Phonics in the Funnix Software Reading Programmes,

providing you with a practical overview of the systematic and efficient teaching of phonics in this computer software.

1. Isolated sounds are taught and practiced orally in several lessons before appearing in words on screen. This teaches phonemic awareness. For several more lessons, these words are practiced in lists before regularly appearing in stories.

2. The reading programmes introduce highly-useful sounds early (e.g., /m/, /s/, /a/, /r/, /t/) rather than less-used sounds (e.g., /x/, /y/, /z/). This means children are quickly able to use their learning in practical situations.

3. The programme inserts a gap of several days or weeks in order to separate the introduction of sounds and letter combinations from others that look or sound very similar. This stops children from getting things mixed up - like b and d. The result is faster and more confident reading. Children are protected from commom reading errors that result from less careful learning-to-read programmes.

4. The reading programmes use frequent and all-inclusive reviews of previously-taught sounds. The boys and girls get no chance to forget the things they have learned. Everything they have learned, is used again and again authentically in stories.

5. Introduces regular words for which students already know all the letter sounds. This is the generative effect of phonics. A little knowledge of some basic letter sounds lets children read many, many words.

6. The programme progresses systematically from simple word types (e.g., consonant-vowel-consonant) to more complex words. Because the presentation is systematic, children clearly understand that the method they use for reading simple words also helps them to read far more complex words.

7. As soon as students can read the simplest of words, the software starts explicit instruction in spelling. The programme shows students how to map the sounds of letters on to print. It teaches the boys and girls that we spell a word by saying aloud the names of the letters that make up the word.

See Sample Spelling Video

8. The programs teach phonics-irregular words that are used frequently in children's books. The software teaches "authentic English", making sure the children can read the books they will come across in their daily life at home or at primary school.

9. The phonics reading programme controls the number of irregular words introduced at one time. There is no point in overwhelming the child with a large number of new and difficult words all at once, as the words will simply be forgotten.

10. Separates highly similar words for initial instruction (e.g., was/saw), avoiding confusion.

11. The reading programme points out any irregularities in words. It provides a strategy for reading irregular words by teaching boys and girls to use the regular parts of these words as a foundation for recognising the whole word. Each irregular word usually has at least one part that is regular. This brings confidence to the children, knowing that their phonics skills are helpful even in these special cases.

12. Pre-teaches sight words and incorporates them into connected text. This is done systematically, a step at a time.

13. Automatically provides ample practice and all-inclusive review of high-frequency sight words. Learners get to read these words often in stories, continuing in lessons long after the words were first introduced.

PHONICS: How Regular Words are Taught

1. Introduces high-utility sounds in the early phonics lessons (m, s, a, r, t) rather than low-utility letter sounds (y, q).

The first “lower-utility” letter sound, the long sound for Y (my, by), is the 13th sound introduced. Below, you see the lesson numbers for the introduction of some letter sounds and combinations in Beginning Reading Lessons.

Teaching of Sounds in the Reading Programme

2. Systematically introduces letter sounds, letter combinations and word parts in ways designed to prevent confusion.

Children do not confuse the various sounds. The letter a is the first letter for which children learn a second sound. The long sound for a is presented in Lesson 9. On Lesson 15, Exercise 6, the software presents the short sound for a in a spelling task. The short a sound appears during the next lessons for 3 days. On Lesson 18, Exercise 4, the long a sound is reintroduced in the combination ai. Children easily distinguish between the sounds because of this systematic, explicit, time-controlled teaching.

3. Builds in frequent and cumulative reviews of phonics so boys and girls can becomes more and more automatic in their practical use of phonics.

After children learn the phonemic sounds for letters, the reading programme integrates that knowledge into word reading, story reading, story extensions, spelling, and workbook tasks.

All phonics that children learn appear in words. Children first read these words in word lists, and later in interesting stories. During most early word-reading exercises in Beginning Reading, children are first directed to say the sound for each letter or letter-combination in each word, then to say the word the fast way.

Some sounds are reviewed in isolation. Sounds that are reviewed in isolation are usually sounds that have been recently introduced or sounds that have not recently appeared in the word reading exercises.

Below, you can see the initial introduction and cumulative review that appears in Lesson 15 of the programme. Note that each exercise in a lesson usually takes just 2 or 3 minutes. A whole lesson takes 20-30 minutes.

New phonics instruction in Lesson 15
Exercise 2 – (sounds for double letters) introduces double letters: ll as /l/, nn as /n/.
Exercise 6 – (writing words) introduces the short /a/ sound for the letter a.

Review in Lesson 15
Exercise 2 – (double letters): reviews sound for double letter ee (long e).
Exercise 3 – children read words to review sounds for the letters r, f, m, s, o, e and ee.
Exercise 4 – (letter names in words): reviews the long sounds for the letters i, o.
Exercise 6 – (writing words): reviews sounds for the letters r, m.

You also see from the above that phonics is taught and reviewed in a variety of fun activities.

