Monday, February 20, 2012

Phonic literacy: Touchphonics

Clipart: Clker
In a comment to the previous post, a colleague reminded me of Touchphonics. The link above is to a Youtube promo of the system that is worth watching, just to see the principles of multiple-modality instruction--but especially touch, color and movement--applied in working with (for the most part, native-English speaking) K-5 students. There are several similar product-packages on the market, but that one is especially interesting and transparent. What the video does not show much of is how the "pieces" are manipulated in instruction to give learners maximal "haptic" experience or felt sense of the sound or group of sounds and their functions. If you are teaching kids, especially in an EFL context--and have the budget for it, it is worth considering. EHIEP, done primarily just as modelling by the instructor, can anchor and alter sounds efficiently with that age group; TP, reading (sound-grapheme) phonics. Both done by the book, of course . . . 

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