Systematic Phonics Instruction

The purpose of this paper is to identify and understand the importance of a supplemental phonics program, such as Fundations by Wilson Language, to ensure that students are making noticeable and trackable changes in reading and understanding. Phonemic awareness is the key skill needed for students to better understand how letters and sounds correlate. Some basal reading programs do not have an

Phonics will start to be taught in nursery or reception and a child will not be able to learn to read without proper understanding of phonics.

For example, children are taught to take a single-syllable word such as hot apart into its three individual letters, pronounce a phoneme for each letter in turn /h, o, t/, and ‘blend’ the phonemes together to create a word – ‘hot’. Another method of teaching phonics is to use ‘analytic phonics’, which is where early readers are introduced to the whole word, before being taught to analyse them into their component parts (Wyse et. al, 2007). Hall (2006) argues that early readers typically move from discriminating among large units, such as whole words, to smaller units, such as parts of words and individual letters. Putting forward the case that a synthetic only approach would be disadvantageous to some early readers, and that the analytical approach is often accessed first by many readers, she goes on to state that the sensitivity to onset and rime (the initial sound followed by the final group, as in c-at and b-at), which is the focus of an analytic approach, comes first developmentally. It would be important to mention that Hall (2006) also states synthetic phonics is crucial since the beginner reader needs to get to the phoneme, or individual sound (the focus of a synthetic approach). Furthermore, Hall (2006) also states that pattern recognition is

Phonics advocates have been arguing that in order for children to learn to read, they need to have an explicit instruction in the rules of printed text in order to read properly. The phonics approach has been described as “bottom up” as it teaches the children to decode text and then the meaning and understanding will follow while the whole word approach is described as “top down,” as the children depend on the pictures within the book, form hypothesis and make predictions of the words with the text of the book being read (Wren, 2003).

There are many components to building a student’s reading skill set. One skill that is introduced in preschool and developed through the primary grades is phonemic awareness. The term phonemic awareness is defined as the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate phonemes – individual sounds. The child becomes aware of how sounds are connected to words prior to reading. This awareness creates the understanding of how phonemes explains how the smallest part of sound creates a difference in sound to the meaning of a word. Therefore, the ability to dismantle words, and reassemble them, and then to alter the word into something different explains the concept behind phonemic awareness. It is the primary foundation in which other reading skill sets are according based.

In evaluating the different types of reading interventions, I found that paired reading is the most commonly used to increase fluency. According to the report of The National Reading Panel (2000), guided repeated oral reading is the most effective procedure for developing reading fluency (Kuhn & Stahl, 2000; Rasinski & Hoffman, 2003). Paired reading was originally developed

Reading fluency is considered an integral component of the reading process and it has a big presence in the classroom. Its importance became evident since the National Reading Panel (2000) pronounced fluency instruction and assessment an essential and was thus incorporated into the reading First guidelines of No Child Left Behind in 2002 (Shelton, Altwerger, &Jordan, 2009). Reading fluency has been defined in many ways; an outcome of decoding and comprehension, a contributor to both decoding and comprehension, the ability to recognize words rapidly and accurately, the connections

The synthetic approach is becoming widely accepted as a highly proficient method. It is a part-to-whole approach, which involves synthesising individual phonemes to make whole words (Fellowes & Oakley, 2014, p. 228). The synthetic approach promotes the use of letter tiles, magnetic letters or moveable alphabets to teach word blending and segmenting. The physical act of pushing together letters and taking apart words has a powerful effect on children’s understanding of these language processes (Konza, 2016, p. 158). Additionally, children should learn some common letter combinations and whole words, to the point of automaticity and immediate recognition. These are referred to as sight words as they can not be decoded or sounded out. Teachers should aim to increase students repertoire of such words and pursue rapid word recognition. Fellowes and Oakley, (2014, p. 243) suggest various strategies for teaching sight words, including: sentence strips where children write, cut and reassemble sentences; word shapes where children draw ‘frames’ around words; and tracing activities which involve children writing words with a variety of different materials, such as sand trays, chalk or clay. Also, games such as word dominoes, word bingo and matching activities can be

