If you have ever wondered what phonics is, or you want to know more, then you are in the right place!
Welcome! I’m very glad you are here!
The reading journey is a big one. If you are involved in helping a child to learn to read, it’s great that you are seeking out more information on this vital part of the reading process.
This page aims to give an overview of phonics. As you will see, it is a massive subject, so what is not covered in this post, is covered in more detailed pages on this blog.
If you want to know more, click on the links, or head to the Phonics Explained page on this blog.
As this page covers quite a lot of info, feel free to read it as it comes or to jump straight to the bit that interests you.
- Introduction: Phonics – A Great Way to Teach Reading
- The Learning to Read Process
- Phonics and Reading
- The Strengths of this Approach
- Teaching Phonics
- Is There a Time When it is Not Needed?
Phonics – A Great Way to Teach Reading
In a nutshell, phonics is all about the sounds of a language, and how they are written down (or spelled), and therefore how they are interpreted, or read.
Fundamentally, it is about letters and sounds.
It is a (great!) way of teaching reading.
There are a number of different approaches to teaching reading, most of them tried and tested, and all of them have enjoyed their moments of popularity and unpopularity over time.
This is very true of phonics [cue trip down memory lane…]
I remember being a fairly new teacher, and raving about a seminar I had been to where I had learned about this new phenomenon for teaching reading: Phonics(!). My colleague and long time amazing teacher smiled and said, “Yes, that’s how we taught reading in the ’70s”!
I’m guessing I’m not the only reading teacher with a story like this.
But anyway, it’s been around for a long time. And, in my opinion, it is a great way of teaching reading.
I think it is such a great way of teaching reading that I’ve made my whole blog about it.
What makes it so great?
To answer this, we need to a back up a bit. We will take a quick look at how we learn to read, and then why phonics is such a good teaching method.
Learning to Read
Learning to read is an amazing process, and to be a part of helping a child in this is a real privilege. It can also be a lot of fun.
Although, let’s be honest, sometimes, it’s not.
It can be really hard work. This can be for many reasons, and I’m going to deal with just two:
Firstly, reading is a taught process. Secondly, it can be a difficult skill to master.
1. Reading is a taught process.
This reason is common to everyone: Learning to read is different from learning to speak.
We learn how to speak by being spoken to and exposed to language. In general, if a child is around people who speak, eventually they will learn to speak.
But this is not true of written language – reading and writing. We don’t ‘naturally’ learn to read by being around people who read. We need to be taught to read.
And so, as in all things that need to be taught, there will be times when it is joyous, and times when it is less so.
2. Reading can be a difficult skill to master.
Another reason the reading process can be difficult is that a child or student may struggle with some aspects of reading.
In these cases it often takes longer for a student to get to automatic recognition of words, and they can get left behind as the rest of their class move on.
So, learning to read is not always an easy thing to do or to teach. But there are lots of things we can do to help with the process.
One of these things is phonics.
Phonics and Reading
Phonics – as is probably obvious?! – is my most favorite way of teaching children to read.
As we have said above, phonics is about the sounds of a language, and how they are written down.
A Brief Overview
The starting point of phonics is distinguishing sounds. This is called phonological awareness. It can be as simple as distinguishing the sound of a truck or a car, and as difficult as hearing the individual sounds that are contained in a word.
Then phonics moves onto matching the sounds of spoken language to letters or groups of letters (represented by the alphabet). This is letter sound correspondence.
The next step is based on the fact that all spoken language consists of individual sounds. And these sounds make up individual words. Phonics teaches how to break apart (segment) a word into its individual sounds, and how to push (blend) sounds together to make words.
In addition to this, phonics focuses on the patterns and spelling rules of the words in the English language.
It also deals with syllables, including prefixes and suffixes and their meanings.
This is a very brief overview. Check out the Phonics Explained pages for a more in-depth look at each aspect. As you explore the site, you will see that each activity is based on a phonics concept.
Phonics therefore covers a huge amount, but in essence, it draws all these things together to form a clear and systematic approach to the teaching of reading.
The Strengths of the Phonics Approach
There are many advantages to teaching reading using phonics:
1. Phonics starts with spoken language.
Reading is about understanding spoken language that is written down. Phonics provides a structure for reading development that goes from spoken language to written language. And, it can be started at any age (given that the child is ready).
2. Phonics gives early success.
When a child knows the letter sounds of /i/ and /t/ and can then blend them together to make the word ‘it’, they have successfully read a word.
3. Phonics builds independence.
It gives children a way to approach a word, and work it out by themselves. Therefore this means that they can read more words without having to ask an adult “What does it say?”
