Phonics Information & Resources
Remember, for phonics to be most effective it is important to have a solid foundation in the areas of phonological awareness and phonemic awareness, which BOTH focus on SPOKEN LANGUAGE. The focus of PHONICS is WRITTEN LANGUAGE and is a way of teaching children to read and spell by taking what they have learned about the sound system and now applying it to symbols ------ the letters and letter groupings of the alphabet. Having a strong understanding of phonics is like having a shortcut to learning to read. Without phonics, all students would be expected to recognize words as a whole and strictly rely on memorization of whole words rather than having resources for breaking words down to decode and encode them.
There are several methods in which phonics can be taught. Research has shown that the best method is by explicit instruction and following a logical systematic sequence. Always build upon what your child already knows. In total, there are 44 sounds in the English language that your child will need to recognize the written symbols for while applying the correct sound. Below are links that will be helpful in getting a better understanding of Phonics. Also included are several charts of the 44 sounds of the English language.
PhonicTalk.com is helpful because it explains the steps in learning phonics. After reading through the opening page, on the left hand side you will find a blue box that contains 8 steps of phonics organized in clusters. You can click on each one of the 8 steps to learn more about helping your child learn phonics. As they discuss "charts" you will find all the charts within step 8. Additionally, at the bottom of the page you will find other useful links about phonics in conjunction with the menu tabs.
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Fast Phonics is a helpful site that provides "A Phonics tutorial with sound and cartoon for all ages. It is a free tutorial that uses cartoons and sounds with audio narration and clickable words to teach phonics. This method teaches just basic phonics concepts without struggle or frustration and includes rules for vowels, consonants, and blends along with practice pages."
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This site is so well made and includes all facets of phonics, that it may become your go-to source. Just click the tabs in blue on the left hand side and all the terms of phonics will be well described.
The English Language has 44 Speech Sounds:
Those speech sounds need to be associated with graphemes (letters). The sounds combined with the graphemes is what phonics is.
The 44 sounds include:
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Short Vowel Sounds
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Long Vowel Sounds
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Diphthongs
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R-Controlled Vowels
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Consonant Sounds
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Consonant Digraphs
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Consonant Blends
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The first two charts display the 44 phonemes (sounds), but on two separate charts. The first one shows the 20 vowel phonemes and the second one shows the 24 consonant phonemes; totaling 44. These two charts are very helpful; however, I find the organization of the last two charts a bit more direct and concise. The last one is best for multisensory marking of words, which will be explained below in the phonics principles and syllable splitting tabs.
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CHART 4
Use this chart in conjunction with the phonics principle and syllable splitting buttons below.
Five Important Phonics Principles
These are five important phonics features that your child will need solid understanding of before moving to work with multisyllabic words. Your child will need plenty of practice with each of the phonics features presented below. I would recommend to thoroughly teaching one feature at a time before moving to the next. Please click on each link for details about each Phonic Feature.
When teaching phonics to struggling learners, it is extremely helpful to use a multisensory approach. When teaching the phonics principles it is helpful to practice by marking the words using a pencil. The marks will be explained under each principle. Using the marking system is effective for helping the student to zero in on features in words and, therefore, strengthening his ability to see words and apply word attack skills in a more aggressive manner than children who do not struggle with foundational reading difficulties.
Below are Phonics Principles that are common among many marking system programs. I am not promoting just one program, but supplying information on methods of marking words for decoding purposes using a combination of methods I have used over the years.
Parents - Phonics does not stop at the point of your child automatically recognizing the 44 phonemes of the English language. In the beginning, you will be practicing very often within one-syllable words. In conjunction to phonics, you will be practicing with sight words (see sight word page on the main reading grid of this website). The first several lists of Fry Sight Words will focus on one-syllable words as well. Remember, while sight words need to be recognized automatically, please keep in mind that as your child learns the 44 phonemes it is OK to point out the similar features that you are studying in isolation when practicing the phonics principles and compare that to what you see in the sight words you are working with! It is always ok to make these kinds of connections! For instance, if you are working with consonant digraph patterns such as /wh/, /ch/, /th/, or /sh/ please point those patterns out within the words you are working with.
In order to help your child apply all the phonics principles you have been working on in isolation through lots of work with one-syllable words, PLEASE progress to supporting your child's understanding of how to split multisyllabic words into their individual syllables. (Syllabication is explained below) This is important so that your child can apply phonics principles to each syllable of a multisyllabic word. Note: Before working with syllabication in multisyllabic words, be sure your child has mastered the understanding of the five phonics principles.
Syllabication is a very important part of phonics. Once your child has learned all five phonics principles, it is now time to start working with multisyllabic words. Start with two syllable words. There are two important decoding skills I will tell you about, and then I can just give some additional tips. The BEST thing about using the phonics principles with the marking system is that your child will be able to TAKE UNKNOWN WORDS, and decode them!! That's what struggling readers need to know how to do. Many children learn to read rather easily; however, one student out of five students does not. They NEED tools!! Please refer to the two Syllabication Splitting rules below.
Syllabication - - Splitting Words at Syllable Junctures
Once your child has learned the above Phonic Principles VERY WELL, it is time to start applying those skills to EACH syllable in a word, but first he needs to know how to break the words down into their individual syllables.
Click on the following links to find out how to do that.
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Additional Phonics Resources
