1. Chapter 6: PHONICS
Jan Hughes

2. WHAT
Phonics is the instruction of the relationship between letters and the sounds they represent
Decoding is the ability to convert a word from print to speech
Alphabetic Principle is the understanding that written letters represent spoken sounds and that sounds go together to make words

3. PHONICS
Phonics is a method of instruction that teaches the relationship between letters and letter combinations (graphemes) in written language and the individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken language and how to use these relationships to read and spell words.

4. SYSTEMATIC AND EXPLICIT PHONICS INSTRUCTION
Systematic Phonics Instruction: teaches sound/spelling relationships in a logical instructional sequence
Explicit Phonics Instruction: teaches concepts that are clearly explained and modeled

5. PHONICS INSTRUCTION
Improves students’ reading and spelling in kindergarten and grade 1.
Improves students’ ability to comprehend
Helps prevent reading difficulties among at-risk students
Helps students who have difficulty learning to read
Systematic and Explicit Phonics Instruction

6. APPROACHES TO PHONICS INSTRUCTION
Synthetic phonics
Transforming letters and letter combinations into sounds and then blending the sounds together to form words.
Analogy Phonics
Using a rime in a familiar word to identify an unfamiliar word having that same rime.
Example: use “ick” in a familiar word to teach unfamiliar words such as brick, trick etc.
Analytic Phonics
Identify familiar words and then introduce a sound/spelling relationship within that word.
Example: identify the middle sound of mat and use other words with this such as fan, tan, bag.
Embedded Phonics
Phonics instruction is embedded in the context of reading and writing experience.
These skills include using context, pictures, familiar word parts and the first and last letter of words.

7. GOOD PHONICS INSTRUCTION
Develops understanding of the alphabetic principle (relationship between letters and sounds in words).
Incorporates phonemic awareness
Provides practice in reading words
Leads to automatic word recognition
Only one part of a comprehensive reading program

8. Effective Instructional Techniques
Provide immediate corrective feedback and model correct response
Monitor students to make sure they are paying attention and responding correctly
Lively pacing to keep students attentive
Signaling to have students talk in unison

9. PHONICS SCOPE AND SEQUENCE
Guidelines when evaluating a reading program
Should introduce sound/spelling that occur in most words
High-utility sound/spellings
Progress from simple to more complex
Single consonant and short vowel should be introduced early
Letters with easy to pronounce sounds first
Letters having similar sounds and shape should be separated

10. GENERAL SEQUENCE FOR TEACHING PHONICS
When choosing a Reading program
Look for a systematic sequence
Single consonants/short vowel
Consonant diagraph
Long vowel with silent e (CVCe)
Y as a vowel
R-controlled vowels
Silent consonants
Vowel diagraphs
Variant vowel diagraphs/dipthongs

11. DECODING REGULAR WORDS
Regular words are words in which each letter represents its more common sound
Struggling readers need to sound out words orally and move to recognizing words automatically
Words beginning with a continuous sound are easiest for students to blend (i.e. at and map)
Words with beginning stop sounds are harder to blend (i.e. dog and bag)
Start with the easiest to blend and then move on to harder blend words

12. BLENDING ROUTINES Sound by sound blending Continuous blending
Whole word blending
Spelling-focused blending
Pages examples

13. AUTOMATIC WORD RECOGNITION
Several sub skills are required to develop word recognition
Being able to identify letters and sounds quickly
Being fluent in phonics decoding
must have the automatic word recognition skills for reading fluently, which is an essential skill for comprehension

14. TEXT TYPES Decodable Text Predictable/patterned text Authentic text
Reading practice material in which the majority of words are linked to phonics instruction using sound/spelling relationships and spelling patterns students have been taught
Predictable/patterned text
Repetitive or cumulative text patterns
Match text to illustrations
Authentic text
Literature trade books in different genres

15. DECODABLE TEXT ANALYSIS
Wholly decodable words
Word that can be identified on the basis of sound/spelling relationships and spelling patterns previously taught
Irregular words
High frequency and story words that were taught previously
Non decodable words
Words that are not wholly decodable or previously taught sight words

16. PHONOGRAMS
A phonogram is a letter or series of letters that stand for a sound, syllable, syllable part, or series of sounds
Phonograms should not be the sole focus of early reading instruction
Phonograms should build on knowledge gained from systematic and explicit phonics instruction
Knowing phonograms should be included in instruction
Knowing phonograms is a critical step to decoding chunks of words

