PHONICS

 Phonics teaches the relationship between letters and letter combinations in written language and the sounds in spoken language.

 Phonics instruction: - Improves reading and spelling in Kindergarten and 1 st grade. - Improves the ability for students to comprehend what they read. -Benefits all students regardless of socioeconomic status. -Effectively helps to prevent reading problems for at risk students. -Benefits students who are having difficulty learning to read.

 Phonics instruction must be systematic. -lessons are organized so that the alphabetic principle becomes evident. -new skills are built on existing ones.

 Phonics instruction must be explicit. -concepts are clearly explained and modeled. -requires less inference and discovery.

 There are several approaches to phonics instruction. 1) Synthetic Phonics 2) Analogy Phonics 3) Analytic Phonics 4) Embedded Phonics

 Systematic and Explicit.  Students learn how to transform letters and letter combinations into sounds that form recognizable words.  Use short decodable stories or books.  Allow a sound/spelling connection.

 Students use a familiar phonogram or rime to identify an unfamiliar word with the same.  Example: use “ick” in a familiar word to teach unfamiliar words such as brick, trick etc.

 Identify familiar words.  Introduce a sound/spelling relationship within that word.  Students use sound/spelling relationship in unfamiliar words.

 Phonics instruction is embedded in context with reading and writing experiences.  Instruction involves using context clues, pictures, word parts, and first and last letters of words.

 Develops understanding of the alphabetic principle.  Incorporates phonemic awareness.  Provides sufficient practice reading words.  Leads to automatic word recognition.  One part of a comprehensive reading program.

 Provide corrective feedback.  Monitor students.  Keep pacing moving to keep students attentive.  Use signals to have students respond in unison. ( never signal while talking )

 A program should introduce a set of sound/spellings that occur most commonly.  High utility sound/spellings are introduced early.  Sequence from simple to more complex sound/spellings.  Introduce single consonants and short vowels early.  Letters having familiar sounds and shapes should be separated.

1) Single consonants and short vowels. 2) Consonant digraphs. 3) Long vowels with silent “e”. 4) Long vowels and the end of words or syllables. 5) “y” as a vowel. 6) “r” controlled vowels. 7) Silent consonants. 8) Vowel digraphs. 9) Variant vowel digraphs and diphthongs.

 Blending routines. -Do sound by sound. -Do with continuous blending.  Automatic word recognition.  Decodable text.  Phonograms.

 Word sorting.  Elkonin boxes with letters.  Word building.  Dictation.

 Through research it has been shown that phonics is the most efficient way to teach the alphabetic principle.  More effective than no phonics.  Reduces reading difficulties in at risk students.  Gives knowledge needed for learning to spell.  Increases ability for beginning readers and students with disabilities to comprehend text.  Allows readers to focus on comprehension.

 Can begin as soon as students recognize the sounds of a few letters.  Greatest impact in Kindergarten and 1 st grade.  Less effective when used for remediation. - students must overcome “habits”.  Two years of phonics instruction is usually sufficient.

 As soon as reading difficulty is identified.  Assessment should include phonemic awareness, sound/spelling correspondence, and decoding, and use of nonsense words.  If students have not achieved automaticity by the end of second grade.

 Letter sound strategy.  Teach/Model. - connect the picture to a letter sound. - make a copy of the picture. - trace the letter and make it into a picture. - write the letter and connect it to the picture name. - review the following day.

 Phonemic awareness. - use pictures as prompts to sound out words.  Teach/Model-----Connect spelling to sound -after modeling sounds, have the students repeat the sounds.  Guided practice—Isolate sound. -practice as beginning sound. -practice as final sound.

 Word work: Picture sort. -sort pictures by those that begin with the sound and those that end with the sound.  Sound/Spelling—practice for automaticity.

 Phonemic awareness. -using index cards, have students repeat each letter sound in short words containing short vowels.  Teach/Model---connect spelling to sound. - using index cards, have students repeat only the sound of each vowel given.  Guided Practice—isolate sound. - using index cards, work with the short vowel sound as the initial sound. - using index cards, work with the short vowel sound as the medial sound.

 Word/Work: picture sort. -using picture cards, have students sort card by where the short vowel sound is located.  Sound/Spelling—practice for automaticity. - practice previously introduced sounds, both consonants and short vowels, in random order.  Corrective feedback. - model correct response if students are responding incorrectly.

 Phonemic awareness with letters. - give each student letter cards a,m,p,s,t. - students hold up card matching the beginning sounds of given pictures.  Model---sound by sound blending.. - model/blend each sound of several CVC words, i.e. mat, pat etc. Use each word in a sentence.  Lead---sound by sound blending.  Check---sound by sound blending.

 Apply to decodable text.  Word work: Elkonin boxes with letters. - practice spelling words from their sounds.

 Phonemic awareness with letters. - practice individual sound. - use each sound in complete words.  Model---Continuous blending.  Lead---Continuous blending.  Check---Continuous blending.

 Word reading practice for automaticity. - model. - lead. -check.  Apply to decodable text. - use connected reading materials.  Word work: sound by sound dictation. - Introduce the word. - Count the sounds in the word. - Spell the word by sound. - Compare and correct.

 Phonemic awareness. - question students on the middle sound of words going from cap to cape, from van to vane etc.  Introduce the CVCE pattern. - model---whole word blending. - lead---whole word blending. - check---whole word blending.

 Word reading practice for automaticity. - have students sound out words to themselves then as a whole.  Apply to decodable text. - use connected reading materials.  Word work: word building. - build words by changing 1 letter of a word to make new words.

 Phonemic awareness with letters.  Introduce vowels ai and ay.  Model---spelling focused blending.  Lead ---spelling focused blending.  Check ---spelling focused blending.

 Word reading practice for automaticity. -pause 3 seconds to allow each student to say each word to themselves before repeating as a class.  Apply to decodable text. -choose books or passages where words are wholly decodable or familiar.  Word work: whole word dictation. -introduce the word. -count the sounds in the word. -spell the word by sound. -compare and correct.

 Phonemic awareness. -have students practice substituting sounds to create new words.  Introduce the phonogram— ight. -practice with several words. -onset/rime blending.

 Apply to decodable text. -choose books or passages where words are wholly decodable or familiar.  Word work: word building. -this should be a cumulative review.

 Review/Practice irregular words.  Introduce the book. -identify title, author, and illustrator. -browse the book.  Whole group: read the book one page at a time. -whisper read. -choral read. -give corrective feedback.

 Individual turns: read entire book. -have each student read a couple of sentences at a time.  Respond to literal questions. -encourage questioning.  Partners: reread entire book. -partners read entire book to each other.

Phonics allows readers to connect letters with the sound that they make. This allows them to convert letters to words then to speech and to comprehend their world more fully. Without this connection many students can find the printed word to be somewhat of a mystery, with reading and everything connected to it a monumental task to undertake.