Phonics

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 TITLE: Best Practices: Teaching Phonics with Wiley Bevins

ADDRESS: http://teacher.scholastic.com/reading/bestpractices/phonics/research.htm

 

SUMMARY: Various, fairly recent articles are featured on the site promoting teaching using phonics. The articles also provide helpful suggestions and methods to phonics instruction. Along with this, the sight also provides links to other resources.  My favorite part of the page, which I found by accident, was the very bottom. It provided links to fantastic lesson plans, teaching suggestions and age appropriate times to teach certain aspects of phonics, definitions of teaching terminology involving phonics, and recommended books.

RATIONALE:  If you have the time to really stop and read, this site is a great stop. Even if you don’t have a lot of time, some articles are brief, but still extremely informative. It features numerous articles about the various ideas and methods involved in teaching phonics and phonemic awareness.  Not only do these articles tell about teaching phonics, they also give great tips on how to teach phonics, ages this meathead is appropriate for, and encouragement for teachers who use phonics instruction with their students. (Every article I read stated that this was the best way to teach beginners to read.) I learned a lot from the articles on this site in just a short amount of time, so I thought it was worth mentioning. Also, the site offers links to other sites, resources, and ideas that, in many ways, were just as valuable, maybe even more so, than the articles.

 TITLE: Phonics, Teachingtips.com

ADDRESS: http://www.teachingtips.com/articles/Gphonics1.html

SUMMARY:  This site contains helpful suggestions for phonics instruction, especially with the lower grades.  Its featured ideas seem to change every few weeks (they’ve been different the past couple of times I’ve been back to the site at least), allowing teachers access to new information, as well as an archive to view previously posted information. For instance, this week I viewed some neat suggestions for phonemic awareness games and ideas and instructions for word sort activities. Also, the site provides access to a wealth of current educational articles as well as an archive of past information, a discussion board, great ideas shared by other teachers, “Dear Anna, Help!” (answers to teachers questions) , links to free software and other educational web sites about various topics, recommended books to read both for teachers and students, and much more.

RATIONALE:  I really enjoyed going through this site and seeing all of the neat ideas and suggestions. It offered a lot of great resources and ideas (as listed above). Besides all that, it had links to other sites and its own search device so if what you needed was not on their site, you had an easy way to look for it in other places.  I had a lot of fun looking through the different teachers’ ideas, and really liked that the site featured recommended reading materials. (Although the information on the site is free, the recommended reading is linked to a commercial site, but you can find most of the books at the library as well.)  It’s a worthwhile site to visit!

TITLE:  School Express

ADDRESS:  http://www.schoolexpress.com

SUMMARY: This web site provides multiple worksheets on blends, consonants, digraphs, and vowels. These free phonics worksheets can be downloaded and copied for your classroom.  Also within the site are free online activities, treasure hunt worksheets, games, and 5 free Thematic Units.  Everything on the site is updated regularly.  For a small fee each year you may become a member and receive extra information, but for the worksheets and activities described above there are absolutely no fees or obligations.

RATIONALE:   I chose this web site because I found the phonics worksheets to be excellent for younger children.  They included pictures, coloring, word puzzles, and much more, while teaching important lessons on phonics.  I also like that the free worksheets, activities, and units are updated regularly making it a resource that can be used throughout the year.  The site is visually appealing and is easy to move around in.

TITLE:  Teach-nology

ADDRESS: http://www.teach-nology.com/teachers/lesson_plans/language_arts/phonics/

SUMMARY:  This web site provides excellent activities for teaching phonics in the classroom.  It has 22 links that directly connect you to the instructions for the activity, materials needed and tips for how to use it in the classroom.  These activities are practical and fun!

RATIONALE:  I chose this site because it is straightforward.  It tells you the title of the activity along with a brief description.  You click on the activity and it gives you a detailed description of how to set up the activity and the materials you’ll need.  It also provides great instructions and tips from teachers that have used these activities in the classroom.

