1. Alphabetic Understanding, Phonics and Word Study
This publication is based on K-2 Teacher Reading Academies, ©2002 University of Texas System and the Texas Education Agency, which has been reprinted and modified with their permission.

2. Survey of Knowledge Orthography Phonics Rime Sight words Sounding out
Decoding
Decodable texts
Graphophonemic knowledge
Instructional level
Irregular words
Morphemes
Orthography
Phonics
Rime
Sight words
Sounding out
Syllable

3. Components of Effective Reading Instruction

4. Kentucky State Standards: Program of Studies
Reading (1.2) Arts and Humanities (2.24, 2.25)
Meaning of Text:
Read materials that rhymes, is predictable, and has high frequency words
Vocabulary:
Use auditory and visual strategies to understand words and their meanings.
Employ sight word vocabulary to make sense of text.
Use word identification strategies, including prediction, context cues, and phonetic awareness, to read and understand unknown words.
Concepts of Print:
Make sense of reading materials through using word-by-word matching, punctuation, sentence structure, and the understanding that letters make words.
Experience with Text:
Use syntactic (word structure) and semantic (word meaning) cues to make sense of text.

5. Kentucky State Standards: Core Content
RD-E-x.0.1
Use word recognition strategies (e.g., phonetic principles, context clues, structural analysis) to determine pronunciations and meanings of words in passages.
RD-E-x.0.2
Use knowledge of synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, and compound words for comprehension.
RD-E-x.0.3
Know that some words have multiple meanings and identify the correct meaning as the word is used.
RD-E-x.0.4
Recognize the meaning of a word when a prefix or suffix has been added to a base word.

6. Learning to Read and Spell . . .
requires students to remember exact letter patterns and sequences that represent speech sounds
progresses from understanding letter-sound correspondences and spelling patterns to understanding meaningful units
Meaning
Morphemes
(smallest meaningful units)
Alphabet
Letter-sound
correspondences
Pattern
Spelling patterns (rimes) and syllables

7. Alphabetic Understanding and Phonics
Focus on teaching the letters of the alphabet and letter-sound correspondences
The goal of phonics instruction is to help children understand the alphabetic principle:
the sequence of letters in written words represents the sequence of sounds (or phonemes) in spoken words.
Alphabetic Principle 1

8. Letter Recognition
Recognizing, naming and writing the letters of the alphabet
Identifying and distinguishing both uppercase and lowercase letters

9. Letter Recognition Activities
Alphabet Mats
and
Alphabet Arcs
Help children learn:
Letter names
The sequence of letters in the alphabet

10. Letter-Sound Knowledge and Phonics
Letter-sound knowledge involves learning the common sounds of letters, letter combinations, and spelling patterns
Explicit and systematic phonics instruction teaches students a carefully selected set of letter-sound correspondences and spelling patterns that are organized into a logical sequence

11. Standard Pronunciations
Because we co-articulate, or blend, individual sounds together when we say words, it is sometimes difficult to isolate individual sounds.

12. Phonics and Word Study
Students should come to understand:
Sounds can be represented by single letter or combination of letters
Some letters can represent more than one sound
Different letters can represent the same sound
Different word study strategies can be used to decode and read unknown words
Generalization (or rules) may help determine the correct pronunciations of words but may not apply to every word 24

13. Decoding
Explicit and systematic phonics instruction includes teaching students how to decode words.
Effective phonics instruction teaches students a carefully selected set of letter-sound correspondences, letter combinations, and spelling patterns that are organized into a logical sequence.

