Phonics

The primary focus of phonics instruction is to help beginning readers understand how letters are linked to sounds (phonemes), to form letter-sound correspondences and spelling patterns, and to help them learn how to apply this knowledge in their reading.

Learning about letter-sound associations helps beginners break the code in learning to read. The purpose of learning letter sounds is to apply these skills in daily reading and writing.

Phonics instruction includes learning letter patterns and phonics rules:

• vowel sounds (short vowels - say their sound, long vowels - say their name, vowel teams)
• syllable types (open, closed, bossy e, vowel team, r-controlled, final stable - consonant + le)
• consonant clusters (str, tch, dge, etc)
• hard and soft c and g
• sounds of y
• word endings (s, ing, ed)
• word parts (prefixes, suffixes, bases and roots)
• morphology (word origins)
• single syllable words and multisyllabic words

Multisyllabic Words:

• Syllables are the beats heard in a word (for example: ta/ble fan/tas/tic)
• Every syllable has a vowel spelling (60% of the time the vowel spelling is a single letter)
• The number of vowel sounds in a word equals the number of syllables
• Syllable division rules:
  • there is 1 vowel sound per syllable
  • split after ck or x (box/es, nick/el)
  • split between compound words (bird/house, camp/fire)
  • split between doubled letters (sum/mer)
  • split VC/CV patterns (sis/ter, af/ter)
  • prefixes and suffixes are syllables (un/like/ly)

How can I help my child?

• When your child gets stuck on an unfamiliar word when reading, have them identify what parts they know (beginning sound, vowel teams, c or g rule, etc.) then sound out the rest.
• When your child gets stuck on a longer word, have them identify the chunks they know (prefix, suffix, base word, word endings, etc.) then sound out the rest.
• Play “Phonics Rule of the Day”. Select a phonics pattern or rule. See how many words you can find that use the selected pattern or rule. Look at road signs, books, magazines, on the tv, board games, etc. to find written examples of words using the “phonics rule of the day".