Phonics refers to the ability to recognize the relationship between written and spoken letters and sounds.  Letters and letter patterns correspond to sounds, which as known as the alphabetic principle.  As students practice letter-sound correspondences, which is a process called decoding, their word recognition becomes more automatic.  Becoming fluent readers and having automatic word recognition is important as it fosters effortless reading and reading comprehension.  There are some who believe that phonics is learned through frequent reading, but the National Panel (2000) in their meta-analysis, suggests that phonic instruction should be systematic and explicit and that students must be taught how to apply these skills in reading and spelling.

According to Gough and Tunmer’s simple view of reading, weaknesses in reading comprehension can be caused by weaknesses in decoding or language comprehension or both.  Explicit phonics instruction can help with the decoding part of this equation.

Gough and Tunmer’s Simple View of Reading:

(Source: Gough and Tunmer, 1986. Hoover and Gough, 1990.)

Phonics Skills from Simple to Complex:

Phonics Assessment:

Phonics Sample Activities:

  • UFLI Foundations Program
  • Phoneme/grapheme mapping
  • Syllable instruction
  • Sound wall
  • Practicing with decodable readers that focus on letter-sound correspondences
  • Successive/continuous blending drills
  • “Switch it” (word chains)

Phonics Resources:

Decodable Readers:

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