What is It?
Phonics is the relationship between sounds and their spellings. The objective of phonics instruction is to educate students of the most common sound-spelling relationships so that he/she can decode or sound out words. Phonics is an important component in reading proficiency.
What does research say?
- Why Phonics is Important
- Phonics instruction plays a significant role in a child’s ability to comprehend text.
- It allows the child to map sounds onto spellings, which supports them to decode words.
- Proficiency in decoding=reading fluency, reading fluency=improved reading comprehension
- Phonics helps improve spelling abilities because it stresses spelling patterns that become familiar from reading.
- Poor readers rely heavily on one reading strategy (using picture cues) that they forget to use other strategies that might be more important like sound-spelling relationships.
- How is Phonics Different from Phonological Awareness?
- Phonological awareness implicates sounds in spoken words VS. Phonics, which involves the relationship between sounds and written symbols.
- Most phonemic awareness tasks are completed orally Vs. phonics, which concentrates on teaching sound-spelling relationships with print.
Strategies for Phonics
Early childhood is the best time to introduce phonics to students. There are many, many strategies a teacher or parent can use to practice phonics skills. I am providing 4 easy strategies that can be implemented to create rich phonological awareness skills.
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Nonsense Words
Nonsense words provide evidence that students can read individual syllables. Reading nonsense words gives children practice in decoding unfamiliar words. |
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Pattern Searches
Using pictures or videos to teach sounds can form confidence in students who struggle with letter recognition. Picture cards allow students to learn key words that are used to remember the sounds and shapes of letters from the alphabet. |
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Hand-On Letters
Kinesthetic or tactile learning is a great way to get children moving and insure comprehension on the material taught. A hand-on letter activity that can be used in the cool pool noodle phonics.
Cut 1 inch donuts from two different colored pool noodles, add 3-4 vowels to each of the first colored donuts, add 3-4 consonants each of the other colored foam donut. Place the two colored pool noodle donuts on a smaller pipe in CVC, CCV, CVCV word patters. Allow students to create words using the cool pool noodle phonics craft. |
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Chunking
Reading big words can be intimidating for many students. Physically covering up parts of the word with your hand or notecard allows the child to see small parts of the word at a time. Drawing lines between syllables is also a way to chunk multisyllabic words. Breaking the word down into smaller parts may be very beneficial for struggling readers. |
Example video
The link below is to a fun video to practice phonics.