17. WORD WORK: ENCODING AND DECODING
Word sorting
Grouping words according to categories to show similarities or differences
Kinds of word sorts
Closed—teacher defines words and models sorting
Open—student defines words and pictures
Blind—teacher defines key word and calls out a word (students do not see). Students point to key word with same sound
Writing—teacher calls out word and student writes word below the key word that has the same sound/spelling pattern
Speed—closed, open, blind, writing are completed in a particular time frame

18. WORD WORK: ENCODING AND DECODING
Elkonin boxes with letters
Helps develop phonemic awareness
Students segment words using chips to represent sounds
Helps bridge the connection between phonemes and graphemes
Word building
The effects on a word when changing one letter
Words are transformed by substituting, inserting, or deleting letters
Each word is different than the previous word by one letter

19. WORD WORK: ENCODING AND DECODING
Dictation
Sound by sound dictation
Teacher dictates word to student one sound at a time
Whole word dictation
Students are prompted to think about the sounds they hear in the words and write the entire word

20. WHY
Systematic phonics instruction helps students learn to read more effectively than nonsystematic phonics or no phonics instruction
National Reading Panel 2000

21. WHY
Based on numerous studies, it has been confirmed that phonics instruction is the best and most efficient way to teach alphabetic principles
Less mental energy is used to decode the words and more energy can be devoted to comprehension

22. WHEN TO TEACH
Phonics instruction has the greatest impact on beginning reader in kindergarten and first grade
Students who don’t master or become fluent in phonics skills by the end of first grade continue to struggle in the future in other areas of reading
Torgesen et. al. (2001)
Researchers suggest about two years of phonics instruction
Pacing is contingent on student mastery

23. WHEN TO ASSESS AND INTERVENE
Intervention should begin in kindergarten and first grade as soon as a reading problem is identified through assessment
Assessment should include phonemic awareness, sound/spelling correspondence, decoding, and use of nonsense words

24. OLDER STRUGGLING READERS
Intensive intervention is critical
Some weak readers will need basic phonics instruction and phonemic awareness
Some will need word attack skills
For older readers, assessment and instruction should include more advanced morphological and orthographic knowledge

25. HOW? Integrated Picture Mnemonics
Letter-sound strategy
Letter names and sounds can be taught together
Teach/Model
Connect an integrated picture to the 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
Practice and commit to memory .

26. LESSON MODELS Sound/Spelling Correspondence Explicit Phonics
Phonograms
Decodable Text

27. SOUND/SPELLING CORRESPONDENCE LESSON MODEL 1
Teaches consonant diagraphs and short vowels
See pages for lesson examples
Steps:
Phonemic awareness
Teach/model
Word work
Sound/spelling practice
Corrective feedback

28. EXPLICIT PHONICS LESSON MODEL 2
Reading and writing CVC, CCVC, CVCe words, vowel combinations, and phonograms
See pages for example lessons
Steps:
Phonemic awareness
Model
Lead
Check
Apply
Word work

29. PHONOGRAMS LESSON MODEL 3
Reading and writing words with phonograms
See pages for lesson sample
Steps
Phonemic awareness
Introduce phonogram
Onset-rime blending
Application
Word work: word building

30. DECODABLE TEXT MODEL LESSON 4
Methods for reading decodable texts
See for sample lesson
Steps:
Review irregular words
Introduce the book
Whole group read
First with whisper read, then with choral read
Individual turns
Respond to questions
Partner-read entire book

31. CONCLUSION
WHAT:
The aim of phonics instruction is to help children acquire alphabetic knowledge and use it to read and spell words.
--Ehri, 2006

32. CONCLUSION
WHY:
The English language is an alphabetic language in which there are consistent though not entirely predictable relationships between letters and sounds
Anderson et al., 1985
Phonics instruction increases the ability to comprehend text for beginning readers and older students with disabilities
National reading panel 2000

33. CONCLUSION
WHEN?
The right maxims for phonics are: Do it early. Keep it simple.
Anderson et al., 1985

34. CONCLUSION HOW Use lessons that are research based
Use the correct model for what you would like to teach
Keep it interesting!
Phonics instruction need not be boring, especially if the instruction is kept brisk, to the point, and does not take an excessive amount of time each day.
Stahl, Duffy-Hester & Stahl, 1998