What to Teach with Phonics Phonics skills are best taught when combined with instruction in the following three reading components. As you are helping students learn phonics skills, also provide instruction in these components. Phonemic Awareness: Phonemic awareness skills contribute to phonics skills. Both reading components relate to the sounds within words. Whereas phonemic awareness…
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What Does Not Work for Phonics Instruction Many activities used for phonics instruction either do not address phonics or are, at best, minimally effective. Following are common types of ineffective instructional activities for phonics. My recommendation: avoid them. Strategy Reason Why It Does Not Work Incidental Instruction The research is clear: systematic and explicit instruction…
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What Works for Phonics Instruction As just described under instructional principles, you want students to go back and forth between direct instruction and application. The first four strategies listed below focus on direct instruction of phonics skills. Six Sample Strategies for Teaching Phonics Word clusters Sight words and phonics Matching words with meanings Word analysis…
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Principles for Phonics Instruction I often describe phonics and phonemic awareness as two sides of the same coin. These two reading components require similar mental processes, although phonics includes the additional element of letter–sound associations. As evidence of the close ties between phonics and phonemic awareness, reading research and success with our reading programs indicate…
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What is Phonics? Without phonics, words on a page are meaningless symbols. With phonics, symbols become words that students can understand and interpret. Without phonics, there is no reading. With phonics, all the other reading skills become possible. Definition The ability to transform written symbols into sounds. Another term for phonics is “decoding.” Letters on…
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