TITLE: ReadingKey

 

ADDRESS:  http://www.tampareads.com/phonics/phonicsindex.htm

 

SUMMARY:  This website has an assortment of free phonetic worksheets, but its worth as a crucial resource is due to the Vowel Sound Teacher and the Adult
Phonics Teacher sections.  These areas covered the 44 sounds, patterns for phonics decoding, common spelling combinations and reading rules and strategies.

 

RATIONALE:  The Adult Phonics Teacher used an audio playing method to cover everything from letter names and sounds to strategies for decoding words using phonics.  For teachers, as well as other continuous learners, this website gave clear, yet explicit explanations covering phonetic terms and applications.  The main site connected to this address had commercial attributes, but this area was free, unrestricted, easy to use and informative, as well as kinesthetic.



TITLE:  Practice Quiz on Phonics

 

ADDRESS:  http//www.english.glendale.cc.ca.us/phonics

 

SUMMARY:   This website comes from the Glendale Community College homepage and includes a list of phonics rules and a multiple choice quiz.  The phonics rules covers the classic spelling rules, exceptions, syllable and accent rules.  The quiz has four sections and covers long, short, r-controlled, silent and diphthong letter and sound combinations.

 

RATIONALE:  The phonics rules page is one of the most valuable resource items found.  It gives concise rules listed in an easy to find and use format.  The quiz is an invaluable tool which when given the correct answer returns with the related phonics rule and explanation of why it is correct.  Wrong answers get no explanation, but endless chances to answer correctly.  It is a learning tool for anyone looking to understand phonics better and for anyone looking to teach phonics to others.

 TITLE:  Education World: An Educator’s Best Friend

ADDRESS:  http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr317.shtml

SUMMARY:  The site starts with an e-interview with phonics experts, Wendy Cheyney and Judith Cohen.  The areas touched on in the e-interview are: teacher training, the role of phonics instruction in the classroom, materials that can be used to teach phonics, comprehension, problems teachers face in teaching students to read and current research teachers should know about.  At the end of the interview section there are additional resources and there are related articles and every week they have different theme for lessons.

RATIONALE:  I chose this site because it gives good tips as to how phonics should be looked at in the classroom.  The interview part of the site allows you to form an opinion of the information and research you are reading, that is provided by phonics experts.  The interview section of the site also allows you to see if your teaching philosophy matches the creators of the website.  It references books and on-line sites that can be used to assist in phonics lessons.  It also references different and current themes for lessons.  This site can be accessed by anyone, which is another reason why I chose this site.  Easy access makes any website beneficial for anyone who is teaching or tutoring students in the area of phonics.

TITLE:  ProTeacher-   Phonics/Decoding-ABC’s  

ADDRESS:  http://www.proteacher.com/070011.shtml 

SUMMARY:  This site begins with a listing of on-line references that all deal with the usage and implementation of phonics lessons in the classroom.  This listing includes survey results involving phonics, for example, the top one-hundred most frequent words in beginner books.  The listing includes everything from the involvement of parents and family to computers, to game and multicultural lessons in phonics.      

RATIONALE:  My top reason for choosing this site is because they have a teaching idea archive, which I think could help any teacher, parent or aide working with phonics.  Another is that all of the on-line references are created by teachers all across the country and have a great amount of multicultural classroom teaching ideas. 

 TITLE:  Blending Speech Sounds: A Neglected Phonics Skill

ADDRESS: http://www.nrrf.org/06-blending-sounds.html

SUMMARY:  The article within this site talks about how beginning readers benefit from learning phonics information. The article gives the most efficient and useful way that phonics should be taught in the classroom according to recent statistics. Phonics instruction in early grades such as kindergarten and preschool also need to be emphasized before speech sound blending skills are taught.

