Phonics instruction is an essential component of effective reading instruction. Phonics involves making connections between sounds and letters. In fact, Howcast (2011) explains phonics as the overlap between phonemic awareness alphabetic knowledge. Phonics includes both encoding and decoding skills. According to Howcast (2011), "if we teach children what those paired correspondences are between letters and sounds, then they are going to be better equipped to spell the words that they want to write, and read unfamiliar words that they encounter in text." Click here for a list of activities that support phonics instruction.