An introduction to the Super Minds Phonics

Focus sections by Karen Elliott

What is synthetic phonics? How is the method integrated with the

The concept at the heart of synthetic phonics is that each content of Super Minds?
of the 44 phonemes in English can be represented by a Each unit has a Phonics focus section. The phonemes are
letter (e.g. the b phoneme in ‘big’) or a combination of presented and practised through an illustrated sound
letters (the sh phoneme in ‘fish’). sentence or dialogue, which students repeat. Further
practice is provided by exercises in the Workbook.
A phoneme is introduced with its corresponding letter
or letters. Students are encouraged to blend the sounds The Phonics focus recycles key vocabulary in each
to make words from the start of the course. The short unit and progresses to include alternative spellings,
vowel sounds a, e, i, o and u are taught early on, so that contrasting phonemes and strategies for learning
students are able to read words such as ‘bag’, ‘red’, ‘fish’, and remembering the pronunciation of difficult
‘dog’ and ‘sun’. words. In Levels 5 and 6, a phonics tip gives students
extra information about sound-spelling patterns and
Combinations of vowels are required to read words
pronunciation.
containing long vowel sounds (e.g. ‘brain’, ‘tree’, ‘pie’,
‘boat’ and ‘too’). Once students have learned one The Teacher’s Book gives teachers all they need to
pattern for each of the long vowel sounds, they learn to understand the concepts in each Phonics focus section.
recognise alternative spellings such as ‘day’, ‘tea’, ‘fly’, Once they are aware of the underlying principles of
‘home’ and ‘blue’. This also applies to some consonants, phonics, teachers will be able to remind students of
for example, the alternative spelling of the f phoneme previous spelling patterns presented in the course, which
found in ‘elephant’. will help their students to remember and recycle what
they have learned.
The information above is set out in the Alphabetic Code.
See the separate Alphabetic Code document on the
Super Minds website for details.

Students also need to be aware of exceptions to English

sound-spelling patterns. These exceptions are known
as ‘special’ or ‘tricky words’. An example is the long
vowel sound found in ‘me’, ‘we’ and ‘be’. These are often
taught by rhyming the exceptions with words that follow
the pattern, for example, ‘me’ rhymes with ‘see’.

Why has Super Minds chosen this Student’s Book 2, page 27

approach to pronunciation?
Through phonics in Super Minds, students discover that
English is made up of phonemes, which are represented
by different symbols. They learn the combinations of
phonemes characteristic of the language, which are
blended to make words. They also learn to recognise
which phonemes are the same as those in their language
and which ones they need to practise to improve their
pronunciation.

Since phonics is fundamental to the language, Super

Minds gives students the confidence and independence
to build on this foundation throughout their language
learning.

Workbook 2, page 27

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Content of the Phonics focus sections in
Super Minds, unit by unit
Grapheme: one letter = one sound   Digraph: two letters = one sound

Super Minds 1
Unit Phonics Focus Concept
Welcome — —
1 a short vowel sound as in ‘bag’; consonant-verb-consonant (CVC)
words
2 e short vowel sound as in ‘red’ + a / e sounds contrast
3 i short vowel sound as in ‘fish’ + a / e / i sounds contrast
4 o short vowel sound as in ‘dog’ + a / e / i / o
5 u short vowel sound as in ‘sun’ + a / e / i / o / u
6 h consonant h
7 st, sp, sk consonant clusters with s
8 g consonant g
9 ee / ea long vowel ee and presentation of alternative spelling ea

Super Minds 2
Unit Phonics Focus Concept
Welcome — —
1 ee / ea long vowel sound ee and alternative spelling (revision)
2 ie / y / i_e long vowel sound ie and alternative spellings
3 gr / br / tr initial consonant blends with r
4 w / wh consonant w and alternative spelling wh (e.g. ‘wish’ and ‘white’)
5 oo long vowel sound oo with two pronunciations (e.g. ‘book’ and
‘pool’)
6 ai / ay / a_e long vowel sound ai and alternative spellings, including the split
digraph a_e as in ‘face’
7 ue / oo long vowel sound oo, alternative spellings and tricky words
(e.g. ‘fruit’)
oa / o_e / ow long vowel sound oa and alternative spellings including the split
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digraph o_e as in ‘home’
9 s/z consonant phonemes s and z with alternative pronunciation
(s for z phoneme e.g. ‘legs’)

