Phonics

What is Phonics?
Phonics instruction helps students learn the relationships between spoken language and written
letters. Phonics is the idea that the letter b represents the sound /b/ and is the first letter in words
such as book, bag, and bear. Along with knowing letter-sound relationships, phonics involves
skills such as knowing the sound made by common letter patterns such as sh and being able to
use this knowledge to understand unfamiliar words.
Phonics compared to Phonemic Awareness
Phonics sounds a lot like phonemic awareness, another skill that is important in student’s learning
of language. Phonemic awareness is the ability to recognize that words are made up of sounds.
Phonemic awareness is a skill that only deal with oral language and not written language, while
phonics is relating the sounds to the written language. While both phonics and phonemic
awareness deal with the understanding of sounds, phonemic awareness simply deals with
breaking up oral words into different parts and phonics is connecting those sounds to a visual
symbol.
The Importance of Phonics
Phonics is important because it allows students to read words they do not already know. Phonics
is what allows students to sound out words they encounter in reading. Many English words cannot
be sounded out simply letter by letter since we have complex spelling. Therefore, phonics is
important because it allows students to have an understanding of the sounds that are connected
letters and letter patterns. Also, by using this process in reverse, students can spell words that they
only have heard by breaking the word into sounds and then writing the letters/letter patterns
associated with those sounds. Phonics helps improve student’s understanding of what they read.
How Phonics is Effectively Taught
Phonics instruction is most effectively when it starts with young learners in kindergarten or first
grade. Phonics should be taught systematically and explicitly and then practiced a lot. Letter-
sound relationships should be taught in an organized and logical sequence and the skills should be
taught very clearly and directly.
Some Activities You Can Do at Home
- Give your child some sounds to blend together to make a word they are unfamiliar with. Such
as /sh/, /ar/, and /k/ and then have them put it together to make shark.
- Read a book along with your child that gives them many new words that they must sound out.
- I Spy the Sound. Ask your child to spy words that begin with a certain sound. Such as “I spy
with my little eye, something that begins with /b/.”
- Phonics Hopscotch. Draw a hopscotch setup (the amount of squares and shape are up to you). In
each square put a letter of the alphabet (you can put uppercase in some and lowercase in others).
There are multiple ways to play. You can call out a letter and ask your child to jump on and say
the sound of that letter.. You can ask your child to jump on the letters in alphabetical order, saying
their sound as they do. They can also go through the hopscotch normally, saying the letter sound
as they do.