Phonics Instruction
Phonics instruction helps students learn the relationship between the phonemes (sounds) they hear in words and the graphemes (letters) they see written on the page. Students use their knowledge of those relationships in order to read as well as to write their own texts. Phonics lessons may be interwoven with spelling, since spelling involves students in learning about the different possible ways to represent a single sound. For example, students have to learn that /f/ in English can be represented by and ‘f’ or by ‘ph’ or even by ‘gh’ (as in ‘laugh’).
The goal of phonics instruction is to help children learn and use the alphabetic principle--the understanding that there are systematic and predictable relationships between written letters and spoken sounds. Knowing these relationships will help children recognize familiar words accurately and automatically, and "decode" new words. In short, knowledge of the alphabetic principle contributes greatly to children's ability to read words both in isolation and in connected text.
Click below to learn about the following phonics instruction strategies/topics, including classroom activities and tools you can use: