the sound /p/. (Not “puh”.) You are teaching the sound /p/ and the letter p shape ‘p’ and how these work in most written and spoken words. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she then ‘hear’ the target words independently? If not, model the sounding out and see if the learner can then hear the target words. If not, sound out and blend the whole words. Track under the letters with the index finger at all times. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letter ‘p’ as he/she says the sound /p/.

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 3 1 nap, nits, naps, nips, ant, pant, tins, snap, pin, pan, tin, spin Model how to say the sound /n/. (Not “nuh”.) You are teaching the sound /n/ and the letter n shape ‘n’ and how these work in written and spoken words. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she then ‘hear’ the target words independently? If not, model the sounding out and see if the learner can then hear the target words. If not, sound out and blend the whole words. Track under the letters with the index finger at all times. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letter ‘n’ as he/she says the sound /n/. 1 cat, can, cap, cats, cans, caps, cast, act, scan, acts, scans Model how to say the sound /k/. (Not “kuh”.) You are teaching the sound /k/ and the letter shape ‘c’ and how these work in some written and spoken words. Say, “In these words, the letter-shape ‘c’ is the code for the sound /k/. When you see ‘c’, say /k/. Very soon I am going to teach you more written code for the /k/ sound.” Ask the learner to say all the sounds all- through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ the target words independently? If not, model the sounding out (but not the whole blended word) and see if the learner can then hear the target words. If not, sound out and blend the words to model the whole process. Always track under the letters with the index finger. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letter ‘c’ as he/she says the sound /k/. 1 kit, kin, kip, kits, kips, skin, skip, skips, skins, kiss Model how to say the sound /k/. You are teaching the sound /k/ and the letter shape ‘k’ and k how these work in written and spoken words. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through- the-words in all the lines. Can he/she then ‘hear’ the target words independently? If not, model the sounding out and see if the learner can then hear the target words. If not, then sound out and blend the whole words. Track under the letters with the index finger at all times. Say /s/ once only for ‘’. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letter ‘k’ as he/she says the sound /k/. 1 tick, sack, pick, tack, pack, sick, ticks, sacks, picks, packs, sticks Model how to say the sound /k/. You are teaching three spelling variations for the sound /k/. -ck There are two different letter shapes for these three spelling variations. Say, “We now know three ways to read and write the code for the /k/ sound.” Describe how you sound out /k/ once only when you see the letters ‘ck’ together. The grapheme ‘ck’ is never used for the beginning /k/ sound of a word. It is used commonly following short vowel sounds in single words such as ‘s-i-ck’. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she then ‘hear’ the target words independently? If not, model the sounding out and see if the learner can then hear the target words. Track under the letters with the index finger at all times. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letters ‘c’, ‘k’ and ‘ck’ as he/she says the sound /k/. 1 cat, can, cap, cans, caps, act, scan; kit, kin, kip, skip, skin, skips, skins; c, k, -ck tick, sack, pick, stack, packs, sticks Model how to say the sound /k/. You are teaching three spelling variations for the sound /k/. There are two different letter shapes for these three spelling variations. Say, “We now know three ways to read and write the code for the /k/ sound.” Describe how you sound out /k/ once only when you see the letters ‘ck’ together. The grapheme ‘ck’ is never used for the beginning /k/ sound of a word. It is used commonly following short vowel sounds in single syllable words such as ‘s-i-ck’. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she then ‘hear’ the target words independently? If not, model the sounding out and see if the learner can then hear the target words. Track under the letters with the index finger at all times. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letters ‘c’, ‘k’ and ‘ck’ as he/she says the sound /k/.

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 4 pen, , ten, pet, net, neck, pecks, speck, pens, sent, tent, tents Model how to say the sound /e/. You are teaching only the sound /e/ and the letter shape ‘e’ e and how these work in some written and spoken words. Ask the learner to say all the sounds

all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she then ‘hear’ the target words independently? If 1 not, model the sounding out and see if the learner can then hear the target words. If not, sound out and blend the words. Track under the letters with the index finger at all times. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letter ‘e’ as he/she says the sound /e/. 1 hit, hat, hip, hen, hits, hens, hats, hips, hint, hints, has, his, hiss Model how to say the sound /h/. It is just like a ‘breath’ with no voiced volume. Ask the learner h to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she then ‘hear’ the target words independently? If not, model the sounding out and see if the learner can then hear the target words. Track under the letters with the index finger at all times. Note that the pronunciation of the words ‘has’ and ‘his’ needs to be tweaked so that the letter ‘s’ sounds like /z/. Double letters like ‘ss’ are sounded only once. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letter ‘h’ as he/she says the sound /h/. 1 rat, rip, ran, rats, rips, rent, trip, trap, trips, strip, strips, strap, straps Model how to say the sound /r/ (closer to “err” than “ruh”). Ask the learner to say all the r sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she then ‘hear’ the target words independently? If not, model the sounding out and see if the learner can then hear the target words. If not, sound out and blend the whole words. Track under the letters with the index finger at all times. When reading, say the sounds in clusters of consonant letters separately but develop the to say the sounds quickly enough to hear the overall sound. Relate the sounding of the to a train speeding up until all the separate consonant sounds blend together. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letter ‘r’ as he/she says the sound /r/. 2 mat, men, map, met, am, him, ham, maps, mint, mints, stamp, stamps Model how to say the sound /m/. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in m all the lines. Can he/she then ‘hear’ the target words independently? If not, model the sounding out and see if the learner can then hear the target words. Track under the letters with the index finger at all times. Say the sounds in clusters of consonant letters separately but develop the ability to say the sounds quickly enough to hear the overall sound. Relate the sounding of the consonants to a train speeding up until all the separate consonant sounds blend together. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letter ‘m’ as he/she says the sound /m/. 2 den, dam, dip, dim, red, mad, and, mend, dents, stands, hands, dampen Model how to say the sound /d/. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in d all the lines. Can he/she then ‘hear’ the target words independently? Say the sounds in clusters of consonant letters separately but develop the ability to say the sounds quickly enough to hear the overall sound. Relate the sounding of the consonants to a train speeding up until all the separate consonant sounds blend together. Tweak the pronunciation of ‘dampen’ to ‘dampun’. sounding closer to /u/ in some words is called the schwa effect. Experience of reading words with the schwa effect will help beginners to spell such words correctly. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letter ‘d’ (starting like a ‘c’) as he/she says the sound /d/. 2 get, gas, gap, gets, tag, dig, peg, digs, pegs, stag, stags, magnet Model how to say the sound /g/. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in g all the lines. Can he/she then ‘hear’ the target words independently? Say the sounds in clusters of consonant letters separately but develop the ability to say the sounds quickly enough to hear the overall sound. Relate the sounding of the consonants to a train speeding up until all the separate consonant sounds blend together. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letter ‘g’ (starting like a ‘c’) as he/she says the sound /g/.

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 5 2 on, top, cot, hop, got, hot, pods, mops, dogs, rock, stop, spot, crops, ponds Model how to say the sound /o/. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in o all the lines. Can he/she then ‘hear’ the target words independently? Say the sounds in clusters of consonant letters separately but develop the ability to say the sounds quickly enough to hear the overall sound. Relate the sounding of the consonants to ‘a train speeding up’ until all the separate consonant sounds blend together. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letter ‘o’ (starting like a ‘c’) as he/she says the sound /o/. 2 up, mud, run, hug, hut, mugs, gum, gums, smug, stump, strums, us, put Model how to say the sound /u/. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in u all the lines. Can he/she then ‘hear’ the target words independently? Say the sounds in clusters of consonant letters separately but develop the ability to say the sounds quickly enough to hear the overall sound. Relate the sounding of the consonants to a train speeding up until all the separate consonant sounds blend together. Tweak the ‘s’ in ‘us’ to sound like /z/. Tweak the ‘u’ in ‘put’ to rhyme with ‘foot’. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letter ‘u’ as he/she says the sound /u/. 2 let, lap, log, lid, lips, legs, luck, lump, plug, slaps, clamp, slugs, block, o’clock Model how to say the sound /l/ (closer to ‘ul’ than ‘luh’). Ask the learner to say all the sounds l all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she then ‘hear’ the target words independently? Say the sounds in clusters of consonant letters separately but develop the ability to say the sounds quickly enough to hear the overall sound. Draw attention to the ‘o’ in ‘o’clock’ meaning ‘of the’ clock. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letter ‘l’ as he/she says the sound /l/. 2 log, lid, lap, lids, pal, pals, lick, sled, clips; ill, pull, hull, tell, mill, hills, doll, drill, tall Model how to say the sound /l/ (closer to ‘ul’ than ‘luh’). Ask the learner to say all the sounds l, - all-through-the-words in all the lines but say /l/ once for ‘ll’. Can he/she then ‘hear’ the target words independently? Short (single syllable) words ending with the sound /l/ are usually spelt with the grapheme ‘ll’, then add ‘s’ for plural words. ‘Pal’, however, is spelt with the grapheme ‘l’. The ‘u’ in ‘pull’ rhymes with ‘wool’. The letter/s-sound correspondences in words with the same pattern as ‘tall’ are t-al-l where the grapheme ‘al’ is pronounced /or/ [or /aw/]. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letter ‘l’, or letters ‘ll’, as he/she says the sound /l/. 2 fog, fat, fun, fig, full, fell, if, , film, felt, lift, self, golf, flop, flag, flaps, of Model how to say the sound /f/. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in f all the lines. Can he/she then ‘hear’ the target words independently? Say the sounds in clusters of consonant letters separately but develop the ability to say the sounds quickly enough to hear the overall sound. Pronounce the ‘f’ in ‘of’ as a /v/ sound. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letter ‘f’ as he/she says the sound /f/. 2 fit, fat, fell, rift, left, soft, films, frost; cuff, huff, puff, off, fluff, cliffs, staff, stiffen Model how to say the sound /f/. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in f, -ff all the lines but say /f/ once for ‘ff’. Can he/she then ‘hear’ the target words independently? Short (single syllable) words ending with the sound /f/ are usually spelt with the grapheme ‘ff’, then add ‘s’ for plural words as in ‘cliffs’. Tweak ‘stiffen’ to sound like ‘stiffun’ because of the schwa effect. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letter ‘f’, or letters ‘ff’, as he/she says the sound /f/.

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 6 2 sad, set, sip, silk, sent, stuck, crust, sudden; moss, less, fuss, miss, dress, classes, lesson Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines but say /s/ once for s, -ss ‘ss’. Can he/she then ‘hear’ the target words independently? Short (single syllable) words ending with the sound /s/ are usually spelt with the grapheme ‘ss’, then add ‘’ for plural words as in ‘classes’. Tweak ‘lesson’ to sound like ‘lessun’ because of the schwa effect. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letter ‘s’, or letters ‘ss’, as he/she says the sound /s/. 2 bin, bit, bat, but, , beg, bed, bag, ban, big, bug, bun, tub, grub, grab, bags, bricks Model how to say the sound /b/. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in b all the lines. Can he/she then ‘hear’ the target words independently? Say the sounds in clusters of consonant letters separately but develop the ability to say the sounds quickly enough to hear the overall sound. Relate the sounding of the consonants to a train speeding up until all the separate consonant sounds blend together. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letter ‘b’ as he/she says the sound /b/. 2 jug, jag, jet, jam, jut, jets, jags, jugs, juts, just, jump, jumps, judo Model how to say the sound /j/. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in j all the lines. Can he/she then ‘hear’ the target words independently? Draw attention to the ‘u’ in ‘judo’ matching the /oo/ sound in ‘mood’. The ‘o’ in ‘judo’ is pronounced as its long vowel sound. Remind the learner that the letters a, e, i, o, u can represent short vowel sounds as in at, enter, in, on, up or those letters can represent long vowel sounds as in able, he, kind, no, unit. The learner should try the short vowel sound when reading single vowel letters first and then try the long vowel sound unless they can see that a single vowel letter and an ‘e’ wrap- around a single consonant or it is the end letter. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letter ‘j’ as he/she says the sound /j/. Words to blend with long vowel sounds: I, no, go, so, me, he, be 2 yet, yes, yen, yak, yam, yap, yell, yells, yelp, yaks Model how to say the sound /y/ in its ‘consonant’ version as in the words above. Later you will y draw attention to the three sounds represented by the letter ‘y’ as in yes my mummy. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she then ‘hear’ the target words independently? The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letter ‘y’ as he/she says the sound /y/. 2 aim, aid, rail, pain, maid, fail, paid, tail, rain, main, gain, snail, trail, plain, trains, faint, painted, mailed ai Model how to say the sound /ai/. Note that the grapheme ‘ai’ does not appear at the end of words [see the ‘ai-ay’ sheet]. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? The words ‘painted’ and ‘mailed’ have the letters ‘ed’ at the end. In ‘painted’, the ‘e’ and ‘d’ are sounded out separately and the blended pronunciation tweaked to the schwa ‘u’ sound as in ‘paintud’. In ‘mailed’ the letters ‘ed’ are simply the grapheme for the sound /d/. Familiarity with the spoken English language helps the reader to know when to read the ‘ed’ verb endings in the appropriate way. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letters ‘ai’ as he/she says the sound /ai/. The reader can decode these words with the grapheme ‘ai’ as an /ai/ sound and tweak the pronunciation to /e/ (sed, agen). Alternately, the reader can learn that in these two particular words, the grapheme ‘ai’ represents the /e/ sound: said, again

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 7 2 day, say, may, ray, hay, pay, bay, lays, days, rays, play, stay, trays, stray, May, Sunday, crayon, played ay Model how to say the sound /ai/. Note that the grapheme ‘ay’ appears at the end of words [see the ‘ai-ay’ sheet]. For plural words ending with ‘ay’, add ‘s’ at the end of the words. In words like ‘crayon’ the grapheme ‘ay’ is used in preference to using the grapheme ‘ai’. In the verb ‘played’, the grapheme ‘ed’ represents the sound /d/. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all- through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letters ‘ay’ as he/she says the sound /ai/. The reader can decode the word ‘says’ with the /ai/ sound and then tweak the pronunciation to ‘sez’: says 2 aim, sail, pain, raid, train, snail, brains, paints; day, say, may, hay, play, tray, stray, crayons The grapheme ‘ai’ does not appear at the end of words. The grapheme ‘ay’ can be the middle ai, ay or end grapheme. At this stage, remind the learner that he/she has learnt three spelling variations (graphemes) for the /ai/ sound - a, ai, ay. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letters ‘ai’, or letters ‘ay’, as he/she says the sound /ai/. 2 wet, web, wag, wig, win, wilt, went, wind, wags, swig, swims Model how to say the sound /w/. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in w all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letter ‘w’ as he/she says the sound /w/. 2 oak, oats, coat, soak, boat, toad, soap, moat, moan, groan, float, cloak, croak, roast, boast, toast oa Model how to say the sound /oa/. Note that the grapheme ‘oa’ does not appear at the end of words [see the ‘oa-ow’ sheet]. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she then ‘hear’ the target words independently? Say the sounds in clusters of consonant letters separately but develop the ability to say the sounds quickly enough to hear the overall sound. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letters ‘oa’ as he/she says the sound /oa/. Blend these words with the long vowel sound /oa/: no, go, so Note the marks and exclamation mark to show that someone is laughing: “ho ho ho!” 2 own, low, sow, row, mow, bow, grow, rows, bows, slow, mown, flow, glow, crows, grown-ups Model how to say the sound /oa/. Note that the grapheme ‘ow’ can appear in first, middle or ow end positions in a word [see the ‘oa-ow’ sheet]. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all- through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she then ‘hear’ the target words independently? Say the sounds in clusters of consonant letters separately but develop the ability to say the sounds quickly enough to hear the overall sound. The ‘ow’ grapheme can also represent the /ou/ sound which will be taught later. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letters ‘oa’ as he/she says the sound /oa/. Blend these words with the long vowel sound /oa/: no, go, so Note the speech marks and exclamation mark to show that someone is laughing: “ho ho ho!” 2 oak, oats, soak, goat, toad, coat, soap, float, toast; own, low, row, bow, bowl, crow, slow, oa, ow grown-up The grapheme ‘oa’ does not appear at the end of words. The grapheme ‘ow’ can be the first, middle or end grapheme. At this stage, remind the learner that he/she has learnt three spelling variations (graphemes) for the /oa/ sound - o, oa, ow. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Note the which can split some words. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letters ‘oa’, or letters ‘ow’, as he/she says the sound /oa/.

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 8 2 lie, tie, pie, ties, pies, tied, died, lied, tried, cried, fried, dried Model how to say the sound /igh/. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words ie in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letters ‘ie’ as he/she says the sound /igh/. The grapheme ‘ie’ at the end of people’s names commonly represents a sound which is in-between an /i/ and an /ee/ depending on regional accent. As this is so common, you may wish to mention this before you teach it formally - (for example, Debbie !) 2 high, sigh, night, light, fight, tight, might, bright, slight, frighten Model how to say the sound /igh/. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words igh in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? In ‘frighten’, tweak the ‘e’ to the schwa sound ‘u’ to say ‘frightun’. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letters ‘igh’ as he/she says the sound /igh/. 2 lie, tie, pie, dies, pies, tied, died, tried, cried, fries; high, sigh, night, light, fight, fright, might, bright, tight ie, igh Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. The grapheme ‘ie’ representing the /igh/ sound involves some trickiness of spelling. For example, flies is the plural word for fly but lies is the plural word for lie. At this stage, remind the learner that he/she has learnt three spelling variations (graphemes) for the /igh/ sound - i, ie, igh. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letters ‘ie’, or letters ‘igh’, as he/she says the sound /igh/. I, kind, mind, find, mild 2 little, able, table, cattle, bottle, middle, saddle, muddle, tickle, puddle, kettle, trickle, pickles There are several graphemes which represent a sound which is close to two sounds “ul” (schwa -le effect). These include the graphemes ‘le’, ‘il’, ‘al’ and ‘el’. The teacher may choose to mention the ‘le’ variation during the ‘simple code’ stage as early books may include words such as ‘little’, ‘table’ and ‘puddle’. Use the words above to model with if the learner is not yet ready to blend these examples independently. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letters ‘le’ as he/she says the sound /ul/. 2 (sun) son, a ton of…, front, infront of…, come, income, become, some, blossom, none, done, undone, redone, Monday, London /u/ o Use the word ‘sun’: 1) to remind the learner that letter ‘u’ commonly represents the /u/ sound; 2) to remind the learner that different for words which sound the same help the reader to understand the intended meaning of the word (). Point out that letters written within slash marks as in /u/ above denote a sound () and not a spelling (grapheme). In the words above, the letter ‘o’ represents the /u/ sound. Tell the learner that, later, he/she will be taught other words with this spelling feature. Introduce the idea that in many words such as ‘some’ and ‘done’, the letter ‘e’ on the end of the word is not pronounced (or ‘sounded out’). In effect, the grapheme ‘me’ represents the /m/ phoneme and the grapheme ‘ne’ represents the /n/ phoneme. It is common that the letter ‘e’ on the end of words is not separately ‘sounded out’ and it is helpful for a beginner reader to begin to understand this early on. The teacher can model how to sound out these words saying. “In these words, those letters (‘me’) represent the /m/ sound. In these words, those letters (‘ne’) represent the /n/ sound.” Can the learner ‘hear’ the target words independently? Then ask the learner to sound out the words. The learner holds the pencil correctly and writes ‘son’ and thinks about the correct meaning of ‘son’ - and then writes ‘Monday’. 3

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 9 3 eel, see, bee, meet, seed, leek, feet, feel, bees, heel, seeds, leeks, tree, green, bleed, freed, street, streets, indeed, freedom ee Model how to say the sound /ee/. The grapheme ‘ee’ representing the /ee/ sound can appear at the beginning, middle or end of words. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the- words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? The learner now knows two graphemes for the sound /ee/ - ‘e’ as in he, me, be; and ‘ee’ as in the example words above. Tweak the pronunciation of the letter ‘o’ in ‘freedom’ to the schwa ‘u’ sound - ‘freedum’. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letters ‘ee’ as he/she says the sound /ee/. Blend these words with the letter ‘e’ representing the long vowel sound /ee/: he, me, be 3 for, form, fork, fort, , corn, port, torn, born, cork, or, sort, forks, forms, storm, stork, snort, orbit, sorted or Model how to say the sound /or/. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? There are many spelling variations to represent the sound /or/ which will be taught later (in unit 7). Tweak the pronunciation of the letter ‘e’ in ‘sorted’ to the schwa ‘u’ sound - ‘sortud’. Some people might pronounce this closer to ‘sortid’. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letters ‘or’ as he/she says the sound /or/. 3 zed, zip, zaps, zips, zig-zag, zed-bed, zest, zebra, zebras Model how to say the sound /z/. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in z all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? Tweak the pronunciation of the letter ‘a’ in ‘zebra’ to the schwa ‘u’ sound - ‘zebru’. The pronunciation of ‘as’ in ‘zebras’ is closer to ‘zebruz’. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letter ‘z’ as he/she says the sound /z/. 3 zed, zip, zips, zig-zag, zest, zaps, zebra; fizz, jazz, buzz, tizz, frizz, fizzes Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines but say /z/ once for z, -zz ‘zz’. Can he/she then ‘hear’ the target words independently? Short words with ‘short’ medial vowel sounds ending with the sound /z/ are usually spelt with the grapheme ‘zz’. This is similar to ‘ff’, ‘ll’ and ‘ss’. Then add ‘es’ for verb endings as in ‘fizzes’. Tweak ‘zebra’ to sound like ‘zebru’ and ‘fizzes’ to sound like ‘fizzuz’ because of the schwa effect. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letter ‘z’, or letters ‘zz’, as he/she says the sound /z/. 3 wet, web, wag, wig, week, went, wind, wags, swig, swims Model how to say the sound /w/. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in w all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letter ‘w’ as he/she says the sound /w/. 3 whip, wheel, whisk, when, whack, whelk, wheels, whisks, whiff Model how to say the sound /w/. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in wh all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? Traditionally, ‘wh’ is pronounced with a slight blowing effect. Many people would now pronounce ‘wh’ the same as /w/. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letter ‘w’ as he/she says the sound /w/. 3 wet, web, wig, went, wind, will, wilt, sweep; whip, when, wheel, whisk, whelk, whiff Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she then w, wh ‘hear’ the target words independently? The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letter ‘w’, or letters ‘wh’, as he/she says the sound /w/. Blend these words with the long vowel sounds: I, no, go, so, me, he, be, we

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 10 3 eat, sea, tea, meat, team, heat, seat, peas, mean, beam, feat, leaf, leaves, leak, beans, steam, cream, treat, stream, scream ea Model how to say the sound /ee/. The grapheme ‘ea’ representing the /ee/ sound can appear at the beginning, middle or end of words. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the- words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? The learner now knows three graphemes for the sound /ee/ - ‘e’ as in he, me, be; ‘ee’ as in see, meet, tree, green; and ‘ea’ as in the example words above. (Note the singular word ‘leaf’ and its plural word ‘leaves’. In English writing, the end-letter ‘-f’ can be replaced by ‘-ves’ [pronounced ‘vs’] in words denoting plurals.) The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letters ‘ea’ as he/she says the sound /ee/. Blend these words with the letter ‘e’ representing the long vowel sound /ee/: he, me, be, we 3 see, bee, tree, meet, green, seeds, streets; sea, eat, tea, meat, steam, peas, stream Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she then ee, ea ‘hear’ the target words independently? The grapheme ‘ea’ can represent the /ee/ sound as in the ‘ea’ word examples above, but in other words the grapheme ‘ea’ can represent the /e/ sound like ‘head’. [See the ‘e - ea’ as /e/ sheet.] The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letters ‘ee’, or letters ‘ea’, as he/she says the sound /ee/. Note that some words sound the same when read but have different meanings; for example: ‘see’ and ‘sea’, ‘meet’ and ‘meat’. The different spellings help the reader to gain the correct meaning of these words. This is common in the English writing . : words pronounced in the same way but differing in meaning or spelling or both. 3 egg, bed, pen, hen, pets, tent, went, spend; head, instead, bread, spread, dead, dreadful Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she then e, ea ‘hear’ the target words independently? The sound (phoneme) /e/ can be represented by the graphemes ‘e’ and ‘ea’ as in the word examples above. [Note: The graphemes ‘e’ and ‘ea’ can also represent the /ee/ sound as in he, me, be, we and eat, seat, team. See the ‘ee - ea’ as /ee/ sheet.] When ‘ful’ is the end part of words, it is spelt with only one ‘l’ and not ‘ll’ as in the complete word ‘full’. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letter ‘e’, or letters ‘ea’, as he/she says the sound /e/. 3 zip, buzz, is, his, was, bees, sees, trees, peas, fleas, flies, skies, tries, please, tease, cheese, sneeze, breeze, wheeze, size, prize, surprise /z/ The purpose of introducing the several graphemes which can represent the /z/ sound at this stage is to help the beginner in two ways: 1) to be a flexible reader - able to apply the process of ‘tweaking pronunciations’ to achieve the target words 2) to raise awareness of the need to pay attention to alternative spellings to help with spelling correctly over time. Revise how to say the sound /z/ and the sound /s/. Note that the /s/ and /z/ phonemes are very similar. Tell the learner that there are many words with a letter ‘e’ at the end where the ‘e’ does not need to be sounded out separately if it forms a grapheme with the preceding letter. As the concept of ‘split digraphs’ (or ‘magic e’) has not yet been taught, the beginner can decode words such as ‘size’, ‘prize’ and ‘surprise’ by pronouncing the long vowel sound for the letter ‘i’. Pronounce ‘ur’ as the /u/ phoneme in ‘surprise’. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and traces over the words below as he/she blends the sounds. was, is, his, please, breeze 4

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 11 4 hang, long, , bung, bang, sing, song, sung, sang, wings, tongs, sting, ping-pong, length, brings, string, strong, strength -ng Model how to say the sound /ng/ as it is pronounced in the words above. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? There are some words where the letters ‘ng’ appear together whereby the letter ‘g’ is sounded out separately in its ‘hard’ or ‘soft’ version (e.g.bangle, danger). Currently, however, focus on the /ng/ sound. Grapheme ‘th’ has been introduced through use of the word ‘the’ for simple sentence reading at this stage. Model how ‘th’ sounds in the words above. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letters ‘ng’ as he/she says the sound /ng/. 4 ink, sank, pink, tank, sunk, bank, hunk, mink, link, winks, bunk-beds, slink, stink, thanks, blanket, trinket, thinking -nk Model how to say ‘nk’ as it is pronounced in the words above. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? Letters ‘nk’ actually represent two sounds, that is /ng/+/k/. It is very helpful, however, for both reading and spelling purposes, if the learner is taught ‘nk’ as if it was a one sound unit. Grapheme ‘th’ has been introduced through use of the word ‘the’ for simple sentence reading at this stage. Model how ‘th’ sounds in the words above. The ‘e’ in ‘blanket’ and ‘trinket’ sounds closer to /i/. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letters ‘nk’ as he/she says the sound ‘ngk’. 4 van, vet, vat, vans, vets, vast, vent, vest, visit, invent, invented Model how to say the sound /v/. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in v all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? Tweak the ‘s’ in ‘visit’ to sound closer to /z/. The ‘e’ in ‘invented’ sounds closer to /u/ (the schwa effect). The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letter ‘v’ as he/she says the sound /v/. 4 van, vans, vent, vet, vest, invest, vat, vast, invent; have, give, live, love, dove, above, glove Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she then v, -ve ‘hear’ the target words independently? In the English written code, words which end with the sound /v/ are spelt with the grapheme ‘ve’. In ‘love’, ‘dove’, ‘above’ and ‘glove’, the /u/ sound is represented by the letter ‘o’. Further common examples include ‘other’, ‘mother’, ‘brother’, ‘come’ and ‘some’. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letter ‘v’, or letters ‘ve’, as he/she says the sound /v/. Blend these words with the /u/ sound. treat the letters ‘me’ in ‘come’ and ‘some’ as representing the /me/ sound: love, dove, above, glove, come, some 4 look, good, book, took, cook, hood, , rook, nook, rooks, brook, stood, crooks, mistook, looking oo-oo The two main pronunciations for the grapheme ‘oo’ are taught together as both pronunciations are common. In flash card activities, the learner can say both sounds on seeing the grapheme ‘oo’. The learner says the ‘shorter’ version first (as in the words above) then says the ‘longer’ version as in the words ‘moon’ and ‘spoon’. The words ‘blood’ and ‘flood’ provide examples of a third, less common, pronunciation. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letters ‘oo’ as he/she says the shorter sound on this occasion.

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 12 4 moon, pool, room, food, cool, mood, fool, tools, tooth, spoon, stool, balloon, roof, roofs, hoof, hooves oo-oo The two main pronunciations for the grapheme ‘oo’ are taught together as both pronunciations are common. In flash card activities, the learner can say both sounds on seeing the grapheme ‘oo’. The learner says the ‘shorter’ version first (as in ‘look and ‘book’) then says the ‘longer’ version as in the words above. The words ‘blood’ and ‘flood’ provide examples of a third, less common, pronunciation. Note the plural spellings of ‘roofs’ and ‘hooves’. It is common with plural words for the final letter ‘f’ to change to ‘ves’ but ‘roofs’ does not change. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letters ‘oo’ as he/she says the longer sound on this occasion. Note the spellings of the common words ‘to’, ‘do’, ‘who’ which end with the longer ‘oo’ sound. Learn ‘who’ and ‘whose’ together. Practise writing these as you sound out the words to become with them: to, do, who, whose 4 look, wool, good, wood, hoods, stood; moon, pool, food, spoon, tools, blooms The two main pronunciations for the grapheme ‘oo’ are taught together as both pronunciations oo-oo are common. In flash card activities, the learner can say both sounds on seeing the grapheme ‘oo’. The learner says the ‘shorter’ version first (as in ‘look and ‘book’) then says the ‘longer’ version as in the words above. The words ‘blood’ and ‘flood’ provide examples of a third, less common, pronunciation. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letters ‘oo’ as he/she says both sounds on this occasion. Note the plural spellings of ‘roofs’ and ‘hooves’. It is common with plural words for the final letter ‘f’ to change to ‘ves’ but ‘roofs’ does not change. Note, also, the third less common pronunciation of the grapheme ‘oo’ in the words ‘blood’ and ‘flood’: roof, roofs, hoof, hooves, blood, flood 4 yes, yet, yob, yak, yell, yeti, yelps, yank, yeast, yesterday, yellow Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ y and say the target words? The letter ‘y’ as used in the words above are usually considered to represent a consonant phoneme. The letter ‘y’, however, commonly represents three different sounds as in the words ‘yes’, ‘funny’ and ‘my’. The end sound in ‘funny’ is in between the sounds /i/ and /ee/. It is helpful to learn all three pronunciations quite early on in learning to read. Pronounce the ‘er’ in ‘yesterday’ as /u/. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letter ‘y’ as he/she says the sound /y/. 4 happy, daddy, funny, mummy, bonny, silly, baddy, tummy; tiny, sleepy, baby, puny, bony, pony, stony, stormy, gloomy, greasy -y Model how to sound out the letter ‘y’ in the words above. The pronunciation is between the /i/ and /ee/ sounds according to accent. In the examples above, the letter ‘y’ is representing a vowel phoneme illustrating that the letter ‘y’ can be considered as both a vowel letter and a consonant letter dependent upon its use in different words. Note that ‘double consonant’ graphemes indicate a preceding short vowel sound. In contrast, the words in the second column are pronounced with long vowel sounds even where this is represented by a single vowel letter. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letters ‘y’ as he/she says the appropriate sound. The words ‘key’, ‘donkey’ and ‘monkey’ may well appear in children’s so point out the ‘ey’ spelling for the end sound (taught in unit 9) and point out that the pronunciation of the letter ‘o’ in ‘monkey’ is /u/ (revise from unit 2): key, donkey, monkey

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 13 4 ox, box, fox, fix, six, mix, tax, wax, fax, text, oxen, taxi, foxes, boxes, maximum, vixen, relax, mixing, fixed The letter ‘x’ in the words above actually represents two sounds /k/+/s/. Teach ‘x’ as if it was one sound unit ‘ks’. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? When spelling, however, the learner will identify the sounds “ks” in words which ARE spelt with letters other than ‘x’ such as ‘books’, ‘ducks’ and ‘likes’. The learner needs attention drawn to this by providing word lists with the different types of spelling. (See /k+s/ Mini-Poster.) Reading is much more straightforward - simply see the letter ‘x’ and say ‘ks’. The letters ‘ed’ in ‘fixed’ are pronounced /t/. Note the schwa effect in oxen, vixen, foxes and boxes - pronounce ‘e’ as /u/. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letter ‘x’ as he/she says the sound(s) /ks/. 4 chip, chat, chin, chop, such, inch, rich, much, chick, chips, chops, chicks, chink, chunks, munch, riches, inches, chatty ch Model how to say the /ch/ sound in the words above. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all- through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? Explain that the grapheme ‘ch’ represents different sounds such as the ‘ch’ in the word ‘school’ and the ‘ch’ in the word ‘chef’. You will teach more about these pronunciation variations later. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the grapheme ‘ch’ as he/she says the phoneme /ch/. 4 ship, bash, fish, shop, sheet, hush, shed, rush, shell, mash, shall, dash, brush, shut, splash, push, cash, short, dishes, fishes sh Model how to say the /sh/ sound in the words above. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all- through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? Note the schwa effect in ‘dishes’ and ‘fishes’ where the ‘e’ sounds closer to /u/. In ‘push’ sound out the letter ‘u’ like /oo/ as in ‘foot’. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the grapheme ‘sh’ as he/she says the phoneme /sh/. Read and spell these words where the letter ‘e’ represents the long vowel sound /ee/: me, he, be, we, she 4 thin, thick, bath, path, moth, thud, thump, think, pith, three, maths, tooth, things, thanks, thrilling; the, then, this, that, there, their, with, smooth th, th The words in the left column are pronounced with an unvoiced /th/ and the words in the right column have a voiced /th/. Compare ‘pith’ with ‘with’ and ‘tooth’ with ‘smooth’. Once this slight difference has been pointed out, the main teaching and learning aspect to focus on is the tongue-between-teeth-and-lips position of /th/ in contrast to the top-teeth-on-bottom-lip position to say the sounds /f/ and /v/. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she then ‘hear’ the target words independently? The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letters ‘th’, as he/she says the sounds /th/ and /th/. Note the difference in spelling between ‘there’ and ‘their’. To help remember when to use these words, associate ‘there’ with ‘where’ and ‘here’; and associate ‘their’ with ‘their things’ (because ‘their’ is used in the context of ‘belonging to’). Grapheme ‘ere’ for the phonemes /air/ and /eer/ are taught in unit 6: where? here or there? their things 5 quit, queen, quack, quick, quiz, quins, quest, quiet, squid, squeal, squirrel In English writing, the letter ‘’ is always followed by the letter ‘u’. In the first instance, teach qu the grapheme ‘qu’ as if it was one sound unit of /kw/ when really it is two sounds of /k/+/w/. Treating ‘qu’ as /kw/ is helpful for both early reading and spelling purposes. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? In ‘quiet’ the letter ‘i’ and letter ‘e’ need to be sounded out separately and the ‘i’ sounded out in its long version as /igh/. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letters ‘qu’ as he/she says /kw/ as if it was one sound.

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 14 5 out, our, ouch, shout, pouch, mouth, south, cloud, proud, sound, found, hound, mound, ground, mountain, fountain ou Model how to say the sound /ou/ as in ‘mouth’. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all- through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? Tweak the pronunciation of the ‘ai’ in ‘mountain’ and ‘fountain’ to be closer to /u/ (schwa effect). The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the grapheme ‘ou’ as he/she says the phoneme /ou/. The words ‘our’ and ‘hour’ are pronounced the same but have different meanings. We return to our house. What hour of the day is it? The words ‘your’ and ‘four’ have the same grapheme ‘our’ but they are pronounced as /or/. The ‘ou’ in ‘you’ is pronounced /oo/ as in ‘moon’. When is your birthday? Will you be four or five? our, hour, your, four, you 5 owl, bow, cow, now, how, row, howl, down, town, gown, drown, brown, crown, towel, trowel, frowning ow The grapheme ‘ow’ has two main sounds as in ‘owl’ and ‘snow’. For this version model the sound /ou/ as in ‘mouth’. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? Tweak the pronunciation of the ‘e’ in ‘towel’ and ‘trowel’ to be closer to /u/ (schwa effect). The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the grapheme ‘ow’ as he/she says the phoneme /ou/. 5 out, shout, foul, mouth, crouch, sound, ground; owl, now, fowl, down, brown, growl, howling ou, ow Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she then ‘hear’ the target words independently? Note the homophones ‘foul’ and ‘fowl’. Remind the learner that words can sound the same but have different meanings. The different spelling can indicate the meaning. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the graphemes ‘ou’, or ‘ow’, as he/she says the phoneme /ou/. 5 own, row, bow, slow, grow, crow, shown, flown; owl, row, bow, brow, frown, growl, howling ow, ow Remind the learner that the grapheme ‘ow’ can be pronounced /oa/ or /ou/. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she then ‘hear’ the target words independently? Note the homophones ‘row’ and ‘row’, ‘bow’ and ‘bow’. Remind the learner that words can have the same spellings but have different meanings. As the spelling is the same in these homophone examples, the reader would need to know the context for pronouncing the words correctly according to their meanings. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the letters ‘ow’, as he/she says the sound /oa/ for the first row and /ou/ for the second row. 5 oil, coin, foil, join, coil, soil, boils, joint, point, ‘oink’, spoil, ‘boing’, avoid, android, ointment, joined, pointed oi The sound /oi/ is represented by two graphemes ‘oi’ and ‘oy’. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? Note that ‘ed’ in ‘joined’ is pronounced /d/ and the ‘e’ in ‘pointed’ is pronounced closer to /u/ ‘pointud’ (schwa effect). The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the grapheme ‘oi’ as he/she says the phoneme /oi/. 5 boy, toy, coy, joy, enjoy, ‘ship ahoy’, decoy, destroy, ploy, royal, oyster, employer, loyalty, royalty, annoyed oy The sound /oi/ is represented by two graphemes ‘oi’ and ‘oy’. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? The ‘ed’ in ‘annoyed’ is pronounced /d/. Note the schwa /u/ effect in ‘royal’, ‘oyster’, ‘employer’, ‘loyalty’, ‘royalty’ and ‘annoyed’. In ‘decoy’ the ‘e’ is pronounced /ee/. In ‘destroy’ the ‘e’ is pronounced closer to /i/ ‘distroy’. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the grapheme ‘oy’ as he/she says the phoneme /oi/.

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 15 5 oil, coin, foil, soil, boil, join, spoil, avoid, android; boy, toy, joy, enjoy, annoy, destroy, royal Model how to say the sound /oi/ as in ‘coin’. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through- oi, oy the-words in all the lines. Can he/she then ‘hear’ the target words independently? Note that, generally, the grapheme ‘oi’ is used when /oi/ is the first or middle sound whilst the grapheme ‘oy’ is used when /oi/ is the end sound of the root word. Tweak the pronunciations of ‘destroy’ to ‘distroy’ and ‘royal’ to ‘royul’. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the graphemes ‘oi’ or ‘oy’ for the phoneme /oi/. 5 cue, hues, duel, muesli, rescue, argue, due, overdue, avenue, value, venue, undue, pursued, statue, rescued, Tuesday, queue The grapheme ‘ue’ in the word examples above really represents two sounds /y/+/oo/. In these words, however, it is helpful to treat ‘ue’ as if it was one sound denoted as /ue/ (or /yoo/) for both reading and spelling purposes. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? Pronounce the ‘o’ in ‘overdue’ as /oa/ and tweak the pronunciation of ‘er’ to /u/ (schwa effect). The grapheme ‘que’ in ‘queue’ represents the /k/ sound (taught in unit 11) so ‘queue’ sounds the same as ‘cue’. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’, writes the grapheme ‘ue’ and says /ue/ (yoo) and /oo/ - see /oo/ words below. These are regular common words where the ‘ue’ grapheme represents the /oo/ sound. Draw these to the attention of the learner: blue, glue, true, clue, Sue 5 cue, hue, fuel, argue, rescue, Tuesday, statue; blue, glue, true, clue, Sue, issue, tissue, accrue -ue, -ue Remind the learner that the grapheme ‘ue’ can be pronounced /ue/ (yoo) or /oo/. The reader needs to be flexible when saying the sounds in an unknown word. Try /ue/ (yoo) first and if that does not make sense of the word, try /oo/. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all- through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she then ‘hear’ the target words independently? Most people would pronounce the ‘ss’ in ‘issue’ and ‘tissue’ as a /sh/ sound. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’, writes the grapheme ‘ue’, and says the sounds /ue/ (yoo) and then /oo/. 5 her, kerb, herbs, verb, herd, term, perky, perfect, hermit, permit, stern, thermal, serve, swerve; sister, mixer, perfect, perform, hopper, slipper, jumper, joker, thermometer, temper, perhaps er The ‘er’ grapheme can represent a distinct sound as in ‘term’ or it can represent a less-distinct sound closer to /u/ (schwa effect) as in ‘sister’. When reading, it is easy to sound out the ‘er’ grapheme in any word as the stronger /er/ sound and then tweak the pronunciation to /u/ where necessary. Spelling is not so easy and the speller needs to have some knowledge of the words to be spelt. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the grapheme ‘er’ as he/she says /er/. The words below are slightly tricky but very useful for early reading and writing. Draw attention to the tricky parts: other, mother, brother, father, sister;

love, dove, above, shove, some, come, done 5 arm, car, far, jar, afar, cart, art, park, farm, dark, part, bark, harm, mark, tart, yard, hard, lark, harp, charm, chart, shark, sharp, start, stark, alarm, garden, market, argue, sparkling ar Model how to say the sound /ar/ as in ‘arm’. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through- the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? Tweak pronunciation where necessary. The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the grapheme ‘ar’ as he/she says /ar/. The ‘a’ in ‘father’ is pronounced as /ar/. In some accents, words like ‘path’, ‘grass’ and ‘bath’ are pronounced with the /ar/ sound - “parth”: father, rather, lather, are

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 16 5 give, have, live, serve, shelve, carve, starve, twelve, sleeves, swerve, evolve, revolve, move, valve, active, motive, groove -ve In English, the grapheme ‘ve’ represents the sound /v/ when this is the last sound of the root word. Note that the ‘o’ in ‘move’ represents the /oo/ sound. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the grapheme ‘ve’ as he/she says /v/. Revise these words where the letter ‘o’ represents the /u/ sound: love, dove, glove, above, shove 5 fence, mince, dance, pence, force, , choice, fleeces, prince, chance, trance, palace, pounce, bounces, advanced -ce In these words, the grapheme ‘ce’ respresents the sound /s/. This is often referred to as ‘soft c’ (letter name - ‘see’). In plural words such as ‘fleeces’ the ‘e’ is pronounced as an /u/ (schwa effect). Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the grapheme ‘ce’ as he/she says /s/. These are very unusual words and it is helpful to learn them together. They are pronounced ‘wons’ and ‘won’. Tell the learner to imagine a ‘w’ at the beginning of the words when reading them: once, one 5 sunset, soft, soil, slippers; fuss, pass, glass, ass, dressing; fence, prince, palaces s, -ss, -ce The learner now knows three ways of representing the sound /s/. Spellings never begin with double ‘ss’. Pronounce the ‘e’ as /u/ (schwa effect) in plural words like ‘palaces’. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and practises writing the graphemes ‘s’, ‘ss’ and ‘ce’ whilst saying /s/. 5 forge, hinge, large, barge, twinge, damage, garages, packages, baggage, savage, manage, rummaged, cabbage -ge In these words, the grapheme ‘ge’ respresents the sound /j/. This is often referred to as ‘soft g’ (letter name - ‘jee’). No word ending with the sound /j/ is ever spelt with the letter ‘j’. In plural words such as ‘packages’ the ‘e’ is pronounced as an /u/ (schwa effect). Tweak the pronunciation of ‘-age’ according to regional accent. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all- through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the grapheme ‘ge’ as he/she says /j/. 5 jet, jut, jog, jam, jump, just, jolly, jester, jaguar; hinge, large, damage, savage, garage, manage j, -ge Words which end with the sound /j/ never end with the letter ‘j’. Words which begin with the sound /j/ can start with the letter ‘j’ or letter ‘g’ followed by letter ‘e’, ‘i’ or ‘y’. This will be taught later (in unit 6). Pronounce the letter ‘u’ in ‘jaguar’ in its long version /ue/ (yoo). Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she then ‘hear’ the target words independently? The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the grapheme ‘j’, or grapheme ‘ge’, as he/she says the phoneme /j/.

