Phonics is the study and use of sound/ letter correspondences and syllable patterns to help students identify written words.
Phonics instruction teaches students the relationship between sounds and letters.
Phonics is the method of teaching children to link phonemes to the symbol it represents to form a grapheme, a symbol that represents a sound. Learners are able to do this when they have a strong understanding of phonemic awareness.
The process of decoding is when a child is able to see a letter and then say the sound it represents out loud.
Letter-sound correspondence involves thinking about what sound a word starts with, saying the sound out loud, and then recognizing how that sound is represented by a letter.
The process of combining individual sounds together and say the whole word.
This is a big step for many children and takes time and patience.
The process of using letter-sound knowledge to write.
Encoding happens when a child is able to recall the sound and the symbol that is assigned to it.
- /a/ as in apple
- /e/ as in elephant
- /i/ as in igloo
- /o/ as in octopus
- /u/ as in umbrella
- /a/ as in acorn
- /e/ as in equal
- /i/ as in ice cream
- /o/ as in open
- /u/ as in unicorn
Three-letter words arranged consonant, vowel, consonant.
CCVC and CVCC Words:
Consonant Clusters are words with two consonants located together in a word.
Example: CCVC (consonant, consonant, vowel, consonant) stop and plan
Example: CVCC (consonant, vowel, consonant, consonant) milk and fast
A digraph is two vowels that when they are together, make one sound.
Examples: /oa/as in boat, /ee/ as in sheep, /ai/ as in rain
A split digraph (magic e) is when a digraph is split by a consonant.
Examples: take – the ‘ae’ here make one sound. The ‘ae’ digraph is split by the ‘k’
A consonant digraph is two consonants that when together make one sound.
Example: /ch/ as in chat, chain; and /sh/ as in shop, shout
A consonant blend is two or more consonants are blended together, but each sound may be heard in the blend.
Example: /bl/ as in blend, /str/ as in string, /gr/ as in grape
A trigraph is a group of three letters that makes a single sound.
Example: /igh/ as in “sigh”
Practice at Home:
We Are Teachers has a wonderful resource that is designed to build phonic skills. The activities are engaging, meaningful, and fun.