In what order do I teach Phonics skills?

In what order do I teach Phonics skills? Miss Rae's Room Teaching Blog

Phonics is a system for approaching reading that focuses on the relationship between letters and sounds.  The teaching has to move from letter/sound correspondences to graphemes, syllables and morphemes.

So, in what order do I teach Phonics skills?

This order gives you a systematic sequence that allows you to individualize it for your students!  

A scope and sequence is the backbone of instruction.  It guides lessons based on a logical skill sequence, builds on previously learned skills, and allows for the evaluation of gaps or lagging skills and redundancies across grade levels. But it's important to remember…

The scope and sequence you use for your students should be individualized (and also systematic) for targeted intervention!

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Guessing words from context is not as efficient as phonetic decoding. Skilled readers can identify unfamiliar words with a high degree of accuracy by sounding them out, even irregular words. By contrast, researchers have found that even proficient readers are not as skilled at correctly guessing words from context with an accuracy rate of only about 25%.

Research has given us even more knowledge - when we see a word, the areas of the brain responsible for orthography (familiar spelling) and phonology (pronunciation) activate before the areas responsible for the semantic system (meaning).

The key to this is Orthographic Mapping!

Orthographic mapping is the ability to “map” or connect frequently occurring letters and letter patterns onto their related sounds.  The process of Orthographic Mapping is an integration of several key oral and written language skills.  These skills include advanced phonemic awareness, letter - sound knowledge, and phonics skills.  As a result, Orthographic Mapping is the ability to quickly and efficiently add words to your sight vocabulary.  Sight vocabulary is all the words you instantly recognize.

You can read more about Orthographic Mapping HERE and get an instructional sequence to support Orthographic Mapping!

Early, explicit, and systematic instruction in phonics, along with direct instruction in phonological awareness, can prevent and also remediate reading difficulties.  The combination of explicit phonics and phonological training for all students in kindergarten and first grade provides far greater results in word-level reading skills than any other teaching practice that has been studied.  Phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, and vocabulary all lead to COMPREHENSION
-the ultimate goal of reading.

Remember - learning to read is a multi-dimensional pursuit. Lots of things have to happen simultaneously.  So your lessons should always include all 5 components of reading and spelling.

Grab my 5 Step Reading Lesson Plan HERE!

Happy & Healthy Teaching!
PEACE,
Miss Rae

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