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 17 5 sense, tense, horse, morse, gorse, house, mouse, louse, grouse, expense, intense, immense, nurses, purses - In these words, the grapheme ‘se’ respresents the sound /s/. In plural words such as ‘nurses’ the ‘e’ is pronounced as an /u/ (schwa effect). Pronounce the ‘ur’ in ‘nurses’ and ‘purses’ as the ‘er’ in ‘herbs’. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and writes the grapheme ‘se’ as he/she says the phoneme /s/. Teach that the plural of ‘mouse’ is ‘mice’ and the plural of ‘louse’ is ‘lice’. Revise the spelling pattern of ‘your’ and ‘four’ and note that you can see this same pattern in ‘of course’ (‘our’ taught in unit 7): mouse, mice, louse, lice, your, four, of course 5 yes, yet, yellow, yesterday; my, by, shy, cry, try, dry; sunny, rainy, happily The left column provides word examples of the letter ‘y’ representing a consonant phoneme. y, y, y The other two columns provide word examples where the letter ‘y’ represents vowel phonemes. The ‘y’ in the words in the right column is pronounced as a sound between an /i/ and an /ee/. The letter ‘y’ is pronounced as the long sound /igh/ in the middle column. The interchangeable relationship between the letters and sounds of ‘i’ and ‘y’ in The Alphabetic Code should be noted. In unit 9, letter ‘y’ is also taught as code for /i/. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all- through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? The learner holds the pencil with ‘froggy legs and log under’ and practises writing the letter ‘y’ whilst remembering that it represents the sounds as in the key words of ‘yes, my mummy’. Remember that when the letter ‘y’ appears at the end of a word, it is not going to represent its consonant sound. When reading the end of a word, try the /igh/ or the /i-ee/ sounds. 6 cellar, ice, certain, cedar, cent, December; city, circus, cinema, decide, Cinderella; cygnet, ce, ci, cy cycle, lacy, spicy, Cyclops The letters ‘e’ or ‘i’ or ‘y’ following a letter ‘c’ alert the reader to pronounce the letter ‘c’ as the sound /s/. The letters ‘e’ or ‘i’ can stand alone to represent a vowel phoneme (cell) or be part of a letter combination which represents a vowel phoneme (circus). In ‘ice’ and ‘decide’ the split digraph ‘i-e’ represents the /igh/ sound. In ‘certain’ pronounce the grapheme ‘ai’ close to /u/ (schwa effect). Say the underlined letters as their long vowel sound. Tweak other pronunciations as necessary. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? The learner holds the pencil correctly with the tripod grip and practises writing the words below whilst saying the words. Words on additional sheet: /s/ once, dance, prince, peaceful, force, voice, choice, bounce, chance, menace; ice, celebrate, certain, cedar, cent, December, certificate, century, cemetery, celery; city, circus, circle, circular, decide, citrus fruit, docile, citizen, circumstances, circumference; cymbal, life-cycle, bicycle, fancy, policy, , numeracy, cylinder, vacancy, secrecy 6 gem, germ, gentle, genius, gerbil; giant, gin, giraffe, ginger, giblets; gym, energy, allergy, ge, gi, gy gyrate The letters ‘e’ or ‘i’ or ‘y’ following a letter ‘g’ alert the reader to consider whether the letter ‘g’ represents the sound /j/ or /g/ in that particular word. The letters ‘e’ or ‘i’ can stand alone to represent a vowel phoneme (gem) or be part of a letter combination which represents a vowel phoneme (germ). In ‘gyrate’ the split digraph ‘a-e’ represents the /ai/ sound. Pronounce the ‘le’ in ‘gentle’ close to /ul/ (schwa effect). The single letters which represent long vowel sounds are underlined. Tweak other pronunciations as necessary. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all- through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? The learner holds the pencil correctly with the tripod grip and practises writing the words below whilst saying the words. Words on additional sheet: /j/ large, range, emerge, arrange, advantage, change, postage, lounge, challenge, lozenge; gentle, gently, general, gemstone, genius, genuine, germ, germinate, generous, geography; origin, original, tragic, logical, magic, fragile, margin, surgical, digit, imagine; bulgy, dingy, allergy, gymnastics, spongy, apology, ecology, energy, stingy, strategy

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 18 6 no, go, go(es), so, also, judo, bingo, Pluto, banjo(s), bravo(s), piano(s), hello(s), radio(s), disco(s), tomato(es), potato(es), echo(es), mango(es), hero(es), domino(es); hoe, doe, roe, woe, oboe, toe, o, foes, woes, sloe, tiptoe, tiptoes, tiptoed, toptoeing, in the throes of…. Compare the words in the left ‘o’ column. Note that a letter ‘s’ is added to make the plural words such as ‘banjos’ and ‘pianos’. In other words where the singular word ends in ‘o’, the grapheme ‘es’ is added to make the plural words. The learner needs to group the words together to become familiar with the singular and plural versions. In addition, the learner needs to recall which words ending with the sound /oa/ are spelt with the ‘oe’ grapheme for the singular word as in the right column. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the- words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? 6 so, no, go, to, do, who; goes, does, shoes ‘o’ ‘oes’ Here are some very common words to note. The three words in the right column all have the same spelling pattern but are pronounced very differently. It is worth noting the different pronunciations for these words. 6 pie, lie, die, tie; pipe, lime, dine, tide Readers need to be alert to noticing two single vowel letters split by a single consonant letter. ie, i-e This configuration of letters might indicate that the word needs to be pronounced with the long vowel sound of the first vowel letter. The two split vowel letters, in effect, work in conjunction so there is no need to pronounce any sound for the final ‘e’. In longer words, however, the final ‘e’ might be part of another grapheme such as the ‘er’ in ‘piper’. Whilst traditionally teachers referred to the split digraph configuration as ‘magic e’ highlighting the final letter ‘e’, it is actually any two single vowel letters which may work in conjunction to indicate that the first vowel letter might represent its long vowel sound. Examples of this are the words ‘making’ and ‘baby’. Introduce the split digraph concept only through simple words as above at first. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. When finger-tracking the sounds under the word, point to the split digraph letters at the same time, with the index and middle fingers, indicating that the split vowel letters are working together. End by pointing to, and saying, the final consonant letter-sound correspondence, for example the ‘d’ in ‘tide’. The learner holds the pencil correctly with the tripod grip and writes the words below whilst saying the word being written. Further examples: fine, hide, mine, white, twice, spine, crime, bikes, wipes, lines Words on additional sheet: /igh/ I, I’m, mind, find, minus, wild, child, hind legs, behind, kind, my, why, fly, by, try, drying, fryer, July, style, shyly, dye, goodbye; sight, high, lighten, lightning, night, tightly, sigh, sighed, thigh, tightened; tie, ties, tied, cries, cried, flies, fried, die, dies, died, dries, replies, mince-pies, shied away, tries, tried, lie, lies, lied, horrified; time, like, hide, mice, side, outside, mime, wiped, lime green, wine, whine 6 bee, see, three, trees; eve, swede, theme, scenes Readers need to be alert to noticing two single vowel letters split by a single consonant letter. ee, e-e This configuration of letters might indicate that the word needs to be pronounced with the long vowel sound of the first vowel letter. The two split vowel letters, in effect, work in conjunction so there is no need to pronounce any sound for the final ‘e’. In longer words, however, the final ‘e’ might be part of another grapheme such as the ‘er’ in ‘scenery’. Whilst traditionally teachers referred to the split digraph configuration as ‘magic e’ highlighting the final letter ‘e’, it is

actually any two single vowel letters which may work in conjunction to indicate that the first vowel letter might represent its long vowel sound. Examples of this are the words ‘competing’ and ‘scenic’. [Note: The split digraph ‘e-e’ mostly appears in multi-syllable words.] Pronounce ‘sc’ in ‘scenes’ as the /s/ sound.

Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. When finger-tracking the sounds under the word, point to the split digraph letters at the same time, with the index and middle fingers, indicating that the split vowel letters are working together. End by pointing

to, and saying, the final consonant letter-sound correspondence, for example the ‘d’ in ‘swede’.

The learner holds the pencil correctly with the tripod grip and writes the words below whilst

saying the word being written. [continued...] Further examples: compete, complete, centipede, stampede, Chinese

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 19 6 Words on additional sheet: /ee/ me, be, he, we, she, emu, emerge, behave, equal, easy, easily, funnily, risky, key, donkey, monkey, money; see, seen, free, freely, steel, need, noble steed,

heed me well, feet, creep, greedy, deep, bleeper, seek, weeds, seems, steep, steeply; eat, feast, meat, peas, steaming hot, peaches, cream treat, dreamer, bleached, reach, seams, beaming; scene, evening, theme, swede, extreme, supreme, compete, completely, stampede, centipede 6 toe, hoe, doe, woe; , hope, dome, woke Readers need to be alert to noticing two single vowel letters split by a single consonant letter. oe, o-e This configuration of letters might indicate that the word needs to be pronounced with the long vowel sound of the first vowel letter. The two split vowel letters, in effect, work in conjunction so there is no need to pronounce any sound for the final ‘e’. In longer words, however, the final ‘e’ might be part of another grapheme such as the ‘er’ in ‘joker’. Whilst traditionally teachers referred to the split digraph configuration as ‘magic e’ highlighting the final letter ‘e’, it is actually any two single vowel letters which may work in conjunction to indicate that the first vowel letter might represent its long vowel sound. Examples of this are the words ‘hoping’ and ‘stony’. Introduce the split digraph concept only through simple words as above at first. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. When finger-tracking the sounds under the word, point to the split digraph letters at the same time, with the index and middle fingers, indicating that the split vowel letters are working together. End by pointing to, and saying, the final consonant letter-sound correspondence, for example the ‘p’ in ‘hope’. The learner holds the pencil correctly with the tripod grip and writes the words below whilst saying the word being written. Further examples: bone, home, rope, code, rode, stone, slope, alone, throne, telescope Words on additional sheet: /oa/ no, so, also, go, ago, old, gold, fold, hold, told, bold, post, most, bony, pony, only, hello, tomato, potato; oak, oats, coat, cloak, boat, float, soap, foam, soak, hoax, goat, toad, road, moat, moan, groan, roast, toast, boast, throat; own, owner, row, grow, sow (seeds), mow (grass), snow, flows, slow, glowed, show, throw, blow, bowl, low, lower, ; toe, hoe, foe, woe, oboe, home, hole, bone, stone, rope, hope, slope, lobe, globe, probe, poke, smoke, rode, alone, abode, cope 6 sundae, reggae, Gaelic, Rae, Mae; name, same, made, cake The grapheme ‘ae’ representing the /ai/ sound is rarely used in the English Alphabetic Code. ae, a-e Readers need to be alert to noticing two single vowel letters split by a single consonant letter. This configuration of letters might indicate that the word needs to be pronounced with the long vowel sound of the first vowel letter. The two split vowel letters, in effect, work in conjunction so there is no need to pronounce any sound for the final ‘e’. In longer words, however, the final ‘e’ might be part of another grapheme such as the ‘er’ in ‘baker’. Whilst traditionally teachers referred to the split digraph configuration as ‘magic e’ highlighting the final letter ‘e’, it is actually any two single vowel letters which may work in conjunction to indicate that the first vowel letter might represent its long vowel sound. Examples of this are the words ‘making’ and ‘baby’. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. When finger-tracking the sounds under the word, point to the split digraph letters at the same time, with the index and middle fingers, indicating that the split vowel letters are working together. End by pointing to, and saying, the final consonant letter-sound correspondence, for example the ‘m’ in ‘name’. The learner holds the pencil correctly with the tripod grip and writes the words below whilst saying the word being written. Further examples: make, tape, late, shame, shake, shade, blame, place, grapes, scraped Words on additional sheet: /ai/ able, table, cable, range, danger, ladle, waste, paste, main, claim, grain, plains, painter, stain, tainted, snail, sprained, aim, explain, drain; Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, layers, players, swaying; sundae, Gaelic, reggae, name, date, place, make, made, race, graceful, pace, shame, blame, daze, amazed; shaking, naming, dating, spacing, chasing, baby, lady, shady, hazy, crazy

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 20 6 cue, due, rescue, statue; true, glue, clue, blue; cute, tube, refuse; rule, flute, salute Readers need to be alert to noticing two single vowel letters split by a single consonant letter. ue, u-e This configuration of letters might indicate that the word needs to be pronounced with the long vowel sound of the first vowel letter. The two split vowel letters, in effect, work in conjunction so there is no need to pronounce any sound for the final ‘e’. In longer words, however, the final ‘e’ might be part of another grapheme such as the ‘er’ in ‘ruler’. Whilst traditionally teachers referred to the split digraph configuration as ‘magic e’ highlighting the final letter ‘e’, it is actually any two single vowel letters which may work in conjunction to indicate that the first vowel letter might represent its long vowel sound. Examples of this are the words ‘amusing’ and ‘saluting’. When reading words with the grapheme ‘ue’ or ‘u-e’, the reader needs to decide which sound the grapheme represents. If necessary, the reader may have to try the “yoo” sound and if that does not make a real word, then try the alternative “oo” sound. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. When finger-tracking the sounds under the word, point to the split digraph letters at the same time, with the index and middle fingers, indicating that the split vowel letters are working together. End by pointing to, and saying, the final consonant letter-sound correspondence, for example the ‘b’ in ‘tube’. Read the following words and write them in the “yoo” column or the “oo” column according to how they are pronounced: hues, true, overdue, blue, flutes, tubes, duke, undue, clues, cute, rule, tune, amused, cubes Words on additional sheet: /yoo/ and /oo/ unit, uniform, unicorn, union, unite, unicycle, Uranus, unisex, unison, unusual; cue, rescue, barbecue, overdue, statue, muesli; blue, true, clues, glue, misconstrue, gruesome; cute, resume, tube, mule, assume, consume, acute, obtuse; rule, flute, chute, salute, pollute, parachute; refusing, amusing, disputing, tuning fork, fuming; pruning, ruling, saluting, polluting, parachuting 6 air, fair, hair, pair, chair, dairy, stairs, flair, éclair, , hairy, despair, repair The sound /air/ is represented by several graphemes such as ‘air’, ‘are’, ‘ear’ and ‘ere’. It is air important, therefore, that the learner is helped to find ways to recall which words are spelt with which grapheme. Spend time to learn the meanings of these words and how to associate this group of words together, for example through their use in a silly story. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? The learner holds the pencil correctly and writes the grapheme ‘air’ as he/she says /air/. 6 bare, fare, hare, , wares, share, glare, scared, declare, stares, scarecrow, aware, flare The sound /air/ is represented by several graphemes such as ‘air’, ‘are’, ‘ear’ and ‘ere’. It is are important, therefore, that the learner is helped to find ways to recall which words are spelt with which grapheme. Spend time to learn the meanings of these words and how to associate this group of words together, for example through their use in a silly story. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? The learner holds the pencil correctly and copies the sentence below. Note that the word ‘are’ is the same spelling as the grapheme ‘are’. 6 bear, pear, tear, wear, wears, swear, bearer, unbearable, footwear, underwear, tearing The sound /air/ is represented by several graphemes such as ‘air’, ‘are’, ‘ear’ and ‘ere’. It is ear important, therefore, that the learner is helped to find ways to recall which words are spelt with which grapheme. Spend time to learn the meanings of these words and how to associate this group of words together, for example through their use in a silly story. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words?

