Phonics International Review – An honest review – try before you buy!

Review – Phonics International

What is Phonics International?

Phonics International (P.I) is a comprehensive synthetic phonics programme produced in 12 progressive downloadable (printable) units.

The step by step resources teach the 44 phonics phonemes/graphemes to teach reading, spelling and writing in the English language. (An extensive collection of worksheets, posters, games and other teacher guides & resources are supplied to help teach these skills)

It is suitable not only for early readers but for all ages including ESL students and older students who are struggling.

The central core to the programme is the ‘Alphabetic Code’ (consisting of a ‘simple’ & ‘complex’ code) which is basically a colour coded chart of all the 44 graphemes/spellings split into 12 colours that correspond with the 12 downloadable units.

The programme introduces a progressive group of graphemes/phonemes and the three skills of blending, segmenting and handwriting
are taught in each unit.

The first unit is FREE – so you can try before you buy. Even if you decide NOT to go ahead with the programme you will end up with some great worksheets & lesson plans that are yours to keep.

The charts of the Alphabetic Code are very useful to ‘see at a glance’ what needs to be taught and when. The audio-visual resource is excellent. This is used with units 1-6.

Nothing ‘fluffy’ about this programme – even the graphics are suitable for all ages and not just geared at the younger end of the market like so many other reading programmes

Click
here to download unit 1

Created by Debbie Hepplewhite – an accredited Jolly Phonics Read Write Inc presenter

What you get with Phonics International:

  • Programme Overview and Guidance Manual
  • Assessment sheets
  • Parent letters (useful for schools, tutors)
  • Picture Cards – phonemic awareness & vocab development
  • Picture Posters – mapping phonemes to graphemes
  • Extensive range of charts & posters of the ‘Alphabetic Code’
  • Colour in Sounds Book – build up a ‘code book’
  • Sounds Book – Most important strand of the programme, providing essential skills and practice with activity and work sheets.
  • Teaching Guidelines for introducing the phonics sounds
  • ‘Hear the Sounds’ – online audio-visual resource – useful for both teacher and learner
  • Active online forum and email support
  • Grapheme Flash Cards/Tiles for spelling
  • Printable Games
  • Handwriting resources
  • Blend Word Cards – cumulative words for teaching and learning aid
  • My Words – cumulative word lists for blending, handwriting & spelling
  • Read the words, make up a story – revise new letter/sounds – build vocabulary, speaking & listening
  • 150 cumulative text for reading, discussing and dictation

How Phonics International teaches letters & sounds

Phonics International resources are highly practical and designed to introduce the 44 phonemes/graphemes systematically. The resources are designed to provide learners with many ways to recall the letter/sounds and to rehearse the three essential skills little & often.
The three essential skills being:

  • Reading – sounding out and blending (synthesising) the phonemes represented by the letters and letter groups (graphemes) all-through-the-printed-word, from left to right

  • Spelling – segmenting or splitting up the smallest identifiable sounds (phonemes) all-through-the-spoken-word and then knowing the written code – the graphemes – which represent the phonemes.
  • Handwriting

    • – recording the letters or letter groups (graphemes), from left to right, which represent the phonemes identified from segmenting the spoken word from beginning to end.

How International Phonics teach blending letters

Blending is the method of putting letters together and sounding them out to make words.
International Phonics begins by blending after introducing 12 letters – S,A,T,I,P,N,C,K,CK,E,H,R .
So for example your child would be reading the following words by the end of unit 1:

  • as, at, sat, is, it, sit, tip, pit, sip, tap, pat, sap in, an, ant, has, his, tan, nap, pin, tin, nip, pan, tips, pits, spit, sips, taps, pats, spat, spits, pans, tins, nips, snip, spin, tint, pins,tans, naps, snap, span, pant, tints, snips, sits, spins, stint, pants, snaps, cat, can, cap, kit, kip, kin, scan, skin, skip, pick, sick, tick, tack, stick, stack, pen, ten, set, pet, net, peck, neck, pens, pets, nets, pecks, necks, speck, sent, tent, hit, hat, hen, hip, hits, hat, hens, hips, rat, rip

This is similar to the first letters introduced in the Jolly Phonics Programme. However the big difference between the two programmes, is that Jolly Phonics is geared towards early learners, where as Phonics International is suitable for ALL ages and abilities.

Print your FREE Unit 1 – Click Here

I purchased this phonics curriculum for use with my own children.

A to Z Phonics have chosen Phonics International as their preferred phonics curriculum. I recommend it to anyone who is considering a synthetic phonics approach to teach reading. You know you will be covering everything your child needs to know to become confident fluent readers, writers AND spellers which turns you into a confident TEACHER/TUTOR! It is especially recommended for classroom settings

Jane Buckley – founder of A to Z Phonics

See how I am using Phonics International to teach my two boys

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