The National Reading Panel report separates good reading
instruction into 5 parts : phonemic awareness instruction, phonics instruction,
fluency instruction, vocabulary instruction, and text comprehension instruction.
Explicit phonics addresses the first 2 parts of that recipe.
Phonemic awareness instruction should be part of your child's
class work if he is in kindergarten, first grade or second grade. Over the
entire year, phonemic awareness should take no more than 20 hours for most
students.
What does Phonemic Awareness look like?
Note: letters inside / / are the sounds made by the
letter
Segmenting
Phonemic awareness activities
are done with the phonemes (sounds, not letters yet), so you wouldn't be seeing
written work come home. However, your child should begin to know how to break
apart the sounds in a word. When you tell her the word "tap", she should be able
to drag out the sounds and eventually separate them into /t/ /a/ /p/ . She should
understand the ideas of the first sound, middle sound and last sounds.
As she
gets further along, she should be able to break longer words, like children -
/ch/ /i/ /l/ - /d/ /r/ /e/ /n/, even realizing it has 2 syllables.
Blending
Blending is really the opposite
process. Your child should begin to be able to take sounds and squeeze them
together to make a word. If you say /b/ /a/ /t/, leaving a little space between
those sounds, your child should be able to tell you the word is "bat".
Segmenting and blending are the two most
important phonemic awareness tools. They are vital parts of phonemic awareness
instruction, but you may see other activities as well.
Phoneme identity: Which sound is the same in bat, ball,
bear?
The first sound /b/ is the same.
Phoneme categorization: Which word has a different sound?
Cat, ran, sand, stop.
Stop has a different middle sound.
Phoneme segmentation: How many sounds to you hear in
church? Three, /ch/ /ur/ /ch/. Children may be taught to clap
or tap the sounds.
Phoneme deletion: What is chair without the
/ch/?
Air
Phoneme addition: Add /s/ to the beginning of
tart and what word do you get ?
Start
Phoneme substitution: If you have park and
change the first sound to /d/, what is the new word?
Dark
Remember, phonemic awareness activities should not take more
than 20 hours of instructional time. Students need to move quickly on to linking
letters with sounds, which is phonics.
What you should not see in phonemic awareness
classes:
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endless activities with rhyming words
without segmenting or blending the sounds |
| · |
songs that encourage children to sing
consonant sounds, thus blurring their understanding of the discreet quick sounds
of consonants and the vowels that follow them |
| · |
quantities of worksheets that have
students circle pictures of words with blends, digraphs, clusters (sw, str,
tw…) |
| · |
lists of sight words to memorize
before they know the letter sounds. Students need the next step, explicit
phonics instruction, to learn to build words from their sounds, not memorize
them.
What does explicit phonics look like?
Explicit phonics is the next step after phonemic awareness.
Classrooms where explicit phonics is being taught have an emphasis on
written letter and sound correspondence. Your child should be
getting explicit phonics instruction in kindergarten, first and second grades.
However, some programs like STEPS that place a specific emphasis on spelling and
word derivatives should be taught in later grades as well. Also, schools that
have not had explicit phonics as part of their curriculum in the past may offer
it to students as old as high school age.
You should see:
| · |
An organized set of
letter-sound relationships (phonograms or graphemes, they mean the same). |
| · |
Sounds introduced in a set order,
sequentially, with opportunities to practice their writing. |
| · |
Sounds and written letters linked
together to the point of automaticity - that is, a child who
sees a phonogram can immediately tell you its sounds and if he hears the sound,
he can immediately write the letter or letters that make it. Good programs offer
tools like flashcards for parents to help students at home. |
| · |
Explicit direct
instruction - Teachers must instruct students face to face. Students
should not be bogged down with worksheets and workbooks. Teachers have to hear
students say sounds and give opportunities for them to write them from oral
directions. Students working alone on sheets can't get help hearing and creating
the sounds. Students seated at computers can't get feedback on
correctly producing the sounds. |
| · |
Application to written
words - Students should have ample opportunities to apply the sounds
they've learned and the rules that guide them to written words. Often this is
done through spelling. Students take sounds and put them in order on paper to
spell. The flip side of this skill is decoding words. Students who know explicit
phonics take written letters and blend them sound by sound as they sound out new
words in reading. |
| · |
Vocabulary emphasis -
Students who learn explicit phonics learn how words are built. They know where
to find prefixes and suffixes and how they change the meanings and sometimes
spellings of words. |
| · |
Emphasis on accurate reading
and writing. - Explicit phonics classrooms are full of reading and
writing opportunities. Since highly qualified teachers know that phonemic
awareness and explicit phonics instruction are only part of an effective reading
classroom, they provide instruction in fluency, advanced vocabulary, and text
comprehension. Within all parts of the day, students are expected to accurately
use their explicit phonics knowledge. Words are to be spelled correctly.
Students read exactly what is on the page, not substituting "he" for "she",
"truck" for "Jeep" , or "was" for "were". The student is expected to write
legibly in cursive or manuscript. |
What you should NOT see in explicit phonics
classes:
| · |
Long lists of words on the wall -
Students need to learn to spell words through the spelling process, sound by
sound, and keep them in their heads, not on the wall. |
| · |
Strong emphasis on sight word
recognition - Although some words, about the first 100 words in the Wise Guide,
need to be memorized on sight after the student builds them sound by
sound, most words need to be sounded letter by letter, and soon they will be
recognizable on sight. With the exception of a very few children who have real
learning problems, most children do NOT require extensive practice with lists of
sight words. |
| · |
Teachers who encourage students to
skip over unknown words, guess, or use the pictures to figure out new words -
Students should be required to go through the word blending sound by sound to
figure it out. |
| · |
Students who are not expected to
participate - With explicit phonics all children can be taught to read. No one
is exempt from the classroom activities. Often students who struggle need more
opportunities to practice, rather than not being required to participate. |
| · |
Students' work with multiple
misspellings or illegible handwriting. Explicit phonics instruction focuses on
skills that are expected to be used throughout the day. Students above grade 3
should write legible cursive writing and correct spelling in all subject areas. |
As parents, you have a right to know what methods and
curriculum are being taught to your child. Every teacher who teaches reading at
all can say she is teaching phonics. Phonics is just teaching that letters have
sounds. The research, however, is clear. Phonemic awareness and
a systematic explicit phonics program taught by a qualified
teacher over several years will give your child the best opportunity to succeed
in reading . Don't settle for less.
For more information on the National Reading Panel report www.nationalreadingpanel.org
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