4. Models instruction at each of the basic stages. (Phonemic awareness, letter-sound matching, blending, reading whole words, letter combinations, prefixes, and word endings)

Letter-Sound Correspondences

The letter-sound phonics correspondences are all clearly modeled by the teacher-narrator whose voice has been recorded on the software. For letter-sound tasks, the narrator models the sound for each letter before children are directed to say that sound for the letter. For most tasks, the narrator confirms each sound after children respond to the task.

Basic Word Reading Through Phonics
The programme narrator models word reading. Children first learn to sound out words, sound by sound. The narrator models the children’s responses, then directs the children to respond. The initial strategy children use is to say the sound for each letter or combination in a word (from left to right). Then children blend those sounds by "saying it fast."

Blending

Phonemic awareness activities teach the boys and girls the oral blending skills they need to read words. Later, for their first decoding tasks, children generate the sounds for each symbol in a word, then blend the phonemes to read the word naturally.

Reading Whole Words

On Lesson 52, Exercise 5, children read whole words, without first saying each sound in the word. Before Lesson 52, children practice word-finding as part of their story-reading activities. Word-find activities prepare children for reading whole words. Children realise that words can be treated as whole units.

After children work on finding words in sentences, the software gives them practice in reading whole words. The narrator directs children to sound out aloud each word in the list before they read the word the fast way. After children have sounded out each word using phonics skills, the children reread the list, applying the sounding-out strategy silently before saying the word aloud. This middle step helps children on their way to becoming fluent readers who no longer need to "sound out" words.

After children have worked on rereading words for a number of lessons, the narrator directs them to read words “the fast way,” the very first time a list is presented on screen. Later, children are guided to read parts of stories a whole word at a time. Then they are directed to read parts of stories a sentence at a time. This step-by-step development of skills means children find the learning easy, achievable and fun.

In the second level of the program, word lists contain irregular new words that children would have trouble sounding out using phonics. The narrator models how to read each word before children are directed to spell or read them. All words that have been modeled then appear in lists and in stories, providing an ongoing, thorough review in a variety of contexts.

5. Introduces regular words for which students know all the letter sounds.

The first 163 words children are directed to read, from Lesson 10 through Lesson 59, are all regular according to the phonics rules the programs teach. This means the boys and girls can enjoy reading by themselves right from the beginning.

6. Progresses systematically from simple word types and word lengths to more complex words.

At first, the programme teaches children to read 2- and 3-sound words. The single-sound words I and A are introduced on Lessons 24 and 25. Next, children read words with consonant blends (Lesson 50) words with the s-ending (Lesson 55); and multi-syllabic words (Lesson 61). The first compound word, into, is introduced on Lesson 72. Progress is careful and systematic to make sure children never get confused or overwhelmed, and can always feel proud about how quickly they are learning.

7. The software incorporates spelling to reinforce phonics word analysis. Almost immediately after students can read their first words, they are provided with explicit instruction in spelling, which shows students how to map the sounds of letters on to print.

Spelling tasks begin early in the programme, from lesson 13 of Beginning Reading. They continue all the way to the last lesson, Lesson 120 in workbook activities. The spelling exercises provide thoroughly clear instruction in spelling. Children understand how spelling connects with the phonics strategies they have been taught for decoding words.

8. The narrator gives children practice in reading from controlled word lists and connected text. This teaches the students to successfully apply their newly learned skills in real contexts.

Connected story text is introduced on Lesson 24, Exercise 6. All of the connected text children read is composed of words that children have previously read in word lists.

Beyond Lesson 30, the first part of each lesson presents word-attack exercises which consist of letter/sound phonics activities, phonemic awareness activities, and reading words in controlled lists. The next part of each lesson presents story activities. The last part of each lesson presents fun workbook activities, which include spelling.

All words presented in the programmes follow the same pattern. The words are presented in word lists at least twice before they appear in the text of stories. This means children know the words well before seeing the same words in story context. After words have been presented in word lists and stories they are reviewed in the workbook activities or inlined-paper activities, and in later stories.

Highly-used words that haven't appeared in recent stories are practiced and reviewed in word lists and in fun activities.

9. Begins instruction in word families, word patterns, and larger orthographic units after students have learned the phonics letter-sound correspondence in the basic unit.

Word families and easily-recognised phonics patterns are used a great deal in the reading programmes. For instance, words that begin in wa are reviewed together because they have the same transformed pronunciation in words like wander, washed, watched.

Some patterns are shown in word groups that rhyme. This helps children learn multiple new words that follow a particular phonics pattern. Children read buy and guy, then face and place. For both pairs, the spelling of the part that rhymes is the same. In this case too, a little systematic learning gives abundant results.

10. Teaches students to process words containing common phonics patterns mixed with irregularities. This increases the children's fluency in word recognition.

In Funnix 2, new words that children would have trouble sounding out using phonics appear in word lists. These words are modeled by the narrator's pronunciation before children are directed to spell or read them. All words that have been modeled appear on lists in subsequent lessons, and then in stories so as to become part of the chilren's natural store of easily-read words.

11. Teaches advanced phonics-analysis skills explicitly, first in isolation, then in words and connected text.

12. The Reading Programme teaches explicit strategies to read multi-syllabic words by using prefixes, suffixes and known word parts.