4. Phonics uses a progression of skills.
All learning works best when there is a progression and ‘build up’ of skills. Phonics for example, moves from environmental sounds, to letter sounds, to using these letter sounds in reading and spelling.
5. Phonics is easy to remediate.
When phonics is based on a progression, it is easy to see the exact point at which a child is struggling. Remediation then starts at the point that the child is struggling, and provides extra support in that particular area.
6. Phonics works well for children with reading difficulties.
The Orton Gillingham approach, which is a method of teaching children with dyslexia, is based on phonics and phonic rules. It teaches the reasons behind spelling rules and therefore gives the tools for each child to learn to read.
7. Phonics helps with reading and writing.
As children learn letter sound correspondence, they learn how to spell as well as to read. For this reason, even if a child learns reading through look and say, phonics is still helpful when they come to write and spell. This is because it is more difficult to reproduce something than it is to recognize it, so knowledge of spelling patterns and rules will help competent readers to spell.
8. Phonics can easily be multisensory.
Multisensory teaching is when a concept is taught using all the different senses. When taught this way, the concept is more likely to be remembered. With phonics, children hear, say and write the sounds or words they are working on. Importantly, there are also lots of games and activities that allow children to learn through movement.
Teaching Phonics
Progression
Phonics teaching and learning should follow a progression.
For example, teaching children to hear the beginning sound in a spoken word, leads to teaching them to recognize the letter that makes this sound. Then, they learn to segment and blend words containing this sound, and finally to read it the word on a flashcard, in a sentence, and eventually in a book.
There is a lot of phonics curricula and content to choose from. What is important is that the approach follows a logical sequence.
Your child’s school phonics curriculum, or the one you follow for homeschooling, should give you the progression to follow.
The ones I have worked with, and love, are Letters and Sounds and The Orton Gillingham Approach.
One important thing to bear in mind is that any syllabus will need adjusting slightly, to meet the needs of the child.
Activities
Discreet teaching times will always be necessary. This involves the teaching of a specific phonics concept.
Reinforcement and practice with the concept will then be necessary.
A great way to teach and reinforce phonics is by using activities or games – which is what this site is all about!
You can find out about phonics activities here, or you can explore individual activities on the blog.
Is there ever a time when phonics is not needed?
I have definitely seen children learn to read without phonics. However, in my experience phonics makes the process a lot easier.
As we have already seen, the reading process is a mammoth task.
Even before the formal teaching of reading begins, there is so much that can be done to prepare a child to read. For example, reading to children, making sure they have a wide vocabulary and that they can distinguish sounds in their environment, are all fantastic ways to promote pre-reading skills.
Phonics comes into play when children are learning to read words, learning to read them in sentences and read fluently.
As children progress, we want for them to read fluently – we don’t want them to still be sounding out words in their teens. The goal of phonics is to get to the automatic recognition of words.
It is also vital that a child understands what they read, and that their understanding is not interrupted or hindered by poor fluency.
So, phonics is a part of the reading process, but not the whole of it. Good phonics teaching, practiced and reinforced will make sure that children have the skills they need to learn to read.
Look and Say
There’s no denying that there are a lot of words in English that do not follow easily recognizable spelling patterns. The best approach is one that teaches the phonics patterns that most words fit into, alongside sight words – for example ‘are’ – that do not follow easily-to-explain rules.
Sight words often fall under an approach to reading called the ‘Look and Say’ method.
This method – also called ‘Whole World Approach’ – teaches a child to read the word through remembering the shape of the word, or providing it with a context, or a picture to go with it.
I like this method, especially for words that do not fit within regular rules. These are ‘sight words’ (also called ‘learned words’ and ‘tricky words’).
I don’t think this method is great for overall reading instruction. One main reason is just that there are way too many words to learn, and so if you can group them into words that follow a similar pattern (phonics), they will be easier to learn.
Having said that, I have had students who seem to be able to memorize words really quickly, and they naturally seem to read words this way. So it can definitely work. I just don’t think it is for everyone.
Phonics: What is it and Why is it important?
If you’ve got this far, well done! I hope you have a better understanding of what phonics is and why it is important.
To wrap up:
Phonics is a great way to teach the difficult process of reading. It teaches children skills that are useful for reading and spelling.
It is always worth remembering that when we ask a child to learn to read, we are asking a lot of them! Phonics is a huge system and a child is not going to learn all the information at once. A systematic and clear progression in teaching over a number of years is essential.
More Information
There is a lot more to say about phonics. These pages deal with different aspects in more detail:
In addition, one of my favorite people to learn from is Wiley Blevins, especially his book, Phonics from A-Z.
Ruth Miskin is an author and phonics expert and has information on her website for parents and teachers.