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 21 6 there, where, nowhere, therefore, everywhere, anywhere, werewolf, premiere The sound /air/ is represented by several graphemes such as ‘air’, ‘are’, ‘ear’ and ‘ere’. It is ere important, therefore, that the learner is helped to find ways to recall which words are spelt with which grapheme. Spend time to learn the meanings of these words and how to associate this group of words together, for example through their use in a silly story. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? Pronounce the ‘a’ in ‘anywhere’ as the sound /e/ and the ‘o’ in ‘werewolf’ as the sound /u/. The learner holds the pencil correctly and copies the sentence below. 6 -air hair, fair, pair, flair, stairs; -are hare, fare, bare, wares, stares, flare; -ear bear, pear, wears; -ere where, there; their /air/ The sound /air/ is represented by several graphemes such as ‘air’, ‘are’, ‘ear’ and ‘ere’. This results in a number of words which are pronounced the same but which have different meanings. These are called homophones. Draw lines to join up the homophones above and talk about what each word means. Say each word in a sentence, for example: “The pear was very good to eat” and “I wore my best pair of gloves.” Words on additional sheet: /air/ fairness, unfairly, staircase, disrepair, repairman, chairlift, hairiness, hairless, airsickness, millionaire; care, careful, dare, dared, spare, barely, rarely, square, compare, fanfare, prepare, unaware; polar bear, tears, wearer, wearing, wearable, bearable, unbearable, swimwear, sportswear, bugbear; there, where, whereas, whereby, wherever, somewhere, wherefore, wherewithal, whereabouts, thereupon 6 deer, beer, steer, sneer, cheer, cheerful, career, engineer, sheer, volunteer, mountaineer The sound /eer/ is represented by several graphemes such as ‘eer’, ‘ear’, ‘ere’ and ‘ier’. It is eer important, therefore, that the learner is helped to find ways to recall which words are spelt with which grapheme. Spend time to learn the meanings of these words and how to associate this group of words together, for example through their use in a silly story. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? Pronounce the ‘ai’ in ‘mountaineer’ closer to /u/ (schwa effect). The learner holds the pencil correctly and writes the grapheme ‘eer’ as he/she says /eer/. 6 ear, hear, fear, dear, near, year, appear, shears, clear, spear, nearly, tears, tearful The sound /eer/ is represented by several graphemes such as ‘eer’, ‘ear’, ‘ere’ and ‘ier’. It is ear important, therefore, that the learner is helped to find ways to recall which words are spelt with which grapheme. Spend time to learn the meanings of these words and how to associate this group of words together, for example through their use in a silly story. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? The learner holds the pencil correctly and writes the grapheme ‘ear’ as he/she says /eer/. 6 here, mere, sphere, adhere, interfere, atmosphere, merely, persevere, sincerely, hemisphere The sound /eer/ is represented by several graphemes such as ‘eer’, ‘ear’, ‘ere’ and ‘ier’. It is ere important, therefore, that the learner is helped to find ways to recall which words are spelt with which grapheme. Spend time to learn the meanings of these words and how to associate this group of words together, for example through their use in a silly story. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? The ‘ph’ grapheme represents the /f/ sound (taught in unit 8). The learner holds the pencil correctly and writes the grapheme ‘ere’ as he/she says /eer/. 6 tier, pier, fierce, skier, pierce, cashier, cavalier, chandelier, skiers, frontier, piercing, fiercely The sound /eer/ is represented by several graphemes such as ‘eer’, ‘ear’, ‘ere’ and ‘ier’. It is ier important, therefore, that the learner is helped to find ways to recall which words are spelt with which grapheme. Spend time to learn the meanings of these words and how to associate this group of words together, for example through their use in a silly story. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? The ‘ch’ grapheme in ‘chandelier’ is pronounced /sh/. The ‘o’ grapheme in ‘frontier’ is pronounced /u/. The learner holds the pencil correctly and writes the grapheme ‘ier’ as he/she says /eer/.

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 22 6 -eer deer, peer, sheer; -ear dear, tear, hear, shear; -ere here; -ier tier, pier The sound /eer/ is represented by several graphemes such as ‘eer’, ‘ear’, ‘ere’ and ‘ier’. This /eer/ results in a number of words which are pronounced the same but which have different meanings. These are called homophones. Draw lines to join up the homophones above and talk about what each word means. Say each word in a sentence, for example: “The deer ran very quickly” and “I wrote to my dear friend.” Words on additional sheet: /eer/ eerie, eerily, jeer, veneer, pioneer, seersucker, overseer, deerskin, veer, steering, mutineer; fearful, gears, rear, yearly, weary, clearance, dearly, dreary, arrears, earring; hereby, hereafter, severe, severely, sincere, cashmere, biosphere, troposphere, cohere, revere; tiers, pier, pierced, piercingly, cavaliers, gondolier, fierceness, cashier, fiercely, frontiers 6 sir, girl, dirt, fir trees, bird, stir, first, shirt, skirt, birth, dirty, third, thirteen, thirty, thirsty, birthday, squirted ir The sound /er/ as in ‘fern’ is represented by several graphemes including ‘er’, ‘ir’, ‘ur’ and ‘ear’. It is important, therefore, that the learner is helped to find ways to recall which words are spelt with which grapheme. Spend time to learn the meanings of these words and how to associate this group of words together, for example through their use in a silly story. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? The learner holds the pencil correctly and writes the grapheme ‘ir’ as he/she says /er/. 6 fur, hurt, burn, burnt, curls, surf, nurse, purse, burst, burger, burglar, church, murder, lurks, murky, murmur, spurs, spurned, surly, surgery, surname, unfurl ur The sound /er/ as in ‘fern’ is represented by several graphemes including ‘er’, ‘ir’, ‘ur’ and ‘ear’. It is important, therefore, that the learner is helped to find ways to recall which words are spelt with which grapheme. Spend time to learn the meanings of these words and how to associate this group of words together, for example through their use in a silly story. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? The learner holds the pencil correctly and writes the grapheme ‘ur’ as he/she says /er/. 6 earn, earth, early, learn, pearls, earl, heard, search, earthquake, earnings, rehearsal, research The sound /er/ as in ‘fern’ is represented by several graphemes including ‘er’, ‘ir’, ‘ur’, ‘ear’ and ear ‘wor’. It is important, therefore, that the learner is helped to find ways to recall which words are spelt with which grapheme. Spend time to learn the meanings of these words and how to associate this group of words together, for example through their use in a silly story. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? The learner holds the pencil correctly and writes the grapheme ‘ear’ as he/she says /er/. 6 -er her, fern, germ, terms, hermit, herd, certain, herbs, berth, perfect; -ir sir, girl, bird, firm, dirty, birth, first, shirt, skirt, third, thirsty; -ur fur, hurt, turn, burnt, curls, burst, nurse, purse, /er/ church, burglar; -ear earn, learn, pearl, early, earth, heard, search, rehearsal The sound /er/ as in ‘fern’ is represented by several graphemes including ‘er’, ‘ir’, ‘ur’ and ‘ear’. Say as many /er/ words as you can in a sentence, for example: “Her skirt was very dirty” and “Check for your purses and search for the burglar.” 6 worm, work, words, worst, worth, worse, world, worship, worthy, working, workshop, worldwide, worthwhile, worthless wor The sound /er/ as in ‘fern’ is represented by several graphemes including ‘er’, ‘ir’, ‘ur’ and ‘ear’.

In the word examples above, the grapheme ‘or’ represents the /er/ sound but note that this is only the case when following the letter ‘w’. It is important, therefore, that the learner is helped to find ways to recall which words are spelt with which grapheme. Spend time to learn the

meanings of these words and how to associate this group of words together, for example

through their use in a silly story. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? The learner holds the pencil correctly and writes the grapheme ‘wor’ as he/she says “wer” [continued...] (/w/+/er/).

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 23 6 Words on additional sheet: /er/ nerves, verse, expert, advert, person, vermin, deserve, emergency, service, observe, superb; stir, girth, quirky, skirt, confirm, girder, squirm, virtual, whirlpool, swirling, firmly; urgent, curve, occur, murmur, purple, return, further, disturb, u-turn, turf, burden; yearning, pearly, learner, unheard-of, searchlight, unearth, earnest, earthwork, dearth, , earthenware; rework, worker, worsen, workman, bookworm, , clockwork, seaworthy, framework, earthworm, homework 6 sister, brother, perfect, perform, temper, perhaps, thermometer; colour, rumour, favour, humour, savour, flavour, honour, glamour er, our The sound /er/ as in ‘fern’ is represented by several graphemes including ‘er’, ‘ir’, ‘ur’ and ‘ear’. In the words above, the graphemes ‘er’ and ‘our’ may be pronounced as /er/ but then need to be tweaked closer to /u/ (schwa effect). It is important that the learner is helped to find ways to recall which words are spelt with which grapheme. Spend time to learn the meanings of these words and how to associate the words in each group; for example, through their use in a silly story. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? Pronounce the ‘o’ in ‘brother’ and ‘colour’ as /u/. The learner holds the pencil correctly and writes the grapheme ‘er’ and ‘our’ as he/she says /er/. 6 centre, metre, litre, acre, , fibre, timbre, theatre, millimetre, centimetre, kilometre, millilitre, centres, litres, metres -re In the words above, the grapheme ‘re’ may be pronounced as /er/ and tweaked to /u/ (schwa effect) or taught directly as /u/. The words above may be spelled with the ‘er’ grapheme in some countries. It is important that the learner is helped to find ways to recall which words are spelt with which grapheme. Spend time to learn the meanings of these words and how to associate the words in each group; for example, through their use in a silly story. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? This grapheme is revisited in unit 12. The learner holds the pencil correctly and writes the grapheme ‘re’ as he/she says /er/ or /u/. 6 [The teacher is left to complete this word list.] In the words above, the grapheme ‘er’ may be pronounced as /er/ and tweaked to /u/ (schwa -er effect) or taught directly as /u/. The words above may be spelled with the ‘re’ grapheme in some countries. It is important that the learner is helped to find ways to recall which words are spelt with which grapheme. Spend time to learn the meanings of these words and how to associate the words in each group; for example, through their use in a silly story. Ask the learner to say all the sounds all-through-the-words in all the lines. Can he/she ‘hear’ and say the target words? This grapheme is revisited in unit 12. The learner holds the pencil correctly and writes the grapheme ………….. as he/she says /er/ or /u/. Words on additional sheet: schwa ‘u’ to perfect, to permit, performance, undergrowth, thunderbolt, supermarket, partnership, hibernate, caterpillar, thermometer; colour, odour, favour, labour, glamour, armour, savour, rumour, honour; centre, metre, litre, acre, fibre, centimetre, kilometre, theatre, mediocre, ogre [-er is left for the teacher to fill in.] 7 little, able, table, cattle, bottle, middle, paddle, muddle, tickle, puddle, kettle, trickle, hackles, sparkles, tackle, pickles, niggle -le There are several graphemes which represent a sound which is close to two sounds “ul” (schwa effect). These include the graphemes ‘le’, ‘il’, ‘al’ and ‘el’. The ‘le’ variation was introduced in unit 2 during the ‘simple code’ stage and is revised here. Sound out and blend these words. 7 pupil, pencil, evil, April, anvil, basil, weevil, civil, nostrils, stencils, utensils, vigil, fossil, lentils, tonsils -il There are several graphemes which represent a sound which is close to two sounds “ul” (schwa effect). These include the graphemes ‘le’, ‘il’, ‘al’ and ‘el’. Sound out and blend these words. 7 animal, final, signal, equal, several, horizontal, virtual, general, , vertical, hospital, capital, manual -al There are several graphemes which represent a sound which is close to two sounds “ul” (schwa effect). These include the graphemes ‘le’, ‘il’, ‘al’ and ‘el’. Sound out and blend these words.

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 24 7 label, camel, panel, towel, parcel, tunnel, kennels, travel, travelling, traveller, jewel, jewellery, flannel -el There are several graphemes which represent a sound which is close to two sounds “ul” (schwa effect). These include the graphemes ‘le’, ‘il’, ‘al’ and ‘el’. Sound out and blend these words. Note that the final letter ‘l’ of the root word is usually doubled in England (see ‘travelling’) but not in the United States; for example, ‘jewelry’ and ‘traveling’. Words on additional sheet: “ul” single, circle, title, example, fable, possible, gentle, apple, cycle, jungle; April, pupil, pencil, evil, nostril, basil, utensil, stencil, anvil, weevil; animal, final, signal, equal, several, horizontal, vertical, general, decimal, virtual; label, camel, panel, kennel, parcel, towel, tunnel, travel, jewel, flannel 7 saw, jaw, paws, claws, draw, thaw, flaw, lawn, hawk, dawning, prawns, straw, strawberries, tawny owl, coleslaw, hawthorn, drawers, “squawk” aw There are many graphemes which represent the /or/ phoneme (or /aw/ phoneme). In unit 3, grapheme ‘or’ was introduced as code for /or/. Revise this. Now formally introduce the ‘aw’ grapheme above and, if preferred, use the /aw/ to symbolize the sound in the words above rather than /or/. In some regions and countries, the ‘r’ is pronounced in words like ‘storm’ (an ‘r-controlled’ vowel) and so the /or/ may not be considered accurate for indicating the sound in the words above. Teachers need to make these decisions about the way words are pronounced in their region and how they notate the phoneme. Sound out and blend the words above. 7 sauce, saucer, haul, haunt, pause, author, applause, launch, haunches, automatic, astronaut, , autumn, Santa Claus, automobile, audience au There are many graphemes which represent the /or/ sound. Sound out and blend these words with the ‘au’ grapheme. Note the ‘mn’ grapheme in ‘autumn’ which is pronounced /m/. Another word with this unusual grapheme is ‘hymn’ (taught in unit 12). 7 walk, talk, chalk, stalk, all, call, ball, hall, fall, stall, talking, walking, tallest, smallest, falling, calling, called, stalled al There are many graphemes which represent the /or/ sound. Sound out and blend these words with the ‘al’ grapheme. Take note of these words where the ‘al’ letters represent the two sounds /or/+/l/: also, almost, always, altogether Words on additional sheet: /or/ for, fork, port, fort, horns, torch, storm, thorns, morning, sport; saw, jaw, paws, lawn, dawn, hawk, draw, drawers, claws, awful; sauce, saucer, haul, haunt, pause, author, applaud, launch, automatic, August; all, call, ball, walk, talk, chalk, stalk, talking, tallest, smaller 7 oar, soar, roar, boar, board, hoard, coarse, aboard, hoarse, overboard, keyboard, roaring, floorboards, whiteboard oar There are many graphemes which represent the /or/ (or /aw/) sound. Sound out and blend these words with the ‘oar’ grapheme. 7 /or/ door, floor, flooring, indoors, outdoors; /oo+r/ poor, moor, spoors, poorly, mooring There are many graphemes which represent the /or/ sound. Some people pronounce the words -oor in the right column closer to long /oo/ + /r/. Sound out and blend these words with the ‘oor’ grapheme. 7 ore, more, core, sore, tore, bored, chores, shore, snore, before, explore, adore, galore, ignore, score, pinafore, sycamore, therefore, furthermore, restore, omnivore, herbivore, carnivore ore There are many graphemes which represent the /or/ (or /aw/) sound. Sound out and blend these words with the ‘ore’ grapheme. 7 your, four, pour, court, fourth, mourn, mourning, downpour, resources, of course, yours truly There are many graphemes which represent the /or/ (or /aw/) sound. Sound out and blend -our these words with the ‘our’ grapheme. Words on additional sheet: /or/ oar, soar, roar, boar, board, hoard, aboard, hoarse, overboard, floorboards; door, poor, moor, floor, spoor, poorly, flooring, indoors, outdoors, mooring; more, core, bored, snore, score, shore, adore, galore, ignore, before; your, four, pour, court, fourth, mourn, downpour, resources, of course, yours truly