13. Uses structural analysis to support word recognition strategies.

The three main methods of analysis are:

1. sounding out longer words
2. spelling words
3. reading word parts or syllables, then whole words.

All three phonics strategies are introduced in the learning to read programme.

Sounding out is continued for nearly all 100 lessons in Funnix 2. It is used mainly for regular words that incorporate newly introduced sound combinations.

Almost every lesson in Funnix 2 also has lists of words for students to use to increase their spelling skills. Sometimes, children spell the word first, then identify it by reading it; sometimes children are directed to read the word first then spell it.

The whole-part exercises in this programme are especially helpful in teaching boys and girls to analyse words. The software presents words on screen with a part underlined. Children read the underlined part, then the whole word. This exercise gives them practice in analyzing longer words to discover parts that consistently have the same pronunciation (roots, prefixes, words within words, suffixes).

PHONICS: Irregular Words in the reading programmes

Irregular words are those that can’t be analyzed one letter or combination of letters at a time according to the sounding-out rules that have been introduced in the programme.

The lessons teach various phonics combinations and underlines them to prompt children to recognize the sounds as a unit. In addition, some words have blue letters to regularize their pronunciation. The phonics rule for the blue-letter combinations (ai, ea, oa, ar, and ay) is that the blue letter makes no sound and the black letter says its name. Later, this phonics rule is applied to words with combinations that are split apart. The blue letter makes no sound, but another letter in the word says its name, as in the word pine. The e is blue and doesn’t make a sound. The i says its name.

Other sound combinations taught are: al, ar, er, ur, ir, ou, oi, oo, ch, th, sh, wh, ce, ge, aw, ew, tion, and sion. Also, words that end in Consonant-Vowel-Consonant plus e.

The words that cannot be easily learned through the standard programme phonics conventions are taught as irregular words. Because the conventions are extremely efficient, the programmes teach a total of over 2000 words, which includes all the most useful irregular words.

a. The reading programmes use the irregular words that are most useful to the children; that is, words that are used frequently in age-level stories and informational text.

In the early stages, children learn only a few irregular words. Some words are irregular only because of a variation in the pronunciation (has, are, have). Others are irregular because they have the same letter patterns as familiar words, but are pronounced differently (to versus go and so; was versus has).

The first irregular words in the learn-to-read programme are: said, to, do, and was. Other very common irregulars presented in the beginning level include: have, come, some, other, mother, what, one, and two.

The later stage of the programme introduces nearly 200 irregulars, including many “families,” such as the gh words (high, right, night, etc.). Also, many of the irregulars are multi-syllabic words: beautiful, because, behind, believe, become; and somebody, someone, move, remove; and words like love, lose, look, through, thought, island, soup, touch, head, worry, school. The main procedure for introducing these words involves spelling the word aloud. (It would be difficult to sound out school using phonics sounds.) The narrator first identifies the word, then directs the students to spell the word and then say the word.

b. The computer software controls the rate at which irregular words are introduced .

In Beginning Reading, the first irregular word, said, is introduced on Lesson 60. On Lesson 62, two irregular words are introduced, to and do. The next irregular word, was, is introduced on Lesson 65. Because of this spaced introduction, children are not suddenly overwhelmed by large numbers of new irregular words. Because the software is designed for teachers or parents to present lessons at the rate of five lessons a week, the largest number of irregular words children would have presented to them during any one week is three. This allows the children time to thoroughly master each irregular word before coming across another new one.

In Funnix 2, irregular words are introduced at a faster rate than in the first programme; however, the schedule for introduction is carefully programmed.

It is based on -
1. how difficult the irregularity is;
2. the similarity of the irregular word to known words;
3. the number of distinguishing features that help make the new word unique and easy to recognize; and
4. the number of words that follow the same pattern and that can therefore be best introduced together.

c. A time gap of up to several weeks separates the introduction of each word of a highly similar word-pair (e.g., was/saw).

Pairs of words that are highly similar in structure, but that have different pronunciations are difficult for children to learn (e.g., words like here and were; have and gave; to and no; what and that; was and as). In Beginning Reading, the introduction of the words in each of these pairs is separated by at least 15 lessons. This means the similarities never become troublesome to the boys and girls as they learn to read.

d. Plainly points out irregularities and provides a method for reading irregular words by drawing attention to certain letters or parts of the words.

Funnix Beginning Reading clearly points out the irregularities in words by using a squiggly underline under the irregular part.

In Funnix2, students also spell the irregular words, with emphasis on the irregular part.

e. Pre-teaches sight words and builds them into connected text.

Sight words are always taught in word lists at least two times before they are built into stories.

f. Provides plenty of practice and a review of an ever-growing number of important high-frequency sight words.

All irregular words get the same, careful review treatment. The words are reviewed both in lists and in stories. Stories incorporate recently taught irregular words at a high rate.

Contact: Douglas Corin
New Zealand
Ph.(07) 843-9802

Funnix NZ
18 Thornton Place
Hamilton
New Zealand

Home | Dyslexia | Phonics | Funnix Beginning Reading | See Videos