14. Decoding (cont.)
Single letter-sound correspondences and letter combinations that represent a particular sound or sounds in words are usually introduced in lower primary
Consonant blends, consonant digraphs, vowel combinations (or vowel pairs) and letter combinations are the primary focus of phonics instruction in the third year of primary
In upper primary, exploration and reinforcement of several different kinds of decoding strategies are used and practiced; the emphasis begins to shift from letter- by-letter decoding to more elaborate study of word pattern and rules

15. Decoding: What About Irregular Words?
contain some letters that do not represent their most commonly used sounds
tend to be high frequency words that students encounter often in their reading and writing
can be partially decoded
are sometimes referred to as sight words

16. Sight Words Sight words are words that are recognized immediately
The ultimate goal is for all words, regular and irregular, to be read automatically with little effort

17. Making Analogies
Helps students remember words with sounds or spellings patterns that they already know and apply this knowledge to read and spell unknown words
Include explicit teacher modeling

18. Word Study Strategies
Identify and blending together the letter sounds in words
Recognizing high frequency and irregular words
Using common spelling patterns
Using common syllable patterns
Using structural analysis
Using knowledge of context and syntax to support pronunciation and confirm word meaning

19. Making and Sorting Words Lessons
Provide opportunities for children to make, sort, and read words that consist of letter sound correspondences they are learning
Focus on individual phonemes in words, spelling patterns, and blending sounds together to read words

20. Making and Sorting Words Activities
Activity
With a partner, use the letter cards at your table to practice the lesson on the handout “Reviewing Letter Sounds to Blend Sounds and Read Words”

21. Open Sort Activity Place the blank heading cards across the table
Shuffle the deck of word cards
Sort the words by commonalities
Create your own category for each set of words
Label the heading cards after you’ve determined the categories

22. Making Analogies: Common Syllable Patterns
Closed syllable (CVC)
ends in at least one consonant; the vowel is short
Open syllable (CV)
ends in one vowel; the vowel is long
Vowel-Consonant-e (VCe or CVCe)
ends in one vowel, one consonant, and a final e; final e is silent; the vowel is long
has an r after the vowel; the vowel makes an unexpected sound
Vowel + r syllable
has two adjacent vowels; each vowel pair syllable must be learned individually
Vowel pair syllable
has a final consonant-l-e combination or a nonphonetic but reliable unit such as -tion /shun/; accent usually falls on the preceding syllable
Final stable syllable

23. Teaching with Word Walls
Group words in different categories to help students learn to read and spell words independently
Select words from a variety of sources
Limit the number of words that are added
Categorize words in a variety of ways
Provide many opportunities for word-wall practice

24. Structural Analysis
Helps students analyze words, or break them into parts they already know, to help them read and spell unfamiliar words
Compound words
Base (or root) words
Inflectional endings
Prefixes
Suffixes

25. Consider Diversity: Limited English Proficient Students
Help children use phonemic awareness and their understanding of the alphabetic principle to decode words.
Teach children how to transfer what they know in their native language to English
Teach letter combinations and sounds that do not occur in a child’s native language.

26. Monitoring Students’ Progress
Regularly monitor children’s knowledge of letters and letter-sound correspondences and their ability to decode as they read words and text
Administer reading inventories
Regularly monitor students’ phonics and word-study knowledge
Listen to students read aloud instructional-level texts

27. Taking a Closer Look
Review the elements of effective phonics and word study instruction on the handout “Elements of Effective Instruction: Phonics and Word Study
Find a lesson that focuses on phonics or word study
Complete the handout “Taking a Closer Look”
Discuss the lesson and its elements

28. Phonics Continuum
Our experiences, and those of many teachers, suggest that once students are phonemically aware and have a grasp of the alphabetic principle they begin organizing knowledge of letter names and letter-sound correspondences in coherent and systematic ways.
This systemizing of knowledge may not correspond to the neat, additive phonics progression described in a reading program, and it may proceed at a pace that lags behind or outruns the progression’s suggested time frame.

29. Phonics Continuum (cont.)
We argue that students are at risk of developing superficial and piecemeal understandings rather than coherent and orderly knowledge of the alphabetic principle if teachers impose systematic phonics instruction without monitoring how students organize the information.
Similarly, we reason that students are at risk of becoming disenchanted with the world of print if teachers require them to spend significant time in activities that reinforce what they already know but simulate few, if any additional insights.

30. Remember . . .
Explicit and systematic phonics and word study instruction is an important component of a beginning reading program.
“The goal [of systematic phonics instruction] is to enable learners to acquire sufficient knowledge and use of the alphabetic code so that they can make normal progress in learning to read and comprehend written language.”
—National Reading Panel, 2000, p. 2.99