Before entering IGSE, I had tutored children aged 7-10 phonics and I often thought of the importance of phonics. That's why I took the course Literacy and Phonics without hesitation. The class is about learning the basic theories of literacy development and specific class activities. Through the class, I began to think more deeply about how to write an appropriate phonics textbook to help young learners develop phonics knowledge.



1.     Textbooks and supplements 

 •    Herrera, S., Perez, & Escamilla, K. (2010). Teaching Reading to English Language Learners.

  •    Rasinski, T. V., & Padak, N. (2013). From phonics to fluency: Effective teaching of decoding and reading fluency in the elementary school. Boston, Mass: Pearson.
 The first book is about the history of phonics and theories of literacy and methods of teaching phonics to students whose native language is not English. The second book focus on practical activities and techniques.
Besides the two textbooks above, the professor prepares extra handouts each class. 



2. How the class progresses
 It is a three-hour class. The first hour is usually for group presentations. Students in groups summarize the theories of one chapter and provide demonstrations of some activities. If you take this class, I strongly recommend you to read the chapter before the class. It will be very helpful to understand the presentations deeply. For the next two hours, the professor provides feedback, conducts lectures regarding the theories, and led discussions. Students in groups create simple but practical activities based on the lecture and have time to practice and reflect.

3. Assignments and tasks

One of the assignments is a presentation; students in groups of two or three prepare presentation for about 30 minutes. It might be a bit burdensome, but the professor provides detailed guidelines. If you keep that in mind, you will have no problem with presentation.

Sometimes the professor asks us to research simple things such as pronunciation difference between Korean and English. These were not weekly assignments; rather, acted as a brief preview of the up-coming lecture.

We are also asked to create a personal glossary based on all the new terminology that occurs in the lectures and weekly readings throughout the entire semester. This is hoped to encourage students to become autonomous learners. The personal glossary is checked twice during the semester: once at the mid-term and once at the end of the semester. The final assignment changes every semester, but is closely related to the practical and theoretical elements of literacy and phonics.  


4. I recommend this class to people who...

·   Want to teach young learners and elementary students since phonics is the very
   first step for reading. 
·   Have an interest in teaching reading and writing because phonics is closely related
   to literacy 
·  Don't have any specific interest in the field of language teaching yet. I think you
  may find one after this class.