Jolly Phonics

Jolly Phonics is a systematic, sequential, phonics program designed to teach children to read. Children learn 40+ sounds of the English language, rather than the alphabet. They are then taken through the stages of blending and segmenting words to develop reading and writing skills.

History

Jolly Phonics was created by a UK primary teacher, Sue Lloyd, in 1977, after the realization that the whole language approach used in her classroom was not reaching a small group of children. As part of an experiment, these children were taught structured blending of words. They were taught to listen carefully to the sounds in the words, identify the sounds and relate them to the letters. As a result, these students who were previously demonstrating difficulty in reading and writing had significant improvements in abilities. After many years of research, Lloyd was encouraged to compile [http://www.jollylearning.co.uk "The Phonics Handbook"] and this was published in 1992. It was immediately embraced by teachers in the UK. This program was then introduced to [http://hdap.oise.utoronto.ca/exponent/index.php?section=101 Dr. Dale Willows] , at the [http://www.utoronto.ca University of Toronto] , Canada, who was researching balanced literacy approaches. Her trials and research have been supportive of this approach and currently, about 22% of Canadian elementary schools are using the program. [http://www.spellingsociety.org/journals/j28/jollyphonics.php]

Places

Mouse City

Mouse City (also known as Mouseville or more frequntly Inkyland)is the place where Inky lives. It first appeared (although unnamed) in the DreamWorks/Aardman film Flushed Away, where Inky is not seen at all, as she's building new, strong floodgates. However, by now the trapdoors are closed.

Jolly Phonics Village

Jolly Phonics Village is a theme park in the fictional city Oscar Away. New characters Mr Platypus, Bee's Cousin and Clown are introduced there, although they come to learn at Cathedral School.

The Program

The initial program has 6 phases through which students work through.

Sound Sheets

42 speech sounds are introduced. Each sound has a suggested storyline, a picture to colour and a corresponding action. By performing an action for each sound, students are using kinesthetic, auditory, visual and speech to help them remember. This multi-sensory approach is a very effective way to reach all children as well as being enjoyable as well.

The sounds are arranged in seven, six-letter groups which have been carefully selected for several reasons. The letters that are easily confused, like "b" and "d", are presented in separate groups. The "g" and "d" are presented after the "c", to follow a developmental speech pattern and help link the letter formation in printing. In addition, the first sounds and letters taught can be combined to create a large number of simple words. The materials are arranged to support these sound groups. It is suggested that each group be introduced in one week.

Auditory Training

In the Jolly Phonics program, students are given auditory training, to develop phonemic awareness, through a variety of activities, to hear sounds at a very early age.

"Blending": In reading, this is simply the action of combining the letter sounds together to make a word, which is automatic for literate adults but difficult for young children. There are two main reasons why students might have difficulty with this, first, they might not know the sounds well enough and they lose track of the word. Second, the letter sounds are not emphasized correctly. To assist children understand this concept, several strategies are suggested where students can practice blending and decoding.

"Identifying the Sounds in Words": In writing, students need to hear, identify and write the sounds of a word. When introducing three letter words, initially students are able to identify initial consonant sounds, last consonant sounds come next, and vowel sounds are learned next. After a student is able to sound out three letter words, they can progress to longer words. This will involve the introduction of consonant blends, including initial consonant blends and final consonant blends. Students learn these blends as units. Thus, the word "dent" is identified as "d –e –nt".

Reading Books

This is begun once the students are able to recognize the 40 sounds and are able to blend the sounds into simple words. A list of sight words are introduced, as these are not phonetic and must be memorized to increase reading fluency.

Writing

By listening to letter sounds and seeing a teacher modeling writing techniques, students’ writing develops rapidly. Several strategies are provided to give students practice in phonetic writing. Originally, writing involved the introduction of cursive, as is customary in the UK. However, recent versions have included regular printing.

Spelling

In the first year of reading instruction, there is little time to introduce a systematic spelling program, however, Jolly Phonics does offer several suggestions to assist students in improving spelling:

* Teaching letter names
* Understanding of short and long vowels
* The use of capital letters
* High frequency word lists

Parental Involvement

The Jolly Program recognizes that many parents do not know how to help their children in reading and offers several suggestions in providing parents with the tools to help them. It is suggested that a parent meeting be conducted early in the program, to introduce parents to some of the strategies being taught to children.

Classroom Implementation

The Jolly Phonics program can be implemented into the early primary classroom with minimal resources or training. The Jolly Phonics Handbook is a comprehensive and easy to follow resource covering all 6 areas of the program, as well as many reproducibles. Most Junior and Senior Kindergarten students (age 4 and 5 years) are able to learn the sound sets at the suggested teaching rate of 6 sounds per week.

In addition to the Handbook, are a variety of other resources to support and engage students, including puppets, videos, puzzles and big books. Jolly Jingles, created by Arlene Grierson, uses familiar songs and a big book to reinforce the phonics sounds. The Jolly Grammar program offers a comprehensive spelling and grammar program for students who have completed the program successfully. [http://www.jollylearning.co.uk/]

It should be noted that one of the major concerns regarding synthetic phonics is that it is taught in isolation and is boring for students [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/4584491.stm] . However, within effective literacy instruction, neither of these assumptions is true. Phonics instruction is part of a balanced literacy approach (which is very different from whole language) and should never be exclusive of meaningful connections to text. In addition, creative teachers can make explicit phonics instruction fun for children. The interactive premise behind Jolly Phonics makes it fun for kids.

See also

* List of Phonics Programs
* Synthetic phonics

External links

* [http://www.jollylearning.co.uk/ Jolly Learning] , publishers of the Jolly Phonics series.
* http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/4584491.stm
* http://www.spellingsociety.org/journals/j28/jollyphonics.php
* http://hdap.oise.utoronto.ca/exponent/index.php?section=101
* http://www.utoronto.ca

References

* Ehri, L., Nunes, S. R., Willows, D. M., Schuster, B. V., Yaghoubzadeh, Z., & Shanahan, T. (2001). Phonemic awareness instruction helps students learn to read: Evidence from the National Reading Panel's meta-analysis. Reading Research Quarterly, 36, 250-287.
* Bowey, Judith A. (2006). Need for systematic synthetic phonics teaching within the early reading curriculum. Australian Psychologist, 41(2), 79-84.
* Lloyd, Sue, 1992. The Jolly Phonics Handbook. Jolly Learning Ltd. Essex, United Kingdom.