Ann Louise Smalberger (ALS) Phonics

The Phonic Scheme in Early Years Foundation Stage, Key Stage 1 and Year 3 is ALS Phonics

The ALS approach to Reading is the quality-first teaching of phonics, shared and guided reading led by Ann Smalberger. Ann Smalberger is an independent teaching and learning consultant who has been teaching children to read for more than twenty years. She has supported teachers to develop their skills as ASTs, CLLD (Communication, Language and Literacy Development) consultants and (Ethnic Minority Achievement) consultants.

Ann has adapted the planning for the teaching of Phonics, Shared and Guided reading. The approach is multi-sensory and caters for all learning styles (visual, auditory and kinaesthetic). The ALS training programme is funded by the SDSA in Leicester.

Teachers and Teaching Assistants at Wolsey House have received training from Ann Smalberger in ALS Phonics. We have an ALS Lead Teacher who coordinates the training and delivery of the ALS in Wolsey House. CPD is provided both in school, virtually and externally. The ALS Lead Teacher also monitors and evaluates its implementation. 

Phonics – whole class discrete daily phonics lessons starting at Phase 1 in the Nursery, Phase 2 and 3 in Reception and Phase 4 and 5 in Year 1. The sequence of phonemes taught loosely follows the Letters and Sounds publication. The lesson plan changes according to the Phase, however it follows the same structure – Review, Teach, Practice, Apply.

Phase 1 Phonics is taught throughout the Nursery year. It has 7 different aspects which all develop auditory skills.

The aspects are as follows:
Environmental Sounds; Instrumental Sounds; Body percussion; Rhythm and Rhyme; Alliteration; Voice sounds and Oral Blending and Segmenting. Each aspect is taught every day, either through a whole class session or in groups, depending on the aspect being taught. Rhythm and Rhyme and Alliteration continue to be taught throughout the Primary years.

Phase 1 continues to be taught and reviewed during the first half term of the Autumn term in Reception.

Phase 2 phonics begins when the children are secure with their oral blending and segmenting. During the daily whole class lessons, the children are taught phoneme-grapheme correspondence. There are 18 phonemes and 23 graphemes taught in Phase 2. Four phonemes are taught every week, with a revision lesson on the fifth day. The children learn how to blend, to read and segment. They also learn how to write words and sentences containing these phonemes. Emphasis is made on learning new vocabulary. 

Reading and writing mantras are taught so that the children will develop the skills to apply the strategies independently in their written work. The mantra for reading is ‘look at the letters, make the sounds and blend the sounds together.’  The mantra for writing is ‘say the word, robot the word and write the word’.

These mantras are also used during shared and guided reading and writing. Letter formation and handwriting practice are also embedded into the lessons.

Phase 3 Phonics begins to introduce digraphs and trigraphs (25 phonemes).

Phase 4 Phonics introduces adjacent consonants.

Phase 5 Phonics introduces alternative spellings. These lessons revise the previously learnt grapheme and then introduce the new grapheme. Phase 5 usually finishes at the end of Year 1 although Year 2 will revise the Phase during the first half term.

Assessment – All children are baseline assessed at the beginning of the academic year. They are then assessed at the end of every phonic phase. Some children receive additional support during daily interventions.

Sight Words – Sight words, or high frequency words as they are also known, are also taught. Children are given flashcards to take home to practise reading and spelling the words. Some of the sight words are decodable although the children are encouraged to ‘see the word and say the word’. This strategy is used to support the children in developing fluency in reading.

Shared Reading – daily whole class lessons to teach the strategies used for reading. The strategies are taught using ‘mantras’ that the children have learnt in their phonics lessons. They apply their phonic knowledge during the lessons. Lessons cater for all learning styles and emphasises speaking and listening. Talk partners are used in most lessons.

Guided Reading – the children are grouped into ability groups of up to 6 children. The children each have a book and are encouraged to apply the knowledge and skills that they have learnt during shared reading. They read aloud individually. The teacher listens to them in turn, and asks questions. After the children have read, the teacher asks questions about the text. The teacher guides the children to infer and find evidence in the text. There is also an emphasis on giving the children the opportunity to develop their speaking and listening skills. The teacher also assesses the children during the guided reading session.