This lesson begins with a shared reading of the story, Go Away, Big Green Monster! by Ed Emberley. After the shared reading, students engage in a paired reading of the online version of the story to build fluency and word recognition skills. They also examine onset/rime patterns by generating word families, review sight words in the story, and play a card game to reinforce high-frequency vocabulary. As a culminating activity, students draw their own big green monsters and write stories about the monsters to publish online. This writing exploration allows an integrated application of phonics where skills can be taught to students individually at the point of use. Ideas for integrating this lesson into learning centers are also available at the website. (author/ncl)

In this lesson, shared reading, guided reading, and small, cooperative-group instruction are used to informally assess students' awareness of rhyme. After a shared reading experience, students identify rhyming words, paying particular attention to specific word chunks. Students work individually to practice their skills. Matching rhyming words using picture cards allows students to apply phonological awareness skills, hear rhyme, and use analogy-based phonics (i.e., an ability to decode unknown words by identifying words with similar visual structure). Additional online resources are also available. (author/ncl)

This lesson uses an active, hands-on activity to teach students how to determine the common and alternative sounds for specific vowel combinations. Children's literature provides an excellent framework for teaching decoding and spelling. The words used as the focus for this lesson are taken from the book Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes. Students practice the generalizations by reading nursery rhymes that include words with the same vowel pairs. Students then make words from the book during an online activity. (author/ncl)

This lesson uses familiar words from a traditional story to teach and reinforce students' understanding of letter-sound correspondence. The lessons begins with a shared reading of The Gingerbread Man with the whole class. Students then use words from the story to practice letter-sound correspondence as they play an interactive game online. Technology is also used as students write and publish their own stories online using words drawn from the text. Links to resources used in the lesson are available at the website. (author/ncl)

Letter-sound knowledge often begins with children making personal connections to their own names. This lesson provides an informal way for students to demonstrate their knowledge of letter and sounds in the context of "name talk." Working with name cards written by themselves or an adult, students make observations about their names and the names of their classmates. As students share what they know about letters and sounds, teachers have an opportunity to assess that knowledge in a meaningful context. (Author/ncl)

In this lesson, students use familiar songs to reinforce their understanding of letter-sound correspondence. Although presented as a multi-day lesson, the components of this lesson can be customized to match the specific needs of beginning readers at various stages of reading development. Students gain proficiency in many skills including, identifying and learning letter names and beginning consonant sounds. Extending the activity by creating new verses to the song as a class, allows students to build their phonemic awareness skills. (author/ncl)

In this lesson, children pay close attention to letter features and letter names as they play an alphabet game. Using their own names, students practice identifying individual letters and connecting the sounds of those letters to familiar words. They also explore the idea that in a word (in this case, a name) the letters are always in the same order. Once modeled, this game may be used in a variety of independent literacy activities. (author/ncl)

This lesson integrates the study of a fairy tale with learning irregular patterns and letter-sound relationships related to decoding and spelling. Students begin by listening to the story Jack and the Beanstalk. Following the story, the teacher guides students in recognizing and identifying words with hard and soft "g" sounds. Students categorize words beginning with the letter "g" by their sound (i.e., hard or soft) and listen to and/or read an online story about a giant. Portions of this lesson may need to be adapted to match the literacy needs of beginning readers. (Author/ncl)

This picture sort for the initial sounds of F and T is from the activity-based book, Words Their Way: Word Study for Phonics, Vocabulary, and Spelling Instruction.  This activity helps children make the connection between spoken and written language.  Children learn to identify the beginning sound in the pictures and place the pictures under the correct beginning letter.  The activity can be extended when children draw and sort their own pictures that begin with the same beginning sounds to reinforce the letter/sound association.  (author/jlkrause)

Children in the alphabetic stage can make the connection between the spoken and written word with this picture sort activity from the book, Words Their Way: Word Study for Phonics, Vocabulary, and Spelling Instruction.  The sounds of the digraphs ch, sh, and th are the focus of this activity.  After the teacher models how to sort the pictures into the three groups, the children do sorting with their own individual sheets.  Reinforcement can follow by having the children find magazine pictures that begin with those digraphs.  The children can then cut out the pictures and paste them in the correct sound category.  (author/jlkrause)

This word sort for the it, ip, and ill families is from the activity-based book, Words Their Way: Word Study for Phonics, Vocabulary, and Spelling Instruction.  This activity for children in the alphabetic stage can first be done in a group and later with partners.  An idea for a partner activity is described.  As the words are sorted into groups or word families, the children discover the patterns in the words.  The children learn to recognize words that rhyme and share the same vowel and ending sounds. (author/jlkrause)

Students can learn to distinguish the letter patterns for the short-a and long-a sounds in words with this word sort activity.  This activity is taken from the book, Words Their Way: Word Study for Phonics, Vocabulary, and Spelling Instruction.  Initially students identify and sort words with the short-a pattern of CVC.  Next students identify and sort the two long-a patterns of CVV and CVVC.  After sorting the words in this word sort, the students can extend their learning by going on word hunts to add more words to their groups. (author/jlkrause) 

Dipthongs and other vowels are the focus of this word sort from the book, Words Their Way: Phonics, Vocabulary, and Spelling Instruction.  This word sort is good for students who have an understanding of long vowels.  Students first sort out words that are alike in the middle, and then add the words to their columns that sound and look like the words they have sorted.  This activity helps develop and understanding of these within-word vowel patterns. (author/jlkrause)