There are several different types of phonics but the two main types are implicit and explicit (Ruddell, 2009). The implicit approach, or analytic, is when the teacher teaches the relation between sounds and letters in the context of the word it is found in. This means you are looking at the whole word and not isolating sounds. The explicit approach, or synthetic, approach is the opposite of the analytic approach. Instead of looking at the word as a whole, the teacher looks at each individual sound (Ruddell, 2009). From what I know I believe that both of these need to be brought into the classroom. It is important for the child to know each sound so they are able to sound out unfamiliar words in their readings but it is also important for them to be able to recognize a word in context so they can identify words easily and quicker. In my experience in classrooms I have noticed the different ways these approaches were used. In my kindergarten placement the teacher usually used the explicit approach. Each day we would concentrate on two or three letters and the sounds they made. We would practice the pronunciation and read a poem or sing a song with the letter in it. In my second grade class the teacher had a very different way. She would have the children look at the whole

Reading fluency was supported in a 2nd grade classroom I observed by paired reading. Paired reading helps build fluency by allowing students who may be struggling to read aloud with more fluent partners (Cooter and Reutzel, 2015, Pg. 192). In this classroom, there are several different levels of readers. Some of the readers are below grade level and some are well above grade level. The teacher paired students that need to master fluency with readers that are already fluent in reading. The pairs picked a big book of their choice and used small pointers to point and follow along with the book. The students were sitting on the carpet together where they both had easy access to the book. The students took turns reading the book to each other with

How did you learn to read? Most of us do not put much thought into this question, but learning to read is a difficult task. According to Cervetti and Hiebert, the National Reading Panel identified five essential components that a teacher should use during reading instruction, which gives the student the highest chance of being an effective reader (2015, p. 548). These five essential components are also called five pillars of reading instruction. They are Phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. This paper will describe each of the five pillars, how they are related, the benefits, as well as give some effective methods of teaching phonics and phonemic awareness. It will continue by addressing the relationship between reading assessment and instruction and end by identifying ways to address the needs and different learning styles of a student. This paper will start by looking at a definition of phonics and phonemic awareness, then move onto the role that each play in learning to read, how they are related, the benefits and effective methods of teaching both.

Fluency instruction involves the direct teaching of tools to allow the student to improve the speed and accuracy of reading while establishing and maintaining an appropriate level of comprehension. Reading too slow inhibits comprehension as the reader’s mind is expending its effort in decoding the text rather than in understanding it. This is often very true of ELLs who are more likely to be slow readers due to longer than average time spent in decoding the text. Teachers should teach fluency in order help students make the shift from decoding to comprehension. They should not assume that this transition will happen automatically or naturally for every

Fluency is an important key idea in reading.. Fluency means that students can read with at least 95% accuracy in identifying words and sounds. Fluency is important in reading because it will be used as a base in having students identify new words when reading. Fluency is not only important in reading, but in writing as well. When working with my tutee I have noticed that while she can read the text well, when it comes down to writing key words or vocabulary from the text she has trouble. She can correctly identify the sounds the word makes, but not spell them correctly. Fluency is important to master for new students, because then when they are reading new texts they can identify similar words and key phonemes.

The method was developed as a result of research on the increase of reading fluency rates when students read along while listening to an adult reader in a process termed the Neurological Impress Method. Later, the concept of reading along with a fluent model was extended to partnering dysfluent readers with fluent

Reading Fluency: Refers to the ability to decode words accurately, effortlessly, using correct volume, phrasing and appropriate intonation at a reasonably rapid rate. There are three main components of fluency including speed, accuracy and prosody, which is using expression when reading. Since the reader is reading automatically he is able to focus on the comprehension of text. Fluency refers to the ability to maintain accurate reading of connected text at a conversational rate with appropriate prosody. The reader is not easily distracted and reads in an effortless flowing manner.