No Nonsense Phonics Skills – Teacher Book 9

In each Teacher Book, the content of its parallel Pupil Book is fully replicated. Additional guidance is provided on ‘post-its’ within the Pupil Book section for continuing professional development to make the most of the programme’s resources and activities. This approach for additional teacher-guidance makes the Teacher Books very easy to use.

There is necessary repetition throughout the Teacher Books as, in practice, no one adult may find that they deliver the full programme to the same learner or learners (for example, the learners may have progressed to another year and another teacher). This means that each Teacher Book needs to ‘stand alone’ as well as form part of a cohesive whole programme. It is highly recommended that the teacher reads through the Teacher Book for any particular Pupil Book in its entirety to assimilate all the guidance and content before using the Pupil Books with the learner or learners.

Dependent on the stage of learning and need of the learner or learners (the books are not age-specific although you can start Book 1 with four to five year olds – no younger!), a teaching adult may need to ‘pick-up-and-go’ with any of the Pupil Books. Additional material and guidance for ‘Entry Point Assessment’ is provided via the USB stick included in the No Nonsense Phonics Skills Box Set – otherwise, simply assess the learner’s knowledge of the alphabetic code (“see the letter/s, say the sounds”) and make a professional judgement for the ‘best fit’ Pupil Book to start with based on the learner’s level of language comprehension and spelling ability of the Mini Story pages if given as a dictation. Avoid skipping parts of the Pupil Books on the basis that the learner may already know some of the featured letter/s-sound correspondences. Always start at the beginning of the ‘best fit’ book and complete all the activities to secure maximum benefit including learning new vocabulary and constantly building up knowledge of spelling word banks.

The No Nonsense Phonics Skills programme:

• Provides the ‘overview’ of the complex English Alphabetic Code whilst building up the code in steps via cumulative Alphabetic Code Charts, with guidance for adults, in the front of each Pupil Book
• Provides the overview of the Alphabet and teaches capital letters along with lower case letters ‘as code for’ the same sounds
• Provides systematic and rigorous phonics teaching and practice with a rich vocabulary – with incidental phonics teaching as required
• Teaches handwriting linked to both the English Alphabetic Code and the Alphabet
• Applies and extends phonics to reading and writing cumulative text, developing language comprehension and evoking imagination – the learner is the illustrator
• Involves and engages the learner fully and routinely in self-annotating and formative assessment
• Enables ample revision and repeat reading as required and ongoing marking and monitoring that is tangible to everyone
• Informs parents/carers/support staff and promotes ‘working in partnership’ as appropriate