Jolly Phonics to overcome reading difficulties

Devika a 4th Std. student joined me for learning Phonics in March 2021. She was not confident of reading, spelling errors, and conversing in English. It’s a little tricky and tough to teach Jolly Phonics to an older student. The child has already cultivated a habit of by-hearting words because he/she is not aware of the alphabet-sounds relation. The knowledge of words is limited.

Dr. Martin Kozloff — “If a child memorizes ten words, then the child can read only ten words. But if a child learns the sounds of ten letters, then the child will be able to read #21,650 words.

Distinguished Professor of Education
Department of Early Childhood, Elementary, Middle, Literacy and Special Education http://people.uncw.edu/kozloffm/

That is the power of phonics”. Devika had an advantage she had Hindi and Marathi as a language in school. We Indians have the Barakhadis in our mother tongue which helps us understanding the sound-alphabet relation in a very unique way. In India, we already have sounds in the form of Barakhadis. English alphabets are different each alphabet is pronounced differently and sounds are different too. But when the English alphabets are taught with the Indian Barakhadi sounds which our children are well-versed with they give superb results. They get the segmenting, blending, all five skills of Jolly Phonics, become fluent and confident readers and they go beyond Phonics.

Five Basic skills of Jolly Phonics

1. Letter Sounds – Each alphabet has a sound. There are 26 alphabets and 16 additional sounds so there are 42 sounds in Jolly Phonics. These are the foundation of Phonics.
2. Letter Formation – Helping the child to write the letters is the second step of Jolly Phonics towards literacy.
3. Blending – Joining the individual sounds to make a word. A step ahead towards reading. Initially
   The child reads |p| |a| |n| blends the sounds and reads |pan|. It cultivates the habit of reading independently.
4. Identifying sounds in the words – Picture/ drawing of a word can be shown to the child and ask him/her to identify and count the sounds in the word. Colors, drawings, pictures, etc. appeal to young children. Learning becomes fun for them. It helps them learn easily.
5. Tricky words – Words that are used repeatedly but are irregular. These words can be learned by repetition, making short sentences with them, and reading.

The supereader that allowed her to read with speed, accuracy

When she developed phonemic awareness, it greatly enhanced her reading fluency which is a reading “superpower” that allowed her to read with speed, accuracy, and expression. Reading fluency greatly enhanced her ability to read with intonation and energy that translated into expressive writing skills.

I taught Devika with her Hindi Barakhadis and she gave me an excellent result in just three months. The child who was hesitant to speak in English in her class started reading confidently. I guided and showed her how knowledge of phonics can help her develop the active skill of writing, or encoding and decoding big words and she started taking efforts and using it in her reading skills. decoding and encoding: the bridge between reading and writing was lessened. Initially, phonics reaps rich rewards for students in terms of the passive skill of reading. This is also known as decoding. I made her read Newspaper Headlines so that new big words would be introduced to her. I asked her to find out five new words every day. Pronunciation of those words was checked by me and then I asked her to find the meaning of the same from the dictionary so that she would understand and comprehend them.

She started reading new books and read Mythological Stories. Indian Mythology is a bit difficult to read but that’s where Phonics and Jolly Phonics help unitedly. In just three months there was a drastic change in her reading, writing and her confidence level had geared up. So, Phonics has really helped Devika and that confidence in her has made me a Happy Teacher. It gives me immense pleasure seeing the smile and confidence in my student after overcoming his/her difficulties.

She started reading new books and read Mythological Stories. Indian Mythology is a bit difficult to read but that’s where Phonics and Jolly Phonics help unitedly. In just three months there was a drastic change in her reading, writing and her confidence level had geared up. So, Phonics has really helped Devika and that confidence in her has made me a Happy Teacher. It gives me immense pleasure seeing the smile and confidence in my student after overcoming his/her difficulties.