PHONICS
When you see the word “phonics” I bet you think of reading instruction in kindergarten. Maybe first grade. As a former upper grade teacher, I did. Phonics played no part in my reading instruction as a 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade teacher...or so I thought.
PHONICS: /faniks/ noun
A method of teaching people to read by correlating sounds with letters or groups of letters in an alphabetic writing system.
It is obvious that our kindergarten and first grade teachers, often second grade, are tasked with teaching students to read. By the time students enter third grade, they should be transitioning to “reading to learn” with the bulk of instruction on reading comprehension. Instruction in “learning to read” should be reserved for small groups of students needing intervention to master reading skills.
*The concern with large groups of students not receiving adequate reading instruction in the primary grades will not be addressed in this blog.
As an MTSS Specialist (Multi-Tiered Systems of Support), I have now learned that I WAS in fact teaching phonics in my upper grade classroom AND at the same time, I wasn’t teaching enough phonics.
ELEMENTS OF COMPREHENSIVE PHONICS INSTRUCTION
Effective phonics instruction includes the following elements:
READINESS SKILLS
The two best predictors of early reading success are phonemic awareness (awareness that words have sounds) and alphabet recognition (knowing letters and their most common sounds).
SCOPE AND SEQUENCE
The scope and sequence you use or the one from your adopted curriculum, should build from simple to complex. There is no "best” scope and sequence, but all reading and spelling patterns should be mastered by the end of grade 2 (or the beginning of grade 3).
BLENDING
Blending sounds together is an essential skill when students first begin to use sounds to read simple words AND when they are reading multisyllabic words. Blending sounds to read words is a skill that will apply through all stages of reading.
DICTATION
Dictation is the process of taking words that are read and writing/spelling them. Decoding (reading) to Encoding (writing).
WORD AWARENESS
Children need opportunities to play with sounds and spellings. Give students letter cards for learned sounds and let them build words. They can build real words or nonsense words, have them blend the sounds and determine if it is a word they know.
HIGH FREQUENCY WORDS
For students to be able to read decodable text, it is necessary to teach some high frequency words as “sight words” before sound patterns are learned. For upper grade students, the reading and spelling of high frequency words should be non-negotiable.
READING CONNECTED TEXT
We need to get students reading as soon as possible. Seeing how the sounds they are learning give them the power to read is very motivating. Decodable text with words based on learned sound patterns should be a part of your weekly phonics instruction. Repeated Reading is essential.
The focus of this blog is on the element of WORD AWARENESS.
There are a variety of activities that can be used in your classroom to support this essential skill.
One of my favorite phonics games is MAKING WORDS. As a 3rd grade teacher 25 years ago, I started using a resource called “Making Words” by Patricia Cunningham and Dorothy P. Hall. I thought it was just another fun way to practice reading and spelling words. I didn’t realize that those are the elements of advanced phonics. Who knew??
Phonics Worksheets are for Everyone: MAKING WORDS!
Making Words is a phonics worksheet in which students are given letters and use these letters to make words. The words that can be made begin as simple 2-letter words and can increase in complexity to larger words based on the grade level.
With the Making Words program, the letters given to students always come together to make one big word. This is an active, hands-on, manipulative activity in which children discover letter-sound relationships to learn how to look for patterns in words. Students also learn that by changing just one letter or a sequence of letters, a whole new word can be made.
If you are familiar with Word Ladders, by Timothy Rasinski, Making Words is very similar and could possibly be the precursor.
A SAMPLE MAKING WORDS LESSON - K/1
Students are given a set of letters - a, d, n, s, t
Review each letter name and letter sound.
You can give students time to explore with their letters to see what words can be made OR instruct them to wait and make words based on your directives.
TEACHER:
Take two letters to make the word as.
Maya is as beautiful as a flower.
Change one letter to make the two-letter word at.
We are at school.
Add one letter to make the three-letter word sat.
Liam sat quietly at his desk.
Change one letter to make the three-letter word sad.
Sometimes I feel sad when it rains.
Take one letter away to make the word ad.
He found a job through an ad in the newspaper.
Change one letter to make the two-letter word an.
She is an awesome singer.
Add one letter to make the three-letter word tan.
I own a pair of tan shoes.
Keep the letters you used to spell tan. Move them around to make the word ant.
There is an ant hill in my garden.
Change one letter to make the three-letter word and.
The old movie was in black and white.
Add one letter to make the four-letter word sand.
Let’s make a sand castle.
Ask students if any other words can be made. Allow sharing. If words are nonsense, take time to discuss them and if they may be part of a larger word - Example: san - san is part of single syllable and multisyllabic words like sandwich, sandal, sang, sank.
Finally, see if any student can discover what big word is made using ALL of the letters. It is VERY important for students to know that if they figure out what the big word is, they ARE NOT allowed to say it or share it before the end of the activity.
…And the big word is…. stand!
Making words is an excellent way for students to manipulate letters and sounds to make words AND work on vocabulary at the same time.
Give it a try in your classroom!
