Phunny phonics

I had never even thought about English phonics before coming here, but it turns out to be a crucial part of the curriculum. It can also be a hard concept for students to grasp, not only due to the differences from Chinese phonics but also because of the way they learn (or don't learn) it. Instead of building the skills to sound out an English word when they read it, or try to spell a word when they hear it, many students simply memorize the vocab words from phonics lessons. Some of these lessons are pretty darn phunny:

I'm really not sure when my students are ever going to use the word 'vat.'  They might encounter a duke in future literature classes... the point of course is for them to learn the rules and sounds. One thing that seems to work well is having students brainstorm  -- the sixth graders like making lists of words they know that have a certain sound, e.g. words that begin with st, sp, sm, ..., especially when they get to use words like 'stupid' or 'spiderman.' They're not quite as fond of 'study.'