Young children have a very limited world waiting to expand as they grow to adulthood. They live in a family with parents, brothers and sisters.
Their world is focused on home, neighbours, brothers and sisters and their extended family. They can go out with parents to town, the beach, the river and many other places. They watch TV and expand their knowledge of the world.
Young children have come to school to read, write, speak and listen to English that may be a second language to them. Their experience with English needs to be focused on their world to be expanded as they mature into the wide world.
All of this comes under the heading of rhythm phonics. Young students come to understand the rhyme and rhythm of words in sentences. This is where many phonics teachers fail. They think that phonics is just about words.
It is important for phonics teachers to have a set vocabulary from which to choose words for sentences. Students learn to chant words in sentences. All words will be within the daily lives of most students.
Personal pronouns: I, me, my, she, he, him, they, them. their, we, you, it and its.
Family words: mother, father, cousin, uncle, aunt, grand father, grand mother, cousin sister, and cousin brother.
Connector words: to, from, in, into, with, from, under, above, for, near, about, below,
Daily words: house, car, river, village, school, garden, fruit, vegetables, beach, town, road, pig, duck, dog, horse, cow, snake, truck, hospital, doctor, clothes, food, dinner, bottle and book.
Describing words: tall, small, fat, happy, sad, fast, slow, sick, big, little, red, blue, white, black and green.
Total 70 words for early phonics lessons. Young students can achieve in stages. They will hear and understand first. Then they will read and understand. They will then write and understand. These 70 words may be learned in stages in 2 months. Teachers must not expect all at once.
Now it is the time to promote the rhythm of sentences that students will chant daily within the words above.
A key task is for the students to learn the connector words to be used for the rest of their lives. Strong stresses are in green below.
There are many sequences that can be chanted daily to give students appreciation of rhythm of sentences. This can be linked to singing in class and reciting poetry which are key parts of phonics. These activities died in schools in the 1960s.
As a student in primary school in the 1950s, I recall our singing from the ABC schools program. The presenter would have us recite songs before we sang.
He was an old fashioned teacher giving us the phonics of the song. But teachers can have students chant word patterns daily as below. The students need to appreciate the phonics of ordinary sentences.
I go x l
I go x l
I go to town xl xl
I go to town xl xl
I go to buy some food xl xl xl
I go to buy some food xl xl xl
I go to school xl xl
I go to school xl xl
I go to learn to read and write xl xl xl xl
I go to learn to read and write xl xl xl xl
oh arise
o arise all ye sons of this land
x x l x x l x x l
Let us sing of a joy to be free
x x l x x l x x l
Jack and Jill
Jack and Jill
l x l
went up the hill
l x x l
So the lessons based on the above can involve chanting of patterns, getting the feel of the connector words in weak stress, learning words and appreciating the beauty of words in sentences. Many PNG students never speak in class.
As the students advance in grades, the list of words can be expanded but the students must never forget the connectors. They will be introduced in higher grades to the elegance of complex sentences. They learn to write sentences with little needless repetition of words:
I saw Peter.
I saw Paul.
I saw Mary.
I saw Peter, Paul and Mary.
He opened the door.
He went inside.
He put a letter on the table.
He opened the door, went inside and put a letter on the table.
Opening the door, he went inside and put a letter on the table.
The soldiers were recruited.
The soldiers were trained.
The soldiers were sent overseas.
The soldiers were recruited, trained and sent overseas.
The soldiers were recruited.
The soldiers were trained.
The soldiers were not sent overseas.
The soldiers were recruited and trained but not sent overseas.
That is all for another day.
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