Phonics

What is Phonics?

Phonics is the relationship between the letters of written language and the sounds of spoken language and strategies for decoding words. First, I will teach students alphabet knowledge which includes letter-shape recognition, letter-name knowledge, letter-sound knowledge, and letter-writing abilities. Then I will teach basic concepts and strategies for decoding one-syllable and multi-syllabic words.

Why is Phonics Important?

To become proficient readers, students need to understand that there is a logical and predictable relationship between letters/spelling patterns and sounds. Students need many strategies to draw on so that they can attend to and process every letter in a word and decode every word in a sentence.

Assessing Phonics

A phonics assessment assesses a student's awareness of the relationship between spoken language and written language. The tasks include naming letters and their sounds, reading words, and demonstrating their knowledge of phonics by correctly sounding out made-up words.

The CORE Phonics Survey assesses the phonics and phonics-related skills that have a high rate of application in beginning reading. Each survey presents several lists of letters and words for the student to identify or decode. Pseudowords, or made-up words, are included since the student must use decoding skills to correctly pronounce these words and cannot have memorized them. These assessments are best used to plan instruction for students in the primary grades and to develop instructional groups. They may be administered every four to six weeks. https://esu11.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2010/11/Phonics_Survey.pdf

Teaching Phonics

Elkonin Boxes

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.1.3.b: Decode regularly spelled one-syllable words.

Students will read regularly spelled one-syllable words (e.g., cat, big, run) in level C decodable texts with 96% accuracy across 5 days.

I Do: Review identifying individual sounds in spoken words.

I will say the word "cat" and hold up a finger for each sound I hear: /c/ /a/ /t/.
I will say "cat" again and move a chip/penny into a box for each sound I hear: /c/ /a/ /t/.
I will say the sounds as I point to each chip/penny (/c/ /a/ /t/) and say the word at the end "cat."

We Do: As a class we do an example together.

I will ask the students to say the word "tub" and hold up a finger for each sound they hear: /t/ /u/ /b/.
I will have the students say the word "tub" again and move a chip/penny into a box for each sound they hear: /t/ /u/ /b/.
I will have them say the sounds as they point to each chip/penny (/t/ /u/ /b/) and say the word at the end "tub."

I Do: Now that we have reviewed individual sounds in spoken words, we will work on letter-sound correspondence.

I will explain to the students that we are doing the same steps but instead of moving chips/pennies, we will use letters.
I will say the word "run" and hold up a finger for each sound I hear: /r/ /u/ /n/.
I will say the word "run" again and move the letter that represents each sound I hear into a box: r for /r/, u for /u/, and n for /n/.
I will say the sounds as I point to each letter ("r" "u" "n"), then slide my finger under the word and read "run."

We Do: As a class we do an example together.

I will ask the students to say the word "big" and hold up a finger for each sound they hear: /b/ /i/ /g/.
I will have the students say the word "big" again and move the letter that represents each sound they hear into a box: b for /b/, i for /i/, and g for /g/.
I will have them say the sounds as they point to each letter ("b" "i" "g") and read the word "big" as they slide their finger under the letters.

You Do: I will ask the students to repeat steps 1-3 with a few more regular spelled one-syllable words (e.g., sad, leg, dog), and I will also have the read together a passage that uses the words from the activity in the story to to demonstrate they are gaining an understanding of letter-sound correspondence.

Word Sorts

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.1.3.c: Know final -e and common vowel team conventions for representing long vowel sounds.

Students will be able to read words with long vowel sounds with vowel team "ai" (e.g. mail, gain, train) and final -e (e.g. fake, save, name) with 95% accuracy.

I Do: Model how to sort words based on if it has the vowel team "ai" or if it has the final -e.

I will have cards with a word on each and tell students that we are doing a word sorting activity. The words will either have "ai" or the final -e. I will explain that the "ai" typically represents a long /a/ sound and the final -e typically makes a vowel long.
I will read the word and then place it in either the column for "ai" final -e: "rain" and "lake" for example.

We Do: As a class we will do some examples together.

I will hold up the word "mail" and have the students sound it out with me and then say the word.
I will ask them under which column ("ai," final -e, or oddball) I should place the card and they should say "ai."
I will repeat steps 1 and 2 with the word "name" and they should say the column final -e.

You Do: I will give each student cards with words on them and have them sort them into either the column "ai," final -e, or oddball (which I added for the word "said" and "have"). After students sort the cards, I will ask them to read each column and explain why they put a word(s) in the "oddball" column. Then, I will have them read a passage together that uses the words from the activity in the story to make sure they understand that words that use "ai" and consonant-a-consonant-e words have the long vowel sound (at least most of the time).

Making Words

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.1.3.c: Know final -e and common vowel team conventions for representing long vowel sounds

Students will be able to read words with vowel teams (e.g. lead, bean, heat) with 95% accuracy.

I Do: Model how to make words by dropping and/or adding letters.

I will write the word "big" on the board and I will sound it out and then read it.
I will erase the "b" and write "p"
I will sound out the new word and say it all together: "pig."
I will tell students that now they will be making words.

We Do: As a class we do an example together.

I will write the word "led" on the board and have the students sound it out and then read it.
I will ask students how they think I can change "led" to "lead." They should say add an "a" in between "e" and "d." I will remind students that one way we can represent the long /e/ sound is with the spelling pattern "ea."
I will add the letter "a" and have the students sound it out and read the word.

You Do: I will ask the students to make words using a set of letter tiles. I will read a list of words one at a time (eg., led, lead, bead, read, ream, team, steam, stream) and students will make (spell) them. This activity will help students to understand that the vowel team "ea" makes the long /e/ sound. Then, I will have students read a passage that uses the words from the activity in the story. This activity can show students how adding/removing a letter from a word can change its meaning.

Common Core State Standards

Kindergarten:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.3

Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.3.A

Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary sound or many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.3.B

Associate the long and short sounds with the common spellings (graphemes) for the five major vowels.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.3.C

Read common high-frequency words by sight (e.g., the, of, to, you, she, my, is, are, do, does).

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.3.D

Distinguish between similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds of the letters that differ.

Grade 1:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.3

Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.3.A

Know the spelling-sound correspondences for common consonant digraphs.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.3.B

Decode regularly spelled one-syllable words.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.3.C

Know final -e and common vowel team conventions for representing long vowel sounds.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.3.D

Use knowledge that every syllable must have a vowel sound to determine the number of syllables in printed words.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.3.E

Decode two-syllable words following basic patterns by breaking the words into syllables.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.3.F

Read words with inflection endings.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.3.G

Recognize and read grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words.

Differentiating Instruction

English Language Learners

When using objects or pictures in activities/lessons, I will choose items that are familiar to children and explicitly teach the name of each item

For example, "This is a boat. 'Boat' starts with the letter 'B.' 'B' says /b/. Boat, B, /b/ (pointing to the appropriate picture or letter)

Children usually have the most difficulty when they encounter sounds that are present in English but do not occur in their home language.

For example, if a child's first language is Spanish, he/she may have difficulty with the "short" vowel sounds of a, e, i, and u and with the consonants j, r, v, and z

Students with Dyslexia

I will teach easier, unfamiliar letters first. I will teach (a) letter names and sounds, (b) upper and lower-case letters, and (c) letter writing together. I will connect it to reading and/or writing.

I will teach short phonics lessons throughout the day or week (e.g., 3-10 minutes lessons rather than one 30 minute lesson). For the word sorts activity, I would give the student(s) shorter lists of words and explicitly teach them the oddball words (words that do not follow the expected patter) instead of having them try to discover it on their own.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse