Phonics
Phonics refers to the relationship between speech sounds (phonemes) and letters (graphemes) used to represent those sounds in written language.
Understanding Phonics
What is Phonics?
Phonics refers to the relationship between speech sounds (phonemes) and letters (graphemes) used to represent those sounds in written language. Learning predictable relationships between sounds and letters allows children to apply this knowledge to familiar and unfamiliar words.
Why is Phonics Important in Learning to Read?
Research from the National Reading Panel (2000), the Institute of Education Sciences, and decades of cognitive science shows phonics instruction:
- Boosts early reading success
- Builds a strong foundation for reading fluency and comprehension
- Strengthens spelling and writing skills
Phonics is the bridge between oral language and print. We learn the sounds of speech naturally by hearing oral language. To learn to read, we need to recognize that print represents the sounds of speech and how the code of our written language works. As we learn about what letters or letter combinations (graphemes) are used to represent speech sounds (phonemes) in words, we can better decode unknown words.
What is the Best Way to Teach Phonics?
Children develop phonics knowledge through a combination of formal direct instruction and other experiences where print is connected with spoken language such as during read alouds, phonics games, or reading print in the environment. Formal phonics instruction is most effective when it is:
- Intentional. There is a clear need and goal for the phonics lesson.
- Systematic. Lessons are delivered is a logical sequence that reflects complexity, connections, and weekly reviews.
- Direct. The teacher explicitly states the goal and purpose of the lesson, models the skill, and employs guided practice with feedback.
- Brief. While the ideal length of a phonics lesson depends on the instructional goal, a lesson targeting a single phoneme/grapheme correspondence should last 3-5 minutes.
- Contextualized. Phonics patterns are best learned in the context of words to connect to their role in decoding unknown words.
HELP Goals for Phonics Instruction
HELP Phonics focuses on three instructional goals:
- Letter/Sound Associations. Teach the relationships between graphemes and speech sounds.
- Phonics Patterns. Teach common phonics patterns.
- Decoding/Word Identification. Teach strategies to decode/identify unknown words.
HELP K3 Literacy is the most effective way to teach phonics because it combines systematic direct instruction, guided practice, engaging phonics learning games, and environmental literacy supports. HELP Phonics Lessons feature targeted direct instruction to teach letter/sound associations, phonics patters and rules, and decoding. Letter/sound associations are presented one at a time in a purposeful sequence that allows students to begin exploring phonics and creating words immediately.
Phonics refers to the relationship between speech sounds and the letters used to represent those sounds in written language.
HELP Phonics Games
HELP Phonics Games
- Walking Words. Write a word on a board or on the ground. Invite the learner to make the sounds in the word as they walk by the letters.
- WordMaker. Use letter cards to create a two-letter word ending. Invite the learner to make words by adding a letter to the beginning and blending to say the word (or nonword).
- Word Sounds Chains. Write a target word. Invite the learner to say the word and to identify a word that starts with the ending sound of the prior word.
- Sound Detective. Write a word or sentence that includes a target sound. Invite the learner to point out or circle each time the sounds appears in the text.
- Rhyme Time. Write a target word. Invite the learner to say or write a list of words that rhyme with the target word.
Science of Reading and Phonics Instruction
- What is Systematic and Explicit Instruction? Systematic means instruction that follows a clearly defined sequence. It starts with the simplest, most common sound-spelling relationships such as consonant sounds and short vowels. It gradually builds to more complex patterns like vowel teams, diphthongs, and multisyllabic words. Skills are introduced intentionally—not randomly—so each new skill builds on prior knowledge. Explicit instruction means the teacher directly explains and models each concept to be learned such as each of the 44 phonemes and the graphemes that can be used to represent them. Students practice newly learned skills and receive immediate feedback as needed.
- Which Phonics Teaching Method is Best? Any of the following methods can be used to teach phonics in a systematic and explicit manner. The most effective phonics instruction flexibly combines several methodologies to best meet the needs of the learner.
- Synthetic phonics shows readers how to blend sounds to sound out words. Children learn how to convert letters or letter combinations into sounds and how to blend the sounds together to form recognizable words.
- Analogy phonics teaches readers to use patterns and parts of words they already know to decode. For instance, decoding the unknown word hat can be done easily if the reader recognizes the word contains the same ending as a known word such as cat.
- Phonics through spelling teaches students how to segment spoken words into phonemes and to spell words by writing letters to represent each phoneme.
- Onset-rime phonics teaches readers to identify the sound of the letter or letters before the first vowel (the onset) of one-syllable words and the sound of the remaining part of the word (the rime). For example, readers are taught how to blend /c/ and /at/ to read the word cat.
- Analytic phonics teaches readers to analyze letter-sound relationships in known words to learn phonics patterns and rules.
- Embedded phonics teaching letter-sound relationships while reading text.