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 25 7 itch, itches, hatch, hatching, batch, pitch, latch, ditches, ditched, clutch, mismatch, snatched, watch, stretcher -tch Revise the ‘ch’ grapheme when it represents the /ch/ sound. The grapheme ‘tch’ is another way to represent the /ch/ sound. 1) Generally, the grapheme ‘ch’ follows long vowel sounds (bleach, pooch, reaches) but there are some common words with short vowels which end in ‘ch’ and need to be especially noted; ‘rich’, ‘which’, ‘such’, ‘much’. Note also the word ‘touch’ which is pronounced with a short vowel sound as the grapheme ‘ou’ represents the /u/ sound in this word. The grapheme ‘ch’ also follows consonants such as ‘mulch’, ‘wrench’, ‘pinch’. 2) The grapheme ‘tch’ indicates a preceding short vowel sound as in ‘witch’, ‘fetch’, ‘thatch’, ‘notch’. Words are never written with the ‘tch’ grapheme at the beginning. The letter ‘a’ in ‘watch’ is pronounced /o/ (taught in unit 8). 7 chin, munch, chair, chat, poach, church, reach, chase, beach; match, fetch, catch, witch, ch, -tch switch, hutch, stitches, kitchen The graphemes ‘ch’ and ‘tch’ both represent the /ch/ sound. Revise the ‘ch’ grapheme. 1) Generally, the grapheme ‘ch’ follows long vowel sounds (bleach, pooch, reaches) but there are some common words with short vowels which end in ‘ch’ and need to be especially noted; ‘rich’, ‘which’, ‘such’, ‘much’. The grapheme ‘ch’ also follows consonants such as ‘mulch’, ‘wrench’, ‘pinch’. 2) The grapheme ‘tch’ indicates a preceding short vowel sound as in ‘witch’, ‘fetch’, ‘thatch’, ‘notch’. Words are never written with the ‘tch’ grapheme at the beginning. Remember these common words which do not follow the general pattern for the ‘ch’ grapheme: rich, which, such, much Words on additional sheet: /ch/ cherry, cherries, reach, cherish, churlish, champion, purchase, crunched, winch; Dutch, notch, clutch, etchings, last-ditch, crutches, ketchup, thatch 7 fudge, cadge, ridge, sledge, pledged, smudged, drudgery, cartridges, porridge, midges, begrudge, knowledge, edges -dge The grapheme ‘dge’ is another way of representing the /j/ sound. It indicates a preceding short vowel sound as in ‘sledge’, ‘fudge’, ‘midges’, ‘cadge’. Words are never written with the ‘dge’ grapheme at the beginning. The letter ‘e’ in ‘dge’ can also be re-used for other letter/s-sound correspondences as in ‘drudgery’ and ‘cartridges’. 7 large, baggage, age, page, damage, twinge, cabbages; edge, hedge, badge, judge, dodge, -ge, -dge fridge, smudges, lodger The graphemes ‘ge’ and ‘dge’ both represent the /j/ sound. Revise the ‘ge’ grapheme (unit 5). 1) Generally, the grapheme ‘ge’ follows long vowel sounds (large), consonant letters (twinge) and letter ‘a’ in two-syllable words like ‘baggage’ where the end of the word when spoken sounds more like short vowel ‘ige’ (baggage is pronounced “bagg-ige”; cabbage is pronounced “cabb-ige”). 2) The grapheme ‘dge’ indicates a preceding short vowel sound as in ‘hedge’, ‘fudge’, ‘fridge’, ‘bridge’. Words are never written with the ‘dge’ grapheme at the beginning. Words on additional sheet: /j/ just, jest, jester, jovial, jealous, ajar, January, jacket, jackdaw, joint, junior; germinate, giraffe, gymnasium, gentleman, giant, gyroscope, urgent, fragile, biology, merger; plunge, sponge, range, strange, garage, village, forge ahead, orange, , wage; ledge, nudge, wedges, dredge, sludge, grudge, dislodge, partridge, footbridge, misjudge

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 26 7 box, foxes, vixen, sixty, explain, extra, excuse, expect, expand, exercise, excite, excitement, extinct, expert, export, express, extraordinary; exam, example, exert, exerted, exotic, exit, x “ks” exact, exactly, exist, existence, exhaust, exhausting, exhausted, exhibit (exhibition) There is a slight variation of pronunciation for the letter ‘x’. Remember that this is an unusual grapheme in that it is a single letter representing two identifiable phonemes (sounds). Point out x “gz” to the learner that when reading words with the letter ‘x’, simply tweak the pronunciation as necessary. For spelling purposes, the learner needs to become familiar with the written words as some words may NOT be spelt with an ‘x’ despite identifying the sounds “ks” and “gz” such as ‘books’ and ‘eggs’. Do not pronounce the ‘a’ in ‘extraordinary’ but remember it can help with spelling (extra - ordinary)! Pronounce the ‘ti’ as /sh/ in ‘exhibition’ (taught in unit 8) and note that the ‘x’ is pronounced “ks” and not “gz”. Do not pronounce the ‘h’ in the words above. 7 knee, kneel, knelt, knot, know, knowledge, knuckle, knit, knight, knife, knock There are several unusual digraphs which traditionally have been referred to as if the words kn had ‘silent letters’ - for example, the ‘k’ in ‘knit’. Increasingly, however, the concept of the ‘’ is being replaced by the understanding that the digraph (two letters together) simply represents one sound (phoneme); that is, the ‘kn’ in ‘knit’ represents the /n/ sound. Sound out and blend these words and regard the ‘kn’ grapheme as representing the /n/ sound. See ‘kn’ and say /n/. Pronounce the ‘ow’ in ‘knowledge’ as /o/. 7 wrap, wren, wreck, wrist, wring, wrinkle, wriggle, wrong, wrestle, wrapping, write, writing, written wr There are several unusual digraphs which traditionally have been referred to as if the words had ‘silent letters’ - for example, the ‘w’ in ‘wrap’. Increasingly, however, the concept of the ‘silent letter’ is being replaced by the understanding that the digraph (two letters together) simply represents one sound (phoneme); that is, the ‘wr’ in ‘wrap’ represents the /r/ sound. Sound out and blend these words and regard the ‘wr’ grapheme as representing the /r/ sound. See ‘wr’ and say /r/. Pronounce the ‘st’ in ‘wrestle’ as /s/ (taught in unit 8). Note these words similar to ‘wrestle’ where the ‘t’ is not pronounced as the grapheme ‘st’ represents /s/: castle, whistle, rustle, nestle 7 lamb, limb, numb, bomb, dumb, thumb, succumb, climb, climbing, tomb, womb, plumber, comb, honeycomb -mb There are several unusual digraphs which traditionally have been referred to as if the words had ‘silent letters’ - for example, the ‘b’ in ‘lamb’. Increasingly, however, the concept of the ‘silent letter’ is being replaced by the understanding that the digraph (two letters together) simply represents one sound (phoneme); that is, the ‘mb’ in ‘lamb’ represents the /m/ sound. Sound out and blend these words and regard the ‘mb’ grapheme as representing the /m/ sound. See ‘mb’ and say /m/. Pronounce the ‘o’ in ‘tomb’ and ‘womb’ as /oo/ (taught in unit 10). 7 scent, scissors, scythe, scene, scenic, scenery, science, scientist Note in the words above that, in effect, a ‘soft c’ follows the letter ‘s’. This means that the sc letters ‘e’, ‘i’ and ‘y’ alert the reader to pronounce the preceding letter ‘c’ as /s/. In contrast, in words where ‘sc’ is followed by an ‘a’, ‘o’ or ‘u’, both the ‘s’ and ‘c’ are pronounced separately (scatter, scope, scullery). Sound out and blend these words and pronounce the ‘sc’ as /s/.

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 27 7 guess, guest, guy, guard, guardian, guilty, guitar, guide, guidance, disguise There are several unusual digraphs which traditionally have been referred to as if the words gu had ‘silent letters’ - for example, the ‘u’ in ‘guard’. Increasingly, however, the concept of the ‘silent letter’ is being replaced by the understanding that the digraph (two letters together) simply represents one sound (phoneme); that is, the ‘gu’ in ‘guard’ represents the /g/ sound. In some words the additional ‘u’ also acts as a barrier between the letter ‘g’ and the the vowel letters ‘e’, ‘i’ and ‘y’ therefore making it clear that the ‘g’ is to be pronounced in its ‘hard’ sound /g/ and not its ‘soft’ sound /j/. Sound out and blend these words and regard the ‘gu’ grapheme as representing the /g/ sound. See ‘gu’ and say /g/. 7 buy, buyer, buoy, buoyant, build, builder, building There are several unusual digraphs which traditionally have been referred to as if the words bu had ‘silent letters’ - for example, the ‘u’ in ‘build’. Increasingly, however, the concept of the ‘silent letter’ is being replaced by the understanding that the digraph (two letters together) simply represents one sound (phoneme); that is, the ‘bu’ in ‘build’ represents the /b/ sound. Sound out and blend these words and regard the ‘bu’ grapheme as representing the /b/ sound. See ‘bu’ and say /b/. 7 school, chorus, chemist, chrysalis, , chaos, chrome, chronic, chemical, cholera, chasm The grapheme ‘ch’ represents three sounds; for example, in ‘chant’ it represents the /ch/ sound, ch in ‘school’ it represents the /k/ sound and in ‘chef’ it represents the /sh/ sound. In the word examples above, see ‘ch’ and say /k/. 7 rhino, rhinoceros, rhubarb, rhythm, rhymes, rhumba, rhombus, rhetoric, rhebok, rhinestone, rheumatism, rhapsody, rhododendron rh There are several unusual digraphs which traditionally have been referred to as if the words had ‘silent letters’ - for example, the ‘h’ in ‘rhubarb’. Increasingly, however, the concept of the ‘silent letter’ is being replaced by the understanding that the digraph (two letters together) simply represents one sound (phoneme); that is, the ‘rh’ in ‘rhubarb’ represents the /r/ sound. Sound out and blend these words and regard the ‘rh’ grapheme as representing the /r/ sound. See ‘rh’ and say /r/. Pronounce the ‘eu’ in ‘rheumatism’ as /oo/. 8 shut, shall, sheep, push, wish, sharp, fresh, shoot, rush, crash, shirt, harsh, shape, dashing, short, bushes, shy; chef, chiffon, chalet, chute, parachute, chandelier, chassis, charades, sh, ch chivalry, chaperone, machinery There are several graphemes which represent the /sh/ phoneme. Revise the ‘sh’ grapheme in the left column which is the most common code for the /sh/ sound. Explain that in some words the grapheme ‘ch’ can represent the /sh/ grapheme as in the examples in the right column. Remind the learner that the grapheme ‘ch’ most commonly represents the /ch/ sound as in ‘chat’ and it can also represent the /k/ sound as in ‘chemist’. Pronounce the ‘et’ in ‘chalet’ as /ai/, the ‘is’ in ‘chassis’ as /i/ and the ‘i’ in ‘machinery’ as /ee/. 8 nation, motion, station, patient, patience, partial, initials, essential, torrential There are several graphemes which represent the /sh/ sound: ‘sh’, ‘ch’, ‘ti’, ‘ci’ and ‘ssi’. -ti Sound out and blend the words above. 8 official, delicious, precious, special, musician, ancient, artificial, politician, suspicious There are several graphemes which represent the /sh/ sound: ‘sh’, ‘ch’, ‘ti’, ‘ci’ and ‘ssi’. -ci The grapheme ‘ou’ as in ‘delicious’, ‘precious’ and ‘suspicious’ is pronounced /u/. Sound out and blend the words above.

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 28 8 mission, admission, permission, passion, expression, discussion, compa ssion, possession There are several graphemes which represent the /sh/ sound: ‘sh’, ‘ch’, ‘ti’, ‘ci’ and ‘ssi’. -ssi Note that the end of every word is spelt ‘-ssion’ and this word-chunk is pronounced “shun”. Sound out and blend the words above. Words on additional sheet: /sh/ shall, wish, sharp, fresh, shirt, splash, shape, rushing, short, shy; chef, chiffon, chalet, parachute, chassis, charades, chaperone, machine, machinery; nation, motion, patient, station, patience, partial, initials, essential, torrential, confidential; official, delicious, precious, special, musician, ancient, artificial, politician, suspicious, optician; mission, admission, permission, passion, expression, discussion, compassion, possession, procession, aggression 8 , division, television, confusion, invasion, illusion, persuasion, leisure, measure, treasure, pleasure, azure, beige, visual, casual, usual, collage, barrage, courgette, delusion, genre, /zh/ montage, photomontage, deluge These words have an unusual pronunciation which is denoted as /zh/. You could almost describe this sound as a ‘soft j’! Teachers usually teach the word ending of words like ‘vision’ and ‘division’ as a chunk - that is ‘sion’ = “zhun”. You could also teach the word endings of ‘leisure’, ‘measure’, ‘treasure’ and ‘pleasure’ as a chunk - that is ‘sure’ = “zhu” (a schwa effect). The ending of ‘azure’ is more pronounced: “a - zh - ure”. The ‘ei’ in ‘leisure’ is pronounced /e/. The ‘ea’ in the words above are also pronounced /e/. The ‘ei’ in ‘beige’ is pronounced /ai/. The ‘a’ in ‘collage’, ‘barrage’, ‘montage’ and ‘photomontage’ is pronounced /ar/. The first ‘e’ in ‘genre’ is pronounced close to /o/ and the final ‘e’ is pronounced as a shwa /u/. 8 couple, cousin, moustache, nourish, flourish, limousine, double, troubles, mucous, tough, rough, enough, touch, roughage, serious, flourished, famous, touching, enormous -ou The grapheme ‘ou’ is another way of representing the /u/ phoneme. This grapheme is most commonly used as part of the suffix ‘ous’ which forms adjectives such as the words ‘famous’, ‘serious’ and ‘enormous’. See ‘ous’ sounds book sheet for further examples. Sound out and blend all the words. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences. 8 anonymous, porous, vicious, precious, previous, rigorous, conscious, hideous, hilarious, numerous, devious, gracious, dangerous, studious, curious, courteous, tedious, atrocious, ‘-ous’ hazardous, envious, ambitious The suffix ‘ous’ commonly forms adjectives as in the words above. The suffix ‘ous’ is made from two grapheme-phoneme correspondences: ‘ou’ + ‘s’ = /u/ + /s/. All the graphemes underlined represent the /sh/ phoneme. Sound out and blend all the words. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences. Find further examples. 8 graph, telegraph, orphan, photo, photograph, phase, , telephone, elephant, sphere, hemisphere, phrase, triumph, phobia, phantom ph The grapheme ‘ph’ is another way of representing the /f/ phoneme. Point out that the words ‘photo’ and ‘phone’ are just shortened versions of the words ‘photograph’ and ‘telephone’ but that this is not the case with ‘graph’ and ‘telegraph’ and ‘sphere’ and ‘hemisphere’. Sound out and blend all the words. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences.

