Teachers have a lot of questions about teaching phonics ...
What skills should we teach?
What order should we teach them?
Should we teach syllable types?
Should we teach rules?
If only research had answers to all our questions!
Here are some things research DOES tell us:
When a child's first reading instruction has a strong phonics emphasis, they are more likely to be good at both word recognition AND comprehension a few years later.
Phonics instruction is most effective when it's systematic and explicit. This means that it follows a logical order, includes direct teaching, and incorporates review.
Students need phonemic awareness to make sense of phonics.
Good phonics instruction leads to less reliance on decoding. That's because the more you sound out a word, the closer you get to "mapping" it in your brain - so that you recognize it instantly and don't need to decode it anymore!
Phonics isn't a full reading program, and it's not enough to guarantee reading success. But I like this quote from Suzanne Carreker: "Decoding is not an end in itself, but is a necessary step in getting to the heart of reading: comprehension."
Want to get a copy of the scope and sequence that I use? Just click below!
P.S. Ready to make every minute of your phonics block count? Sign up for my 5-day Invigorate Your Phonics Instruction challenge! Early bird pricing is just $15. Sign up here.
Just a note
We are currently rebranding from The Measured Mom, which was our business name for 13 years.
Because of that, you will still see themeasuredmom.com on many of our resources.
We hope to complete the entire transition by the end of 2026.
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