Explaining Phonics Instruction

This 2018 brief explains the what, the when and the how of phonicsReading instruction that focuses on the alphabetic principle — the systematic, predictable relationship between spoken sounds (phonemes) and written letters (graphemes) — to allow readers to identify or “decode” words. instruction to parents, offering guidance on phonics for emerging readers, phonological awarenessA group of skills related to the ability to recognize the parts of spoken words. , word studyInstruction that focuses on close investigation of words. , approaches to teaching phonics, and teaching English learners.

Key takeaways:

• Students should have acquired phonological awareness, concepts of printA child’s understanding that printed words carry meaning, and that reading and writing are ways to get information. , concepts of word of text and alphabetic principles before beginning to learn phonics.
• Most phonics programs incorporate both analytic and synthetic activities. In analytic instruction, students compare words to identify patterns and apply this knowledge to new words (e.g., ran/can), or they examine word families to make analogies between segments of words (e.g., onset and rimeThe vowel plus all the letters after it in a single syllable. , r-an/c-an/f-an/m-an/p-an). In synthetic phonicsAn approach to phonics instruction that emphasizes teaching the sounds of letters or groups of letters in isolation and how to blend or synthesize these separate sounds into pronunciations of the words. , students blend individual letter sounds together to form words (e.g., c-a-t/cat).
• Word study is an approach to teach the alphabetic layer (basic letter–sound correspondences) and pattern layer (consonant–vowel patterns) of the writing system by including spelling instruction that is differentiated by students’ development.
• Phonics instruction depends on the characteristics of a specific language; students who learn to read in multiple languages apply phonics that fit the respective letter–sound, pattern and meaning layers.
• Emergent bilingual readers and writers use their knowledge of one language to learn other languages.

See the full brief, Explaining Phonics Instruction: An Educator’s Guide (opens in a new window).