RATIONALE:  I choose this site mainly because it gives teachers valuable information as to why blending sounds are often times neglected in early grades and taught more in higher grades. This site also recommends a book that has been used by several teachers and has proved to be successful in helping teachers pick accurate sets of basal readers that include the early skill of phonemes and moves on to blending. It also gives information as to why blending and phonemic sounds should be taught as early as preschool.

TITLE: Phonics and Whole Language

ADDRESS: http://www.edweek.org/context/topics/issuespage.cfm?id=14

SUMMARY: This article found in Education Weekly talks about the curriculum approach of teaching phonics versus the whole language approach. The whole language approach simply states that students should use language in ways that it relates to their lives. This is represented and encouraged with the use of writing journals, and silent and oral reading in the classroom. This article highly recommends a balanced approach and states why many teachers are using or conforming to the whole language approach.

RATIONALE:  I chose this site and article because again the information present is one that is effective in teaching students at early grade levels, phonics using journals, and interactive writing. It does give the teacher an insight on why rote learning is no longer useful and why the whole language approach is being accepted nation wide.

 TITLE:  Kid Source Online

 ADDRESS: http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content2/phonics.html

 SUMMARY:  The site has several educational links and phonics related articles to choose from. The article “Phonics in Whole language Classrooms” provides some very insightful ways through which children develop phonics.  The article then continues to provide several ways teachers can help children develop phonics knowledge. Some of the ways listed were to have faith in children as learners, discuss interesting patterns of onsets and rhymes, and emphasize the use of letter/sound cues along with prior knowledge and context.  The site also provides links to related articles and links for k-12, parenting, education and a search link.

RATIONALE:  I chose this site because it provided educational links and many articles related to teaching phonics in classrooms. The article I chose listed many ways children develop phonics knowledge and also listed ways teachers can help children develop phonics knowledge. I felt the article provided useful information for teachers intending to use a phonics based program.

TITLE: The Phonics Room Fun With Phonics

ADDRESS:  http://members.aol.com/phonicsrm/#anchor99087

SUMMARY:  This site is for teachers to use as a resource guide. The site has the letters of the alphabet and when you click on the letter you are brought to a page that lists books, songs, poems, and activities for that particular letter. There is also a link that you can click on that provides ideas to use with any letter of the alphabet. The site has links for teachers, lesson plans, classroom web sites and the site has a free newsletter that is sent out every Wednesday and Sunday.  

RATIONALE:  I feel this site provided many resources for teachers. The activities it provides for the letters of the alphabet makes it easy for a teacher to create a lesson plan based on phonics. I feel this site is an excellent resource for teaching children phonics. 

TITLE:    Boggle’s World

ADDRESS:  http://www.bogglesworld.com

SUMMARY:  This site is specifically for ESOL teachers or those who have LEP students in their classrooms.  It is a search engine specifically geared for ESOL teachers to find lesson plans on a wide range of subjects, including phonics.  A separate section for phonics includes work sheets for teaching beginning phonetic English sounds to ESOL students.  When PHONICS is typed into the search box on the home page, a variety of lessons is available aimed primarily at ESOL students.  Many of these lessons can be altered to include all students. 

RATIONALE:  I chose this site specifically for its focus on ESOL.  I felt it was easy to navigate and at the same time offered a wide variety of lesson plans and games that will help ESOL students gain confidence in their new language. 

TITLE:  Lesson Planz.com

ADDRESS:  http://www.lessonplanz.com

SUMMARY:   This site is actually a search engine especially for finding lesson plans.  When phonics is typed into the search box and K-2 is chosen for grade level, a variety of lessons appears.  Many of the lessons give objectives, guided practice, and independent practice and assessment ideas.  Some even offer links to extend lessons.  Although this site isn’t strictly geared towards phonics, it offers a variety of lessons for phonics.

RATIONALE:  I chose this site because I like the variety of lessons available.  Lessons for every type of teacher are available and an enormous variety of subjects is covered.  You can choose lessons based on language arts and other subjects, or lessons can be chosen by grade level. There are also links given frequently.  I think this site is very teacher friendly.