Hua-Chen Wang does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. The efficacy of phonics as a method of teaching has been debated for several decades, and has recently come back to the forefront of public debate.
This time, the focus is on the phonics check — a screening tool designed to identify early readers who may be in need of intervention, and provide some indication of how successful current phonics teaching methods are. This has raised some concerns. Scientific studies have repeatedly found that explicit systematic phonics instruction is the most effective way to teach children how to read. Without it, some children will end up having serious reading difficulties.
But what is explicit systematic phonics? Explicit — directly teaching children the specific associations between letters and sounds, rather than expecting them to gain this knowledge indirectly. Systematic — English has a complicated spelling system. It is important to teach letter sound mappings in a systematic way, beginning with simple letter sound rules and then moving onto more complex associations.
For example, some programs, such as Embedded Phonics, teach phonics by asking children to guess unfamiliar words using cues, such as the meaning of a word gleaned from sentence context.
Other programs ask children to look at words for example, pig , page , pen all start with the same sound and learn letter-sound rules by analysing or making comparisons between those words analogy or analytical phonics. That's where we come in — with the help of phonics expert Wiley Blevins, we have compiled the basic information that you need to know before teaching phonics.
Phonics involves the relationship between sounds and their spellings. The goal of phonics instruction is to teach students the most common sound-spelling relationships so that they can decode, or sound out, words. This decoding ability is a crucial element in reading success. Most poor readers tend to rely so heavily on one reading strategy, such as the use of context and picture clues, that they exclude other strategies that might be more appropriate.
To become skilled, fluent readers, children need to have a repertoire of strategies to draw on. These strategies include using a knowledge of sound-spelling relationships — in other words, an understanding of phonics. In addition, research has shown that skilled readers attend to almost every word in a sentence and process the letters that compose each of these words. Therefore, phonics instruction plays a key role in helping students comprehend text.
It helps the student map sounds onto spellings, thus enabling them to decode words. Decoding words aids in the development of word recognition, which in turn increases reading fluency. Reading fluency improves reading comprehension because as students are no longer struggling with decoding words, they can concentrate on making meaning from the text. In addition, phonics instruction improves spelling ability because it emphasizes spelling patterns that become familiar from reading.
Studies show that half of all English words can be spelled with phonics rules that relate to one letter to one sound. Phonics instruction should be explicit rather than implicit. Implicit instruction relies on readers "discovering" clues about sound-spelling relationships; good readers can do this, but poor readers are not likely to do so.
Explicit instruction is the most effective type of phonics instruction, especially for children at risk for reading difficulties. A good phonics lesson begins with an explicit explanation of the sound-spelling being taught along with guided opportunities for students to blend, or sound out, words using the new sound-spelling.
These exercises should be followed by guided and independent reading practice in text that contains words with the new sound-spelling. If children are trying to guess based on pictures, parents can talk to teachers about increasing phonics instruction. Here are some ideas:. By having a variety of experiences, Rasmussen said, children will be able to apply their own knowledge to better comprehend texts about various topics. This story about teaching children to read was produced by The Hechinger Report , a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education.
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We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that. Join us today. Jackie Mader supervises all photo and multimedia use, covers early childhood education and writes the early ed newsletter. In her nine years at Hechinger, she has covered a range of topics including teacher More by Jackie Mader. At The Hechinger Report, we publish thoughtful letters from readers that contribute to the ongoing discussion about the education topics we cover.
Please read our guidelines for more information. By submitting your name, you grant us permission to publish it with your letter. We will never publish your email. You must fill out all fields to submit a letter. The second sentence is absolutely false. Phonics and phonemic awareness instruction is important for the challenges of helping all children reach grade level expectations in reading. Some children bring more and others less to the learning table. Like many other good things in life, phonics instruction can indeed be harmful when overdone and as a single solution.
When we lump all kids together we unintentionally assume learning to read is exactly the same for all and mask the wide variety of children who are learning how to read, especially English language learners and other children with various difficulties who struggle to learn.
This is a good article. She is the founder and CEO of Abound Parenting, an app for parents that empowers parents to use everyday moments to raise strong readers — without ever putting a screen in front of a child.
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