Phonics Summarizer (what you need to know about phonics)
What is phonics?
Phonics is decoding written words. Decoding is turning written letters into sounds. Understanding sounds in spoken language is called phonemic awareness. Understanding all of the sounds of English language and how they are spelled is phonics.
How do we read?
We can read words in four ways. The first is predicting or guessing what a word is by the way the word looks, from a picture, or by decoding part of the word (recognizing a picture of a cat and the letter c will allow you to predict the word cat). This way we can learn a few words as we learn to decode. The second way we read is sounding out words which means we read each word sound by sound ( c a t). The third way we read is called chunking and it means we read parts of a word together. We have read –at and –ake so many times that we don’t need to sound out each sound anymore so we read c –at and c –ake in chunks. Finally we read words by sight which means we read them instantly without having to decode them anymore.
When do we teach phonics?
We begin to teach phonics once students have a basic understanding of phonemic awareness andknowledge of the alphabet.
In what sequence do we teach phonics?
When the young learners are ready to learn phonics, we start by teaching three or four consonant letters, then teach one vowel (For example, C, T, B, M, and A.) We introduce them to many words that contain the two consonant letters and vowel we have taught (For example CAT, BAT, CAB, MAT).
Once they are comfortable with theseletters, we then teach somenew consonants, and then another vowel (For example, S, P, and O). We then introduce them to many words that contain the two consonant letters and vowel we have taught (For example, SAT, BAT, MOP, COT, PAT, POT).
We need to recycle the learned letters over and over in the context of a meaningful words and phrases and sentences that they can understand, and that make sense to them.
What are elements of phonics?
Elements of phonics are the spellings and sounds students need to be able to read. They include consonants, digraphs, clusters, vowels, onsets and rimes.
A consonant is a single letter like B, D, G, C, and S. Most consonants have only one sound and if they have more than one sound like C and G the more regular sound should be taught first.
A digraphis when two letters make one sound like SH, TH, CH, WH, CK, TT, LL, and PH.
A clusteror blend is when two or three consonants combine to represent two or three sounds like ST, SL, STR, CR, FL, or SCR. It is difficult to hear the different sounds in clusters so many students have trouble learning them.
Vowel sounds can be short (cat, pet, pig, pot, and sun) and long(cake, teeth, lie, soap, and use) and are the more difficult sounds to spell because they have so many combinations of spellings.
We usually teach vowels as part of their rime. Rimes are spellings of vowels or vowels and consonants at the end of words.Before a rime comes the onsetwhich can be a consonant, a digraph or a cluster. The –ook in look and the –ow in cow are rimes and the /l/ and the /c/ are onsets. Some rimes don’t need onsets like -ate, -oar, -own, and -and to be words. Most rimes do have onsets and also make words rhyme. Look, book, took, hook, shook, and brook, all have the same rime so they also rhyme. Some words rhyme even though they have different rimes like shoe, true, you, too, and new. Some words have the same rime but don’t rhyme like how, now, cow, and low, grow, snow.
How should I teach a phonics lesson?
- Start with what they know, and then introduce a new letter or phonics rule that is slightly more challenging than what they can handle. In other words, look for what students use but confuse. Do not just follow the sequence on a textbook!Analyze their writing (invented spelling), if they know how to use certain rules (for example silent e) in some situations but not in others, this is probably what you should teach (for example, make, fak,).
- When planning your phonics lesson, make sure that students know the meaning of words you will be teaching. They should be able to pronounce the words orally and know what they mean.
- Start with letters that students can easily pronounce (for example, M K C T S)Difficult letters such as R & L should be put off until students have learned easier letters.
- Avoid telling lengthy rules. Only tell the most essential rules, in a simple, succinct manner. The bulk of the phonics lesson should be on applying the sound-spelling relationships to actual reading, rather than learning phonics rules.
- Work for automaticity: Accuracy in sorting is not enough. Accuracy and speed are the ultimate indicators of mastery.
- Return to meaningful texts. After sorting, students need to return to meaningful texts to hunt for other examples to add to the sorts. These hunts extend their analysis to more words and more difficult vocabulary.
- Avoid using worksheets! Make use of manipulatives, predictable books, word games and word walls, as often as possible to reinforce the learned letters and words.