Marungko Approach
and Systematic Phonics
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The texts for beginning reading instruction include leveled readers.
Leveled readers are a set of stories and informational materials that use words that are spelled with a specific set of letters and follow a specific sequence. This makes each text accessible for young learners to read after they have been taught to identify and sound out the letters used for a given text.
Leveled readers support early reading development by providing young learners with meaningful texts that they can actually read. These texts accompany a systematic way of teaching the letter and sound correspondences that govern the structure of the majority of words in the English language. These readers, including both stories and informational texts, follow a developmental sequence of letters and sight words. Because of these features, the readers illustrate and facilitate for the young learners the regularity of the correspondences of sounds and letters in forming meaningful texts that they can competently read and understand.
Characteristics and Uses of the Systematic Phonics Readers
The books are leveled for two main functions. The first is to introduce the target letter sounds or word patterns. The second is to reinforce the letter sounds or word patterns taught. These functions highlight the flexibility of the books as they can both be an introductory text or a supplementary material. Usually, highly decodable texts function as a practice material for children who are developing their skills in word reading and fluency.
Most available materials that cater to these literacy targets make use of repetitive words but with very shallow plots or even non-existent plots. The systematic Lampara Phonics Readers contain simple yet meaningful plots that can be used by the parents, caregivers, and educators as accessible, yet engaging texts to enhance the reading comprehension skills of children. Reading skills and strategies can also be developed among children through the use of the books. The books are structured in this way so that the young readers can maximize the use of the books for varied literacy and even numeracy functions. The stories are imbued with values that children are encouraged to discover on their own or with their teachers. And, quite importantly, these readers are written for Filipino children who are learning literacy in English.
As highly decodable texts, Level A can be used as an introductory reading material for learners who are prepared to learn and master the knowledge of letter sound correspondence. Teachers may read-aloud the books in Level A. Target letter names and sounds can be derived from using the words from the book. Learners who can already read independently may start reading the Level A stories or from any level depending on the word patterns that they can read. The young learners can start reading independently at Level B after learning to read words following the consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) word patterns. Except for Level A, the books are arranged according to complexity starting with three letter words following the CVC pattern and basic sight words to words with consonant clusters, long vowels, digraphs, diphthongs and r-controlled words.
In each book, specific sight words are used. The teacher and caregiver will have the option to teach these sight words before a reader is selected for reading aloud or for instruction. There are words with complex meanings that can be taught before and after a book is read for vocabulary development.
The following is a basic sequence of instruction
using the Systematic Phonics Readers:
Leveled readers can be used directly by the learners for independent reading and by the teacher as the main text for beginning reading instruction. When teachers use the Systematic Phonics Readers, they use the following sequence to teach language and literacy:
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Oral language development and knowledge of conventions of print
The teacher can begin each lesson by initiating a class discussion on the theme or general idea of the chosen book. The teacher may ask a question that may generate varied responses from the pupils.
The teacher can focus the learners’ attention to the cover illustration, the first few pages, and the title of the book. The teacher can ask the learners for predictions based on these information.
Finally, the teacher will highlight important aspects of conventions of print which are title, author, and illustrator. The teacher can also emphasize terms like cover, title page, etc.
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2. Phonological awareness
The teacher can select the keywords and sentences in the book and develop any of the following:
a. Word awareness: Is the word long or short? How many words are there in the sentence
that I will say?
b. Rhyming: Do these two words rhyme?
c. Alliteration: Do these two words have the same sound?
d. Phoneme isolation: What is the first sound in this word? What is the last sound in this word?
e. Phoneme blending: I will say a word in small parts. I want you to say the word.
f. Phoneme segmentation: I will say a word. I want you to say it one sound at a time.
3. Alphabetic knowledge development
The teacher deliberately uses the book to teach alphabetic knowledge and letter sound knowledge. The teacher identifies a letter and shows it to the learners. The teacher says the letter name and says the letter sound. The teacher points out the words in the book that begin with the target letter. The teacher can do the same for the other letters selected for a given lesson.
4. Word reading or decoding
The teacher isolates the words that are spelled by the letters identified for instruction and writes them on the board. The teacher shows how to decode the words by sounding out each letter and then blending the sounds to say the word. The teacher can model this process for the learners before asking for volunteers to decode other words that also follow the same beginning letter or letter pattern.
5. Sight word reading
The teacher focuses on the identified sight words from the book. The teacher writes the words on the board or have them printed in flash cards. The teacher says what the words are, identify the letters that spell them, and sound out letters in the sight words that follow the regular letter to sound correspondence. (For example, in the word does, the teacher says that the word is spelled with d-oe-s. The teacher sounds out d and s only.) Then the teacher says the word again and asks the class to repeat. The teacher gives a simple definition of the word. Then asks the class to repeat once more. The teacher follows the same procedure for the other sight words in the lesson.
6. Listening comprehension and oral expression
Before the teacher reads aloud the story, the teacher can remind them of the learners’ predictions raised earlier. The teacher can write the predictions in sentence form on the board. After the teacher finishes reading the story, questions may be asked to generate a discussion among the learners. The teacher can then focus on the predictions and discuss which one was confirmed by the story.
7. Oral reading and silent reading
The teacher can distribute multiple copies of the books to the students to allow them to practice reading in small groups, then in pairs, and finally individually.
8. Reading comprehension
After all the reading practice has been completed, the teacher can have a short discussion of the story with questions that are different from the questions asked in listening comprehension. The discussion will ensure further development of comprehension skills focused on reading comprehension.
9. Written expression
The teacher can end the lesson with short writing activities that are focused on the words learned from the story. The teacher can present sentence completion activities or exercisessuch as the correction of the jumbled sentence. For these activities, the students are tasked with copying either completed sentences or the correctly sequenced jumbled sentences.
The Systematic Phonics Readers and Reading Comprehension Instruction
For comprehension purposes, the books may be used to be read aloud in class. The teacher and caregiver may have a full reading lesson for each book having the following parts: pre-reading, during reading and post-reading.
In the pre-reading part, the teacher may use the suggested sight words as unlocking words as they are also the ones that the learners might find challenging to understand in the book. The teacher and caregiver may also ask motivation and motive questions at this point. Concept unlocking is also highly encouraged in this part.
For the during reading part, the teacher and caregiver may ask the learners questions that allow them to develop their prediction skills as well as their critical and creative thinking when they are required to make an inference. During reading questions, teachers and caregivers may also be asked to monitor the learners’ comprehension and to ensure that the students are listening to the story attentively.
For post-reading part, the teacher may create or use graphic organizers or engagement charts to get story responses from the story. These activities will ensure that the learners listened to the story and has a good recall of the events that happened. Reading skills such as noting details, identifying cause-effect relationships, problem-solution and sequencing can be activated and enhanced in these activities. Reading strategies such as visualization and making connections may also be explicitly taught in the presentation of these activities.