Science of Reading
What is the Science of Reading?
The Science of Reading is a term that has come to encapsulate all the scientifically based research compiled over the last fifty years that shows us how students master reading and writing skills. Linguists, cognitive psychologists, neuroscientists, and other specialists across many nations, languages and disciplines have concluded that to create competent readers, we must understand how reading develops in the brain and teach and assess our students accordingly. One such study by The National Reading Panel (Teaching Children to Read, April 2000), analysed hundreds of research studies and reached a consensus that, for the best results, students need explicit instruction in phonemic awareness and systematic phonics teaching, with a focus on improving fluency, vocabulary acquisition, and reading comprehension.
How does Jolly Phonics align with Science of Reading?
Jolly Phonics is aligned with the Science of Reading by incorporating a systematic, synthetic phonics approach for teaching children to read, write, and spell. Since it was first published, Jolly Phonics has always focused on direct, explicit instruction of phonemic awareness and phonics for both reading (decoding) and writing (encoding). Scientific research has consistently shown phonemic awareness to be essential for building strong reading and writing skills
By teaching phonemes – the smallest units of sound from the start and practicing blending and segmenting, Jolly Phonics enables students to connect the phonemes to their corresponding graphemes (the letters that represent sounds), promoting a solid foundation for decoding and encoding words. Students are taught to blend any word, without guessing or memorizing whole words. Each lesson begins with a story to strengthen phonemic awareness and encourage vocabulary development. As their letter-sound knowledge increases, the students are able to blend and segment more and more words automatically, as well as developing and extending their comprehension skills.
Multi-sensory lessons in Jolly Phonics ensure that children are actively engaged in the learning process, which has been proven to enhance retention and understanding. With its comprehensive teaching guidance, multi-sensory lessons and strategies for teaching irregular high-frequency words, Jolly Phonics stands out as a program that is fully aligned with the evidence-based principles of the Science of Reading, providing students with a competitive advantage in mastering their reading and writing skills, and becoming confident learners.
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Systematic, synthetic phonics approach for teaching children to read, write and spell
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Multi-sensory lessons ensure children are taught decoding for reading and encoding for spelling
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Explicit instruction for teaching the 42 main sounds of English (including the alphabet) plus short and long vowels, digraphs and diphthongs
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Detailed teaching guidance to enable children to identify a sound wherever it is in the word
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Instruction and strategies for teaching irregular high frequency words
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Ample opportunity for children to apply their letter sound knowledge within each lesson as well as through a range of decodable texts