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Super Minds 3
Unit Phonics Focus Concept
Welcome a, e, i, o, u Revision and contrast of short vowel sounds
1 The letters of the Learning how to say the letters of the alphabet for spelling and
alphabet further spelling patterns
2 ie, i_e and tricky Rhyming tricky words with long vowel sounds (e.g. ‘pie’, ‘I’ and
words ‘eye’ have the same sound)
3 v/f Contrasting two phonemes (voiced v and unvoiced f)
4 r / ar Contrasting the r consonant sound (as in ‘rat’) with the ar long
vowel phoneme (e.g. ‘car’)
5 s / sh Contrasting consonant sounds s and sh (both unvoiced) and
alternative spellings
6 a_e / e_e / i_e / Alternative spellings of long vowel sounds: split digraphs
o_e / u_e (i.e. final e makes the vowel sound long)
7 -ed endings An introduction to t and d voiced and unvoiced consonants in
regular past tense (e.g. ‘loved’ but ‘hated’)
8 y Two different pronunciations of the letter y (long ee as in ‘funny’
and i as in ‘gym’)
9 er / ur / ir Alternative spellings of the long vowel sound er (as in ‘her’,
‘purple’ and ‘bird’)

Super Minds 4
Unit Phonics Focus Concept
Welcome oi / oy + oo / ue Contrast two long vowel sounds as in ‘boy’ and ‘blue’
1 ou + oa with ow Two long vowel sounds + alternative spelling ow (‘town’ and
‘snow’)
2 silent letters ‘Special’ words containing silent letters (e.g. ‘listen’)
3 ie / igh Long vowel sound ie + trigraph (three letters = one sound)
alternative spelling igh (e.g. ‘night’)
4 air phoneme air phoneme + tricky (special) words e.g. ‘bear’, ‘where’
5 ar / or phonemes Contrast two long vowel sounds (‘farm’ and ‘horn’)
6 ea spelling two phonemes for ea (e.g. ‘bread’ / ‘peas’)
7 er / or Contrast two long vowel sounds and alternative spellings (e.g.
‘fern’ and ‘bird’; ‘short’ and ‘tall’)
8 er / /ə/ The weak sound in unstressed syllables in words (e.g. ‘farmer’)
9 er / /ə/ The weak sound in unstressed syllables in sentences (e.g. a cup
of tea)

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Super Minds 5
Unit Phonics Focus Concept
Welcome Rhyming words Learning alternative spelling patterns and exceptions through
rhyming them with decodable words (e.g. ‘too’, ‘you’ and ‘through’)
1 Final e making long
Split digraphs (e.g. ‘cake’, ‘these’, ‘bike’, ‘home’ and ‘tube’)
vowel sounds
2 ch and j Contrast voiced and unvoiced consonants (‘cheap’ and ‘jeep’)
3 o and oa Contrast short o and long oa sounds (‘rock’ and ‘roll’)
4 c and s When c gives an s sound (e.g. ‘city’)
5 doubled Doubled consonants make the vowel sound short (e.g. ‘silly’ and
consonants ‘running’)
6 sh / ch alternative Contrast soft sounds in special/tricky words such as ‘station’ and
spellings ‘sure’ with ch sounds in words such as picture
7 silent e Where the final e is not pronounced e.g. horse (as opposed to split
digraphs where the final e makes the vowel sound long)
8 th The voiced and unvoiced pronunciations of the digraph th
9 put, foot, should The short /υ/ sound and its spellings

Super Minds 6
Unit Phonics Focus Concept
Welcome Spelling patterns Looking for alternative spellings of the same phonemes (revision)
1 -ure endings The schwa at the end of words; the zh sound as in ‘treasure’ and
ch sound as in ‘picture’
2 -ion endings The weak endings of the -ion suffix with ch, zh and sh pronunciation
of previous consonant (‘station’, ‘revision’ and ‘question’)
3 -ed endings The three possible pronunciations of the regular past tense
(‘asked’, ‘loved’ and ‘waited’)
4 y The four pronunciations of the letter y (‘fly’, ‘funny’, ‘symbol’
and ‘yes’)
5 s/z/c Tricky words with the s or z pronunciation
6 words ending in -gh Rhyming words ending in -gh with other words to remember
their pronunciation (e.g. ‘laugh-half’, ‘rough-stuff’)
7 u and special words u phoneme in ‘sun’ but also ‘one’
8 Word stress Word stress in two, three and four syllable words (e.g. ‘adventure’)
9 or / aw / al Alternative spellings for the or phoneme (e.g. ‘roar’, ‘crawl’, ‘horn’
and ‘dinosaur’.