This document discusses important phonics principles for reading and spelling. It covers key concepts like digraphs, trigraphs, blends, and rules for letter sounds. Five specific phonetics principles are explained: silent 'e', r-controlled sounds, vowels as neighbors, the 'c' sound, and the 'g' sound. Learning activities reinforce applying these principles to example words. Understanding phonetics provides guidelines for accurate spelling.

1. Reading 101
Important Phonics Principles

2. Learning Objectives

To understand the key rules behind letter sounds

To apply these rules in spelling and reading

3. Introduction

You have learnt that a good awareness of letter
sounds will help you in spelling.

Called Phonemic Awareness, it will help you
when you're converting sound to text.

Recall that you've studied about Consonant
Blends, Digraphs and Trigraphs in the earlier
lesson.

They show you that NOT all letters that
represent phonemes are single letters.

4. Digraphs, Trigraphs & Blends
1) Ch
2) Ck
3) Ff
4) Sh
5) Wh
6) Dge
7) Bl

Q: Can you think of some words that have these
digraphs, trigraphs and blends?

5. Phonetics
●
With Phonemic Awareness, you now move on to
study how phonemes come together.
●
When they come together, you form syllables and
words. For example,
1) 'Phone' - /ph/ + /o/ + /ne/ NOT:
2) 'Phone' - /p/ + /h/ + /on/ + /e/ (sounds wrong!)
●
This study is called Phonetics.
●
Note: Like ratio or mental algebra is the method
and Mathematics is the study, Phonics is the
teaching method while Phonetics is the study.

6. Lack of Phonetics Knowledge
Misspellings will occur when your phonetics
knowledge is not strong:
1) phone as fone or school as skool?
2) class as crass?
3) cone as con?
4) sir as ser?
5) achieve as achiv?
6) city as sity or gym as jym?
Q: Why do you think these misspellings occur?

7. Phonetics Principles

Phonetics guide us in giving us principles
when spelling.

This means that we can be more confident
when we are spelling.

We will look at 5 Phonetics Principles.

8. #1 Silent 'e'
Silent 'e' is present when:
●
It is in the same syllable with another vowel.
●
It is after another vowel.
1) man – mane
2) kit – kite
3) not – note
4) cut – cute

Q: Refer to your Learning Guide Pg12. Can you
spot the silent 'e' phonemes (It looks like: a-e)?

9. #2 R-controlled sound
R-controlled sound is present when:

a digraph has the consonant 'r' at the end.
1) Sir
2) Teacher
3) Collar
4) Fur
5) Sailor
●
Q: Refer to your Learning Guide Pg12. Can you
see 2 groups of r-controlled sounds? Why?

10. #3 Vowels are not good neighbours
When vowels come together, the first vowel is
called its name and the other disappears.
1) Tree
2) Snail
3) Boat
4) Tie
(true for all vowels except 'u')
●
Q: Refer to your Learning Guide Pg12 to spot
these words. What colours represent them? Why?

11. #4 C as /s/ or /k/ sound
'C' is /s/ sound when:

It is with 'e', 'i' or 'y'
ceiling, city, cyst
'C' is /k/ sound when:

It is with 'a' , 'o' or 'u'
cave, cottage, cut
Q: Can you come up with some examples
yourself?

12. #5 G as /g/ or /j/ sound
'G' is usually /j/ sound when:
It is with 'e', 'i' or 'y'
gem, gin, gym
'G' is usually /g/ sound when:
It is with 'a' , 'o' or 'u'
gate, got, gut
Q: Can you come up with some examples
yourself?

13. Learning Activity
Say which Phonetics principle lies behind these
spelling choices:
1) coke
2) litter
3) success
4) force
5) create
6) goner
Hint: Some may have more than one principle.

14. Learning Activity (Suggested Ans)
Say which Phonetics principle lies behind these
spelling choices:
1) coke – silent 'e'
2) litter – digraph, r-controlled sound
3) success – digraphs, c as /s/ sound
4) force – silent e, c as /s/ sound
5) create – blend, silent 'e'
6) goner – g as /g/ sound, r-controlled sound

15. Discussion
What is Phonetics?
Why is it important in spelling and reading?
Write down as many phonetics principles as you
can remember.

16. In summary
Phonetics is the study of how letter sounds or
phonemes come together.
It is important as it provides us with principles in
making the correct spelling choices.
Some of the important principles are:
Digraphs, Trigraphs, Blends, Silent 'e', r-
controlled sound and /c/ and /g/ with different
sounds.