Reading from A to Z• Reading – theory • Reading best practices• Phonemic awareness

• Phonics

One definition of phonics:

• The understanding that there is a predictable relationship between phonemes, the sounds of spoken language, the graphemes, the letters and spelling that represent those sounds in written language.

COMPREHENSION

Fluency

Vocabulary

Phonics

Phonemic Awareness

Key Components of

Reading

www.nationalreadingpanel.com

Phonics Key Findings

Systematic and explicit phonics instruction:

• Is more effective than non-systematic or no phonics instruction.

• Significantly improves kindergarten and first-grade children’s word recognition

and spelling.

• Significantly improves children’s reading comprehension.

• Is effective for children from various social and economic levels.

• Is particularly beneficial for children who are having reading difficulties and

who are at risk for developing future reading problems.

• Is most effective when introduced early.

• Phonics instruction is not an entire reading program for beginning readers!

excerpt from Reading First Guidance.doc 2/10/04http://www.ed.gov/programs/readingfirst

Cueing Systems

• phonics involves the Graphophonic, or visual, cueing system.

• It has to do with sounds and symbols, and the print

on the page that we see. • Letter and word recognition, or recall, needs to be

automatic in order to free up the reader to concentrate on meaning.

Sources of Information Used in Reading

(cueing systems)

Meaning

Graphophonic(Visual)

Semantic Syntactic

PhonicsSound/Symbols

Print Conventions:•Directionality•Words/spaces•Letters•Punctuation

T e C t

More confusion for beginning readers:

b d p q W M

1.Consonants

Letter/sounds •usual ones as in alphabet chart•C rule hard/soft sounds (cat/city)•G rule hard/soft sounds (game/giant)

2.Vowels

Long sounds (usual ones as in vowel charts)Short sounds (usual ones as in vowel charts)

Rules:Magic e (can/cane)Two vowels walking (seen, rain)CV pattern (she/he)Bossy r (far, bird, sore)Crazy y (day, baby, fly)

3.Frequently occurring word patterns that are not easily decoded:

ound (round, sound, pound)ould (could, would, should)ight (light, sight, fight) (or /igh/ = long i)

ing (going, ring)(see Essential Phonics Rule in printable

form in Resources section of Blackboard)(see Essential Phonics Rule in printable

form in Resources section of Blackboard)

Consonants—letters/sounds (Usual ones as in alphabet chart)

•Language experience stories, message board•Alphabet books•Activities using student’s names•Games (I spy, Find the letter, alphabet puzzles•Tactile letter activities (sand trays, magnetic letters, raised letters)•Labels—objects in classroom or home•Picture/object sorts•Alphabet Key Words (charts)

Explicit teaching of essential phonics:

•teacher modeling,

•guided practice

•independent practice with feedback

Explicit teaching of essential phonics

Use of:

•key words, •alphabet books, •games and puzzles, and •anything else that can help students become automatic in their recognition of letters and their sounds.

•Just a note, word walls are a great activity and can help students learn the bigger chunks of our language. So much attention has already been given to the use of word walls, that we’re not going to deal with them here.