Phonics is the study of letters and sounds they represent. The goal of Phonics instruction is to help children use the sound-symbol relationship to read and write words. The sections below provide activities to practice and reinforce previously taught skills. These skills are sequenced from simple to complex by the difficulty of skill. 2005 Florida Center for Reading Research
Letter Recognition
Letter learning has four components--letter recognition, letter naming, letter-sound knowledge, and letter writing. Letter recognition, also known as alphabet recognition, is the ability to identify letters by name, shape, and sound
Letter-Sound Correspondence
This is the understanding that every letter corresponds to a specific sound or set of specific sounds. It is relationship of the letters in the alphabet to the sounds they produce
Onset & Rime
Onset and rime are two parts of a word. The onset is the part of a single-syllable word before the vowel.The rime is the part of a word including the vowel and the letters that follows.
The rime is the first phonemes before the vowel (b in bat) followed by all the other phonemes (at in rat; esh in fresh). Words that share the same rime are considered rhyming words (e.g., fresh, mesh, flesh).
Word Study
The key to word study is focusing on word patterns, rather than memorization of a list of words. When kids learn word patterns, they’re able to construct and deconstruct words based on their parts.
Because word study focuses on word patterns, activities may differ from traditional spelling practice. Word Sorts are a really effective tool for word study because, by nature, they focus on word patterns!
Syllable Patterns
Closed: These syllables end in a consonant and the vowel is usually short. This is the most common type of syllable we see in English. Ex: rab–bit Vowel + Consonant + E Syllables: These syllables have a long vowel and end with a silent e. Ex: cup-cake Open Syllables: These syllables end in a vowel and the vowel is generally long. Ex: ro-bot Vowel Team Syllables: These syllables are spelled with two vowels that are next to each other. Ex: tea-cup R-Controlled: These syllables have a vowel followed by the letter r (er, ir, ur, ar, or). The letter r affects the vowel sound. These types of syllables can be difficult for students to master and will likely require continuous review. Ex: bur–ger Consonant + LE: These syllables have a consonant followed by -le at the end of the word. If a C-le syllable is combined with an open syllable — as in cable, you do not double the consonant. If one is combined with a closed syllable — little — you double the consonant