Let's be honest. There's a LOT to know about phonics.
Sounds, spellings, alternative graphemes, articulation, spelling patterns... not to mention all the terminology.
Do you need to memorise all of it?
No.
You need to understand what you're teaching, but that doesn't mean you have to keep every phonics fact stored in your brain, ready to recall at a moment's notice.
I certainly don't.
I'm all for building your phonics knowledge. But I'm also a big fan of having a handy reference to turn to when you need one.
That's why I created The Phonics Sidekick.
Think of it as your phonics reference guide
The Phonics Sidekick is a handbook for teachers who want to understand phonics without feeling like they need to become walking phonics encyclopaedias.
It's somewhere to turn when you're planning a lesson, checking a spelling pattern or trying to make sense of something you've come across in your teaching.
How to use The Phonics Sidekick
Let's look at an example.
Just say you're about to teach your students the digraph sound /ng/ like in sing.
The handbook is sorted by sound. Turn to the page that features the /ng/ sound.
Here's where things get interesting. You will find artculation instructions and spelling frequencies. Interestingly, the /ng/ sound is spelled ng 59% of the time. The other 41%? It's spelled n.
So how do we know which spelling to use?
This is where the How do we choose the spelling? section comes in. It gives us spelling generalisations, rather than hard-and-fast rules. Because English loves to keep us on our toes.
In our /ng/ example:
n is usually found before a /k/ sound e.g. bank, sink, uncle.
Otherwise the /ng/ sound is generally spelled ng.
Word lists are included so you can use them for decoding and encoding examples on the board. No more trying to think of words on the spot!
On the second page, you'll find common spelling errors students might make, along with suggestions for what to say to help them.
Made for Australian teachers
Pronunciation varies around the world, and phonics resources don't always reflect the way we speak here in Australia.
The Phonics Sidekick uses Australian pronunciation and reflects Australian classroom practice, so you can feel confident that the examples and explanations are relevant to your teaching.
Looking for a phonics handbook for teachers?
You don't need to have every phonics rule memorised. But when a student asks a tricky question about a sound or spelling pattern, it helps to have the answer close at hand.
A good phonics handbook for teachers gives you a place to check sound-spelling relationships, explore spelling patterns, find examples for teaching and troubleshoot common student errors.
That's exactly why I created The Phonics Sidekick — a handy reference for Australian teachers who want to feel more confident teaching phonics, without having to remember every fact off the top of their head.
Meet The Phonics Sidekick!
Your handy phonics reference for Australian teachers. Check it out.