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 29 8 rough, tough, enough, roughage, cough, coughing, trough, laugh, laughter, draughts The grapheme ‘’ is another way of representing the /f/ phoneme. -gh The grapheme ‘ou’ in the words in the top row is pronounced /u/. The grapheme ‘ou’ in the words in the middle row is pronounced /o/. The grapheme ‘au’ in the words in the bottom row is more dependent on regional accent and could be pronounced as /a/ or /ar/. Sound out and blend all the words. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences. Words on additional sheet: /f/ fit, foot, roof, flat, first, after, lift, draft, fresh, crafts; off, huff, puffin, puffing, gruff, raffle, suffer, toffee, stuff, shuffle; photo, graph, orphan, triumph, sphere, hemisphere, elephant, phone, telephone; rough, cough, laugh, tougher, enough, trough, laughter, draughts, roughage, coughing 8 gap, give, got, peg, log, grab, grapes, grand, legs, go, goes, gone, great; egg, eggs, reggae, g,gg,gh digger, straggly, foggy, maggot, baggy, jogging, jagged; ghost, ghettos, ghastly, ghoul, ghost town, ghostwriter, gherkin, ghetto The sound /g/ is represented by the three graphemes ‘g’, ‘gg’ and ‘gh’. The grapheme ‘gg’ does not appear at the beginning or the end of words except for the word ‘egg’. The grapheme ‘gh’ is a rare grapheme although people are aware of it because of its use in the words in the right column above. Remind the learner that the grapheme ‘gh’ can also represent the /f/ sound as in ‘rough’. Sound out and blend all the words. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences. 8 chips, such, chat, much, chess, chart, rich, chilly, chain, chase, choose; school, chemist, chorus, ch,ch,ch chasm, Christmas, chrome, chronic, chrysalis, chaos; chef, chalet, parachute, chassis, chiffon, chivalry, chute, machinery The grapheme ‘ch’ represents the three sounds /ch/, /k/ and /sh/ as in the three columns above. Sound out and blend all the words. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences. 8 was, want, wasp, wand, wash, waft, watch, waffle, wander, swan, swap, swamp, swallow, swat, swashbuckling, swatch wa Where the letter ‘w’ precedes the letter ‘a’, the reader is alerted to the possibility that the ‘a’ might be pronounced as the /o/ phoneme. The easiest way to approach this letter combination is to see ‘wa’ and consider whether to sound out “wo”. The letter ‘s’ in ‘was’ is pronounced /z/. Sound out and blend all the words. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences. 8 quarry, quarrel, quality, squat, squash, squabble, squatter, squalor, squander, squad, squadron, quadrangle, qualify, qualification, quadrilateral, quarantine qua Where the grapheme ‘qu’ precedes the letter ‘a’, the reader is alerted to the possibility that the ‘a’ might be pronounced as the /o/ phoneme. The easiest way to approach this letter combination is to see ‘qua’ and consider whether to sound out “quo”. The learner needs to become familiar with these words. Sound out and blend all the words. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences. 8 war, warm, warmth, warn, wart, ward, warden, warp, towards, warning, wartime, wardrobe Where the letter ‘w’ precedes the grapheme ‘ar’, the reader is alerted to the possibility that the war ‘ar’ might be pronounced as the /or/ phoneme. The easiest way to approach this letter combination is to see ‘war’ and sound out “wor”. Sound out and blend all the words. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences.

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 30 8 gnat, gnaw, gnash, gnarled, gnome, , align, aligned, reign, feign, foreign, malign, foreigner, design, campaign, designer, consignment, resign gn The grapheme ‘gn’ is another way of representing the /n/ phoneme. The grapheme ‘ei’ in ‘reign’ and ‘feign’ is pronounced /ai/. The grapheme ‘ei’ in ‘foreign’ and ‘foreigner’ is close to /u/ (schwa effect). Sound out and blend all the words. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences. 8 hustle and bustle, whistling, rustle, jostle, trestle, wrestle, castle, thistle, gristle, gristly, mistletoe, nestle, nestling, listen, fasten, hasten, glisten, christen, christening, fastener -st- The grapheme ‘st’ is another way of representing the /s/ phoneme. The phoneme /s/ in the words above is usually followed by /u/ - the schwa effect. Sound out and blend all the words. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences. 9 they, grey, prey, survey, obey, disobey, surveyor, curds and whey, wheyface, convey, conveyed, heyday, conveyance, conveyor belt -ey The grapheme ‘ey’ is another way of representing the /ai/ phoneme. This grapheme is used rarely to represent the /ai/ sound but some words like “they”, “grey” and “survey” are commonly-used words. Sound out and blend all the words. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences. 9 eight, weigh, eighty, sleigh, weight, outweigh, eightieth, neighbour, neighbourhood, neighbourly, pennyweight, lightweight, heavyweight eigh The grapheme ‘eigh’ is another way of representing the /ai/ phoneme. This grapheme is used rarely to represent the /ai/ sound but most of these words are commonly-used words. Sound out and blend all the words. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences. 9 break, great, steak, beefsteak, breakneck, breakage, windbreaker, breakaway, break in, break out, breakwater, breaking and entering, greatness, great-aunt, greatcoat, Great Britain, -ea steakhouse, greatly The grapheme ‘ea’ is another way of representing the /ai/ phoneme. This grapheme is used rarely to represent the /ai/ sound but most of these words are commonly-used words. There are just three ‘root’ words with this grapheme-phoneme correspondence: break, great, steak. Note that in the word ‘breakfast’, the ‘ea’ grapheme is pronounced /e/ - not /ai/. Sound out and blend all the words. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences. 9 straight, straight angle, straighten, straightforward, straightening, straight face, straightjacket, straightaway, straight-laced, straightedge, straight and narrow -aigh The grapheme ‘aigh’ is another way of representing the /ai/ phoneme. This grapheme is used rarely to represent the /ai/ sound but most of these words are commonly-used words. There is just one ‘root’ word for the words and phrases above: straight. Sound out and blend all the words. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences. Words on additional sheet: /ai/ they, grey, prey, osprey, obey, disobey, survey, convey, heyday, surveyor; eight, weight, freight, “neigh”, sleigh, neighbour, eighth, eighteenth, underweight, overweight; great, steak, break, greater, greatly, greatest, outbreak, breakdown, heartbreak; straight, straighten, straighter, straightest Words on additional sheet: /ai/ able, table, cable, range, arrange, danger, ladle, waste, taste, toothpaste; aim, first aid, wait, grain, paint, faint, refrain, tainted, Spain, attainment; display, decay, delay, crayon, always, maybe, holiday, layers, portray, bricklayer; reggae, sundae; same, became, fade, shade, blame, invade, upgrade, persuade

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 31 9 donkey, monkey, money, storey, chutney, journey, honeymoon, honeysuckle, honeycomb, paisley, parsley, abbey, galley, hockey, pulley -ey The grapheme ‘ey’ is another way of representing the sound between the /ee/ and /i/ phonemes dependent upon accent. This grapheme also represents the /ee/ phoneme as in the word ‘key’. If the reader sees ‘ey’ and says /ee/, the reader can then tweak the pronunciation of the whole word if necessary. Sound out and blend all the words. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences. Words on additional sheet: /ee/ he, me, we, she, be, equal, decoy, decent, recycle, medium, medieval, region, de-ice; knee, cheek, sleek, indeed, greedy, cheese, freedom, agreement, disagree, speech; beach, sea-shore, squeak, feast, easy, dream, stream, please, meaning, speak; theme, scene, scheme, compete, complete, supreme, concrete, extreme, phoneme, grapheme 9 movie, , , budgie, freebie, pinkie, rookie, oldie, calorie, calories, hankie, collie, genie, cookie, cookies -ie The grapheme ‘ie’ is another way of representing the phoneme which is pronounced between /ee/ and /i/ dependent upon regional accent. It is often used for spelling abbreviated words (budgie) and people’s first name especially as shortened ‘pet’ names such as: Debbie, Georgie, Alfie, Maizie, Stevie, Annie, Susie. You will also see this grapheme in plural words where the singular word ended with the letter ‘y’ and has been replaced by the word-ending ‘ies’ such as cherry, cherries, story, stories. The learner has to learn through experience how to spell these words for writing and needs to be very attentive to the details of spellings when reading widely. Sound out and blend all the words above. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences. story, stories; cherry, cherries; berry, berries; party, parties; lorry, lorries; daisy, daisies 9 system, symbol, syrup, crystal, mystery, gym, hymn, rhythm, myth, gymnastics, cymbal The grapheme ‘y’ is another way of representing the /i/ phoneme as in the words above. The -y letter ‘y’ has a close relationship with both the letter ‘I’ and the phonemes /i/ and /igh/. Sound out and blend all the words. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences. Words on additional sheet: /ee/ - /i/ rainy, sunny, funnily, easily, dreadfully, happily, mainly, especially, gratefully, patiently; alley, honey, money, valley, kidney, jockey, medley, chimney, trolley, barley; pixie, movie, bookie, budgie, rookie, undies, zombie, calories, freebie, pinkie; mystery, and /i/ system, crystal, gymnastics, myth, rhythm, hymn, syrup, symbol, cymbal 9 thief, brief, chief, relief, niece, grief, grieving, priest, series, field, specie, species, frieze, , hygiene, hygienic, fiend, retriever, showpiece, disbelief, mischief, windshield, grievance, make- -ie believe, unbelievable The grapheme ‘ie’ is another way of representing the /ee/ phoneme. Sound out and blend all the words. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences.

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 32 9 either, eider duck, eiderdown, neither, heist, Heidi, seismic, seismograph, poltergeist, Fahrenheit, Poseidon, feisty ei The grapheme ‘ei’ is a very rare way of representing the /igh/ phoneme. The words ‘either’ and ‘neither’ are very common although some people pronounce the grapheme ‘ei’ in these words with the /ee/ phoneme. Sound out and blend all the words. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences. Words on additional sheet: /igh/ kind, mind, mild, blind, wildest, finding, winding, behind, climb, idle; pie, pies, necktie, magpie, piebald, French fries, terrified, magnified, horrified, certified, qualified; alike, guide, awhile, arrive, besides, divide, inside, invite, lively, politely Words on additional sheet: /igh/ why, shy, fly, style, July, type, apply, reply, hyena, python, hygiene, cycle; higher, lights, fight, brighten, frightened, slight, night, knight, lightning, frightening; either, neither, heist, seismic, eider duck, eiderdown, seismograph, poltergeist, Fahrenheit, Poseidon letter pattern: ie /igh/ tied, untie, died, cried, fried, freeze-dried, Pied Piper, satisfied, classified, tongue-tied, denied, occupied, preoccupied; /ee/-/i/ eerie, genie, birdie, caddie, collie, cookie, goalie, brownies, varied, prairie; /ee/ grief, thief, thieves, chief, chiefs, briefcase, piece of glass, field, shield, belief, believe, achieve, shriek 10 son, ton, won, wonder, wonderful, front, upfront, sponge, tongue, among, monkey, money, honey, come, welcome, becoming, some, somewhere, fearsome, burdensome, troublesome, /u/ o onion, pigeon, love, mother, brother, unbecoming, done, underdone, outdone, other There are several graphemes which represent the /u/ phoneme and ‘o’ is a less common grapheme for this sound. This Sounds Book sheet revisits the letter ‘o’ as code for the /u/ sound (see unit 2). Identify other graphemes in the words above which are code for the /u/ phoneme. In words of this type, the pronunciation is sometimes closer to the schwa effect. Words on additional sheet: /oa/ no, go, so, also, long ago, solo, duo, trio, volcano, patio, buffalo, avocado, Eskimo, mosquito, ; roam, shoal, afloat, throat, approach, boastful, goalpost, cloakroom, toadstool, coastguard; window, slowly, rainbow, shadowy, sorrowful, unknown, glowing, burrow, meadow, tomorrow Words on additional sheet: /oa/ doe, foe, hoe, roe deer, roebuck, ice floe, tiptoe, mistletoe, woebegone, oboe; dome, globe, ozone, smoke, telephone, remote, explode, keyhole, tadpole, quote; dough, though, although, doughy, doughnut Words on additional sheet: long /oo/ teaspoon, shampoo, cockatoo, foolproof, cartoon, soothe, monsoon, cocoon, kangaroo, bamboo; blue, clues, true, glue, glued, accrue, misconstrue, gruesome, gruelling, rueful, fondue; prune, dilute, conclude, include, pollute, fluke, truce, delude, overrule, parachute 10 yew tree, chew, crew, brew, drew, threw, screw, shrew, shrewd, jewelry, corkscrew, cashew nuts, sewage, strewn ew There are many graphemes which represent the long /oo/ sound. Sound out and blend these words where the ‘ew’ grapheme represents the long /oo/. The grapheme ‘ew’ can also represent “yoo”. When you see the grapheme ‘ew’ flashcard, say “yoo-oo” to show you know the alternative pronunciations. When you see the grapheme ‘ue’ flashcard, remember to say “yoo- oo”. ‘Jewelry’ can also be spelt ‘jewellery’. 10 suit, fruit, juice, bruise, cruiser, recruit, suitor, juicy, grapefruit, suitable, sluice, lawsuit, recruitment, bruised ui There are many graphemes which represent the long /oo/ sound. Sound out and blend these words where the ‘ui’ grapheme is code for the long /oo/. This grapheme for the long /oo/ sound is not that common although some of the words with this spelling are common like ‘fruit’.

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 33 10 you, soup, group, wound, route, troupe, rouge, coupe, recoup, mousse, coupon, soufflé, boulevard, bouffant, bouquet, roulette, boutique ou There are many graphemes which represent the long /oo/ sound and ‘ou’ is a more unusual grapheme for this sound. Sound out and blend these words where the ‘ou’ grapheme represents /oo/. Many of these words have French origins. Use a to look up their meanings. 10 to, do, movie, lose, losing, move, moving, movable, remove, removal, improve, prove, disprove, approve, approval, disapprove, disapproval, tomb, womb, who, whose, for whom /oo/ o There are many graphemes which represent the long /oo/ sound and ‘o’ is a more unusual grapheme for this sound although these words above are common. Sound out and blend these words where the letter ‘o’ represents long /oo/. The grapheme ‘wh’ is a very rare grapheme for the /h/ phoneme. Words on additional sheet: long /oo/ crew, I grew up, you drew, she threw, the wind blew, jewels, jeweller, brewery, chewy, brewing; suit, it suits me, suitor, fruity flavour, juicy grapefruit, fruitful meeting, suitably, breadfruit, unsuitably, bruises; you, soup, to soup up a car, groups, troupe of actors, rouge (make-up), coupon, mousse, soufflé, through 10 deuce, feud, feudal, neurotic, neutrality, neural, European, pneumatic drill, pneumonia, liqueur, euphoria eu There are many graphemes which represent “yoo” (/y/+/oo/). Sound out and blend these words where the ‘eu’ grapheme, more or less, represents “yoo”. This is a rare grapheme for “yoo”. This is more appropriate for older learners. 10 new, newt, I knew, news, ewe, few, pew, dew, dewy, stew, sinew, mews, newborn, curfew, mildew, newborn, pewter, newspaper, Dewey ew There are four main graphemes which represent the /yoo/ sound. These are ‘u’, ‘ue’, ‘u-e’ and ‘ew’. Rare graphemes include ‘eu’ and ‘iew’. Sound out and blend these words above where the ‘ew’ grapheme represents the /yoo/ sound. The grapheme ‘ew’ can also represent the long /oo/ phoneme. When you see the grapheme ‘ew’ flashcard, say “yoo-oo” to show you know the alternative pronunciations. When you see the grapheme ‘ue’ and ‘u-e’ flashcards, also remember to say “yoo-oo”. Words on additional sheet: “yoo” argument, unique, future, stupid, genuine, soluble, human, ambulance, calculate, fortunate; argue, queue, continue, discontinue, revenue, subdued, rescue, barbecue, refuel, undervalue; sand dunes, fortune, costume, dispute, produce, attitude, gratitude, contribute, tribute, refuse Words on additional sheet: “yoo” feud, feudalism, neutral, pasteurise, euphonium, eureka, grandeur, eurhythmics, eucalyptus, therapeutic; newt, skewer, curfew, mildew, nephew, Newton, pewter, newborn, renew, sinew; view, review, preview, viewing, overview, viewfinder, interview, interviewee, interviewer 10 view, review, viewpoint, preview, viewing, viewfinder, viewed, overview, interview, interviewer, interviewee -iew There are four main graphemes which represent the /yoo/ sound. These are ‘u’, ‘ue’, ‘u-e’ and ‘ew’. Less common graphemes include ‘eu’ and ‘view’ is the one root word for ‘iew’. Sound out and blend these words above where the ‘iew’ grapheme represents the /yoo/ sound. 11 ought, nought, fought, bought, brought, thought, thoughtful, thoughtless, thoughtlessness, thoughtfully, thoughtfulness, wrought iron, overwrought, sought, forethought, aforethought The grapheme ‘ough’ is a very rare spelling variation of the /or/ (or /aw/) phoneme. Words such as ‘ought’, ‘nought’, ‘bought’ and ‘thought’, however, are used very commonly. Sound out and blend all the words above. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences.

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 34 11 aught, naught, taught, caught, fraught, daughter, untaught, haughty, haughtily, distraught, naughty, naughtiness, naughtily, goddaughter, granddaughter augh The grapheme ‘augh’ is a very rare spelling variation of the /or/ (or /aw/) phoneme. Words such as ‘taught’, ‘caught’ and ‘daughter’, however, are used very commonly. Note that there are common spelling alternatives for the whole words ‘aught’ (ought) and ‘naught’ (nought). Sound out and blend all the words above. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences. 11 ought, nought, bought, brought, sought, thought, thoughtful, overwrought; aught, naught, caught, naughty, taught, fraught, daughter, distraught /aw/ The graphemes ‘ough’ and ‘augh’ are very rare spelling variations of the /aw/ phoneme. The word ‘ought’ has the same meaning as ‘aught’, and ‘nought’ has the same meaning as ‘naught’. It is more usual to see the ‘ought’ and ‘nought’ spellings. Whilst the ‘ough’ and ‘augh’ graphemes as code for /aw/ are very rare, the words above are not rare. Sound out and blend all the words above. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences. Select a few of the words above from both columns and write some simple sentences: 11 ought, nought, bought, brought, sought, thought, thoughtful, overwrought; aught, naught, caught, naughty, taught, fraught, daughter, distraught /or/ The graphemes ‘ough’ and ‘augh’ are very rare spelling variations of the /or/ (or /aw/) same content as phoneme. The word ‘ought’ has the same meaning as ‘aught’, and ‘nought’ has the same sheet above but meaning as ‘naught’. It is more usual to see the ‘ought’ and ‘nought’ spellings. Whilst the with a different ‘ough’ and ‘augh’ graphemes as code for /or/ (/aw/) are very rare, the words above are not ‘sound’ notation rare. Sound out and blend all the words above. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences. Select a few of the words above from both columns and write some simple sentences: Words on additional sheet: letter pattern: ought /or/ ought, bought, nought, sought, brought, thought, thoughtful, thoughtfully, throughtless, forethought, aforethought, wrought, wrought iron, overwrought; /ou/ bough, boughs, plough, ploughs, ploughed, ploughing, drought, Slough; /oa/ dough, doughy, though, although, doughnut; /u/ borough, thorough, thoroughly, Scarborough; /oo/ through, throughout, see-through, throughway; /u/+/f/ rough, roughly, roughage, tough, toughen, enough, slough; /o/+/f/ cough, coughed, coughing, trough, troughs; /u/+/p/ hiccough 11 school, scholar, chaos, anchor, chasm, orchid, chorus, scheme, chemist, chronic, chord, echo, stomach, arachnid, mechanism, chameleon, chrysalis, headache, orchestra, archaeology, archaic ch Revise that the grapheme ‘ch’ is a less common spelling variation of the /k/ phoneme. This ‘ch’ spelling variation for /k/ has Greek origins. Note that in ‘headache’ the grapheme ‘che’ represents the /k/ phoneme. Sound out and blend all the words above. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences. 11 quiche, conquer, conqueror, bouquet, mosquito, piquant, marquetry, marquee, parquet, briquette, masquerade, quay, croquet, croquette, etiquette, mannequin, tourniquet, lacquer, qu racquetball, marquis, marquess The grapheme ‘qu’ is a less common spelling variation of the /k/ phoneme. It has French origins as can be seen by other spelling features of the words above. The grapheme ‘et’ is pronounced /ai/ in ‘bouquet’, ‘parquet’, ‘croquet’ and ‘tourniquet’. The grapheme ‘ay’ is pronounced /ee/ in ‘quay’. Note that in two words the grapheme ‘cqu’ is code for the /k/ phoneme. Sound out and blend all the words above. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences.

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 35 11 queue, cheque, clique, pique, picturesque, unique, uniquely, plaque, brusque, discotheque, boutique, oblique, obliquely, technique, mosque, antique, physique, grotesque, arabesque que The grapheme ‘que’ is a less common spelling variation of the /k/ phoneme. It has French origins as can be seen by other spelling features of the words above. Pronounce the ‘th’ as /t/ in the word ‘discotheque’. Sound out and blend all the words above. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences. Words on additional sheet: /k/ caravan, capital, carnival, carpet, cupboard, custard, cultivation, contents, contented, collapse, incredible, creatures, clattering; kindly, skeleton, kaftan, kaleidoscope, keepsake, unkempt, kernel, kestrel, kettledrum, keypad, kidneys, skirker, kitchenware; socket, bottleneck, chopsticks, ramshackle, shockingly, wickerwork, woodpecker, seasickness, blockbuster, bricklayer, cockleshells, double-check, shuttlecock; preschool, technology, melancholy, , chronology, bronchitis, backache, mechanic, architect, charismatic, chamomile, hierarchy, chaotic; conqueror, bouquet, parquet, mosquito, etiquette; technique, statuesque, opaquely, mystique, uniqueness 11 quart, quarter, quarterly, quartet (quartette), quarters, quarterfinal, quarterback, quartz The grapheme ‘qu’ preceding the grapheme ‘ar’ alerts the reader to pronounce the ‘ar’ as the quar /or/ (or /aw/) phoneme. Note the words ‘quarry’ and ‘quarrel’ below with ‘rr’ where the reader pronounces the letter ‘a’ as /o/ like other words with the ‘qua’ pattern (quad, quality, quantity). The ‘a’ in quarantine is pronounced /o/. Sound out and blend all the words. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences. quarantine, quarry, quarrel 12 rogue, vogue, catalogue, intrigue, intrigued, ague, fatigue, fatigued, plague, plagued, vaguely, vagueness, vague, colleagues, synagogue, league, monologue, dialogue, prologue, epilogue, -gue travelogue The grapheme ‘gue’ is a less common spelling variation of the /g/ phoneme. It has French origins. Sound out and blend all the words above. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences. Note the unusual grapheme ‘ngue’ which represents the /ng/ phoneme: tongue, tongue-tied, meringue, harangue, haranguer, harangued Words on additional sheet: /g/ garden gate, garage, dragon, overgrown, groceries, gigantic, galaxy, garlic, glossy, golfer; digging, bigger, rugged, baggage, logged in, staggering, giggles, struggling, shrugged, bedraggled; lifeguard, guitarist, guinea fowl, guarantee, guilder, disguised, guilty, guesswork, guesthouse, Guernsey; brogues, leagues, vaguely, plagued, fatigue, in vogue, monologue, dialogue, catalogue, colleague 12 shine, twine, alpine, canine, feline, define, defined, saline, refine, refinery, turbine, mine, combine, combined, declined -ine The letter pattern ‘ine’ in the words above can be decoded asa straightforward split digraph ‘i- e’ with letter ‘n’ therefore pronounced /igh/+/n/. This letter pattern ‘ine’, however, should alert the reader to the possibility of alternative pronunciations such as “een” in ‘ravine’ and “in” in ‘jasmine’. The reader needs to be flexible and aware of the possible pronunciations when reading unfamiliar words with the ‘ine’ letter pattern. Sound out and blend all the words above. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences. 12 engine, famine, masculine, genuine, genuinely, feminine, medicine, determine, jasmine, examine, crinoline, intestine -ine The letter pattern ‘ine’ is pronounced in the words above as “in” which is two phonemes: /i/+/n/. The grapheme ‘ne’ is simply representing the /n/ phoneme. Sound out and blend all the words above. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences.

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 36 12 magazine, gasoline, routine, sardines, submarine, ravine, machine, machinery, marine, limousine, vaccine, cuisine, trampoline, pristine, latrine, nectarine, tambourine, iodine -ine The letter pattern ‘ine’ has French origins and it is pronounced in the words above as “een” which is two phonemes: /ee/+/n/. Sound out and blend all the words above. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences. Words on additional sheet: letter pattern -ine /igh/+/n/ whine, entwined, skyline, pineapple, moonshine, confined, guidelines, turbine, ninety, inclined; /i/+/n/ imagine, medicine, determined, illumine, discipline, genuine, destined, masculine, feminine, engine; /ee/+/n/ trampoline, margarine, aquamarine, tambourine, chlorine, figurine, magazines, mezzanine, sardines, routinely 12 autumn, autumnal, column, columnist, solemn, solemnly, condemn, condemnation, hymn, hymns, mnemonic mn The grapheme ‘mn’ is a very rare spelling variation of the /m/ phoneme but words with this spelling variation are used commonly. In ‘autumnal’ and ‘condemnation’, the letter ‘n’ is pronounced as /n/. In ‘columnist’, people choose whether to pronounce the letter ‘n’. In contrast, the grapheme ‘mn’ represents the /n/ phoneme in the word ‘mnemonic’. Sound out and blend all the words above. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences. 12 psalm, psyche, pseudonym, psychiatry, psychiatrist, psychology, psychologist, psoriasis, psychic, psychedelic The grapheme ‘ps’ is a very rare spelling variation of the /s/ phoneme. It has Greek origins. This level of vocabulary and code information may be considered to be more suitable for older learners. Sound out and blend all the words above. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences. Revise that in these words, the ‘al’ grapheme is code for the /ar/ phoneme: psalm, calm, balm, palm, almond 12 alms, almshouse, psalm, psalms, palm, palms, balm, balmy, embalm, embalmed, embalming, calm, calmly, becalmed, calming, almond, almonds, qualms alm alf calf, half, halfway, behalf alv calves, halves The grapheme ‘al’ is a very rare spelling variation of the /ar/ phoneme. Some words with this spelling variation, however, are used commonly. The letter ‘m’ or ‘f’ (or ‘v’ for the plural version) following the grapheme ‘al’ alerts the reader to say /ar/. The reader simply needs to become familiar with the very few words where the ‘al’ is pronounced /ar/. Sound out and blend all the words above. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences. 12 halt, malt, salt, salty, saltiness, exalt, exaltation, halter, waltz, falter, falteringly, halting, paltry, alter, alternating, unalterable, basalt, cobalt, saltpeter, altar, altruism, altruistic, Malta, Maltese alt The letter pattern ‘alt’ alerts the reader that the letter ‘a’ might be pronounced as an /o/. Sound out and blend all the words above. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences. 12 picture, capture, future, nature, pastures, fixtures, gesture, culture, venture, temperature, stature, , furniture, literature, structure, features, vulture, mixture, creatures, sculpture, -ture dentures, nurture, posture, puncture, departure, adventure, signature, lecture The letter pattern ‘ture’ in the words above can be pronounced close to a /ch/ phoneme followed by a schwa: “chu”. Sound out and blend all the words above. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences. Note that ‘mature’ and ‘immature’ are pronounced differently from the words above and closer to simple code: mature, immature

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 37 12 /y+oo/ beauty, beautify, beautiful, beautician, beautifully /o/ bureaucracy /oa/ beau, bureau, chateau, plateau, tableau, trousseau, bureaucrat (schwa), portmanteau The grapheme ‘eau’ can represent two main sounds: /yoo/ as in ‘beauty’ and /oa/ as in ‘beau’. The grapheme ‘eau’ is pronounced /o/ in the word ‘bureaucracy’. Sound out and blend all the words above. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences. 12 centre, metre, litre, fibre, ogre, theatre, mediocre, acre, goitre, timbre, sceptre, ochre, lucre, sabre, meagre, calibre -re There may be some variation of spelling of the words above. In these words, the ‘re’ is pronounced as a schwa /u/. Some of these words may be spelt with ‘er’ in place of the ‘re’ according, for example, to the accepted regional spelling variations. The teacher needs to point out this variance and decide which spelling is usually accepted in the region for the learner to adopt. Draw up a chart to make the differences clear. Sound out and blend all the words above. Discuss the meanings of the words and say them in simple sentences. Note the words ‘cadre’ and ‘genre’ where the ‘re’ is pronounced as /r/+/u/: cadre, genre 12 fungus, fungi (or funguses), fungal, language, English, anguish, languish, linger, angle, dangled, bangles, wrangle, strangle, newfangled, congress, conquer, vanquish, defunct, adjunct, anchor, -n- zinc, uncle, function, junction, juncture, puncture, tincture, precinct, succinct, lynx, Sphinx, larynx, punctual, banquet The grapheme ‘n’ is sometimes code for /ng/. In unit 4, however, for convenience of teaching beginners, the letters ‘nk’ were taught as a special case as if it was one sound unit of /ngk/ - sometimes denoted as /ng+k/ or simply /nk/. This is because there are many early, simple words which are spelt with the letters ‘nk’ like ‘bank’, ‘sink’, ‘tank’, ‘chunk’, ‘bunk-beds’. Treating ‘nk’ as one unit of sound at the beginner stage is useful for both reading and spelling skills. Notice that many of the words above still include the /ng/ phoneme followed by the /k/ phoneme but the spelling for the /k/ phoneme include the alternatives ‘ch’, ‘qu’ and even ‘x’ (which is /k+s/). At this stage of learning, it is straightforward to consider the letter ‘n’ as alternative code for the /ng/ phoneme.

Copyright 2008 Debbie Hepplewhite and www.PhonicsInternational.com 38