Synthetic Systematic Phonics

Phonics is an approach to teaching reading and writing by developing the learner’s phonemic awareness. This is where the learner hears and identifies the sounds and use phonemes or sound patterns. It is a systematic approach to teach the learner the relationship between sounds and the written spelling pattern and graphemes it represents. Education Endowment Foundation (2016).

Synthetic Systematic Phonics and Phonics Awareness Synthetic Systematic Phonics is teaching children to recognise the sounds that letters or a group of letters make and blending them together to form a word, providing a structured and systematic approach to teaching literacy. The RWI programme teaches pupils all of the phonics sounds used in the English language and

Intervention Programme where children learn to read and have the ability to relate the relationships between letter patterns and sounds patterns. Miskin Website

Whole Word

The Whole Word method of literacy lessons instructs the children to acknowledge words as whole without breaking them down into sounds or letter groupings. It focuses on the word meaning and the element of reading. Whole Word methods contradict the phonics approach and focuses on comprehension and sight-memorization techniques. Whole language is a constructivist approach as the students create their own knowledge from what they encounter and form new knowledge prior to what they have learnt. Bomengen (2010) from the Reading Horizon Website.

Rationale

This research will be carried out in one of the Education Trust Schools that is within a low economic and social area in Northamptonshire. One third of the total percentages of pupils within the school are children from European and African countries (Minority Ethnic Group) with English being an additional language (EAL). This means that one in five pupils speaks English as an additional language whilst an above average number of pupils are on the Pupil Premium Scheme (Ofsted School K Report,

The latest Stats result showed a result of 1,028 children in the county had failed to attain the expected reading level and hence most schools in Northamptonshire trail behind other counties Northampton Chronicle and Echo, (2014). It also states that according to the Department of Education (2015), the low result has caused a lot of schools to become academies which allows them to move outside of the authority control and implement interventions that will raise the Stats standards. Johnston (2005) cited by Harrison (2006) recommends the Read Write Inc. Invention programme because it teaches building blocks needed to read. She also stated that the system seems to make a level playing field which allows students who arrive at school not knowing their letters are not at a disadvantage for long or children from deprived area. Phonics can be an important component in the development of early reading skills, particularly for children from disadvantaged backgrounds (Education Endowment Foundation,