Don't overstress on phonics By Cathy-Dee

But if you have a class where most of the students know most of the sounds and all the letter names then you would probably move into more complex sounds (blends and digraphs) and really focus on reading and writing right from the beginning.

Phonics is used in reading and spelling and the strategies and resources you use may be linked or may be very separate.

In my class for example most of my students will not know the letter names or sounds. So I will spend most of September to December focusing on all the sounds and how I do that is through these things.

- stories
- songs (geared to each letter)
- poems (geared to each letter)
- making words
- learning word families
- within lessons, calendar time, etc., pointing out common blends (i.e. "th" sound in Thursday)

During this time we will also learn a large number of sight words and also how to sound out simple 3 or 4 letter words by blending sounds together. The way I do this is......

The name Sam...

First I would write out the letters like this

SSSSSSSSS

AAAAAAAA

MMMMMMMM

For the first 2-3 days we would practice only the sounds separately and the students learn to say the sound until I get to the end of the row.

Then I would put two sounds together.
AAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMM

SSSSSSSAAAAAAAAA

Now I teach the children to say these sounds and when the letter changes to just change the sound they are making without stopping.

Finally I add the third letter

SSSSSSSSAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMM
and I also write it in proper form
SAM

We do this a lot in the first 2 months, but by the end of this time most of my students do find it easier to sound out new words as they are blending the sounds rather than trying to pronounce each sound. From these lessons I can move into word families and the students pick up how to change the first letter to make new words quite easily.

Trust me - teaching grade 1 is wonderful and you will learn as much as your students especially in the first 2-3 years. Just do your best with your students (sounds like you are already on the right path) and over the year you will figure out what to do to reach them.

Also if you know of any other grade 1 teachers in your school or area - get to know them!!!!

A phonics book that I find useful in the classroom is the Plaid Phonics series.
http://www.pearsonlearningutah.com/catalog/phonics/plaid_phonics_a.htm