Factors in Adequate Progress in
Literacy Achievement
• A working understanding of how sounds are
represented alphabetically
• Sufficient practice in reading to achieve
fluency with different kinds of texts
• Sufficient background knowledge and
vocabulary to render written texts meaningful
• Control over procedures for monitoring
comprehension and repairing
misunderstandings
• Interest and motivation to read for a variety of
purposes
Purposes of
Phonics Instruction
• Establishes grapheme-phoneme
relationships and the use of
graphophonics cues in reading. This is
termed the alphabetic principle.
• Develops word recognition based on
their visual and orthographic features.
This process is called decoding.
• Aids in building reading fluency and
automaticity.
The Phonics Approach
• Gradual movement into word units and
comprehension
• Sound/letter correspondence foundation
established
• Sight-word instruction only for words not
decodable by phonics
• Emphasizes smaller than word level
language units
Phoneme to Grapheme Relationships
One-to-one relations
Phoneme Grapheme
/1/ a
/2/ b
One-to-many relations
a
/1/
b
Many-to-one relations
/1/
a
/2/
English Phonics
• Consonants and vowels
• Consonant blends and digraphs
• Long and short vowels
• R-controlled vowels
• Vowel digraphs
• Diphthongs
• Homophones & homographs
English Syllable Patterns
• Closed: Short vowel ending with
consonant
• Open: Long vowel, no consonant ending
• Vowel Digraph: vowel spelled with 2+
letters
• C-le at the ends of words
• R-controlled vowel
• Vowel-consonant-e long vowel pattern
• Idiosyncratic
Word Derivations immigrate
migration immigration
migrate immigrant
migr-move
migratory
emigrate
migrancy
emigrant
emigration
Traditional Approaches to
Phonics Instruction
• Are synthetic approaches using part to whole
with segmentation and blending of letters into
words
• Begin with teaching individual letters and
letter-sound correspondences
• May involve kinesthetic activities, i.e., Orton-
Gillingham, Zoo Phonics
• Require direct instruction based on a
behavioral analysis of decoding. I.e., Distar
Contemporary Phonics
Approaches
• Spelling-based principles such as Word
Study or Making Words that involve sorting or
making words based on students’
developmental level
• Analogy-based approaches where students
decode words based on known words or
word parts
• Embedded phonics where students where
instruction occurs in the context of authentic
reading and writing experiences
Word Study
(Bear, Invernezzi, Templeton & Johnston)
• Picture sorts • Word Bank
• Concept sorts • Word Wall
• Letter-sound • High-frequency word
correspondence sorts study
• Same-vowel word • Word strips
families • Word Study
• Mixed-vowel word Notebooks
families • Dictation
• Word Hunt • Word games