This word sort taken from the book, Words Their Way: Word Study for Phonics, Vocabulary, and Spelling Instruction, is designed to help students understand when the last consonant of a base word is doubled before adding -ed, and when -ed is simply added to a base word.  After sorting the words into categories that are alike, the students determine if they can generate a rule that can be followed about when to double the last consonant before adding -ed.  A sound sort of the words can also be completed since the ending of -ed sounds different depending on the consonant it follows.  Other extensions for this activity are suggested. (author/jlkrause)

An understanding of the prefixes -un, -re, and -dis can be enhanced with the use of this word sort which is taken from the activity-based book, Words Their Way: Word Study for Phonics, Vocabulary, and Spelling Instruction.  Students are able to see how new words are generated by adding prefixes to base words.  This activity encourages students to: 1) consider how the root words are changed by the prefixes, 2) access their dictionaries for reference, and 3) build vocabulary and comprehension.  Ideas for extensions of this word sort are offered as students recombine prefixes and base words to create new words.  (author/jlkrause)

The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) are a set of standardized, individually administered measures of early literacy development. This website provides free access to all of the K-3 literacy assessment tasks. These assessments are short fluency measures, used to monitor the development of early reading skills. Free registration is required to download and use materials. (author/ncl)

In Houston, the teacher in this video is working with her advanced kindergarten students who are learning to connect sounds and letters.  She teaches them to create new words by changing letters in other words.  By watching the children manipulate letters, the teacher is able to determine who is developing phonemic awareness and also letter/sound association.  (author/jlkrause)

This video clip filmed at DeZavala Elementary School in San Marcos, TX shows a lesson for second grade students on the "bossy r".  The teacher takes on the role of the "bossy r" to demonstrate how the letter "r" controls nearby vowels.  The children are learning the association between the letters and sounds, the spelling pattern, and the reliability of this letter/sound association.  The teacher introduces this spelling pattern in isolation and later in the context of a newspaper.  (author/jlkrause)

In this video, Sacramento kindergarten teacher Mr. Lee uses puppetry and play to instruct his second language learners in phonemic awareness and phonics.  Ongoing progress monitoring is also encouraged as a necessary component in a responsive assess-plan-teach cycle.  (author/jlkrause)

The Lab School in Washington, D.C. serves children with learning disabilities.  This video shows master teacher Pam Knudsen as she demonstrates one-on-one tutoring to help a child develop phonemic awareness and phonics.  Highlighted is an activity for phonemic blending using letter/sound association.  (author/jlkrause)

This video which is part of a K-2 workshop, explores the foundations of early literacy through a review of research-based principles for effective teaching of word study and fluency.  Boston University professor, Jeanne Paratore guides teachers as they analyze a word study lesson plan, discuss their own experiences, and compare approaches to teaching phonics. This video requires a free log-in to be viewed online.  (author/jlkrause)

Dr. Louisa Moats explains a technique to a Washington D.C. kindergarten teacher to help her students identify individual sounds in words.  The technique instructs children to hear the sounds and push chips into boxes, or "say it and move it".  Later the chips are pushed out by letters, teaching the children letter/sound association, thus making a connection between phonemic awareness and phonics.  (author/jlkrause)

Teacher Tina Scholtes demonstrates how to help first graders move beyond individual letter/sound decoding and into spelling pattern or word family decoding.  Automatically recognizing the spelling patterns will help children decode more quickly and become more fluent readers.  (author/jlkrause)

Children's invented spelling reveals much about their phonemic awareness and understanding of letter-sound relationships.  In Connecticut, first grade teacher Carol Spinello uses literature as a springboard to a writing activity.  As the children respond to their task through writing their ideas, the teacher analyzes their invented spelling.  This provides many teachable moments and allows the teacher to assess where the children are with their understandings.  The activity also highlights the recursive relationship between reading and writing. (author/jlkrause)

This article, excerpted from, The Content of Professional Development (November, 2000) emphasizes the importance of teaching the Alphabetic Code in the early years.  Sound-symbol understandings are critical for successful reading.  The National Reading Panel reports that the teaching of systematic, synthetic phonics is more effective than other approaches to teaching phonics.  Spelling ability and contextual understanding are both improved with systematic phonics instruction.  It is also pointed out that teachers' knowledge of the English language, their understanding of the relationships between speech and print, and the ability to teach systematic, synthetic phonics without drills and worksheets will make student learning more meaningful and effective. (author/jlkrause)

This professional resource is the International Reading Association's (IRA) position paper on the role of phonics in the teaching of reading.  This topic has been both a political and an educational issue.  A brief summary of the main points of the paper is available and also the full text can be downloaded in PDF form.  The IRA states what it endorses and also what it denounces regarding the importance of phonics in reading.  The IRA does encourage ongoing research and education that explores and reveals how phonics is best embedded into a reading/language arts program. (author/jlkrause)

This professional article, excerpted from the Report of the National Reading Panel (April, 2000), provides a description of five instructional methods and approaches to teaching phonics.  It was determined by the National Reading Panel (NRP) through meta-analysis that the systematic instruction of phonics produced significant benefits to children in grades K-6 and those who struggle with reading.  Systematic phonics was found to be a valuable and essential element in any reading program.  Further discussion of the topic illuminates some cautions and considerations that teaching phonics is only one component of a balanced reading program.  (author/jlkrause)

Phonics instruction is designed to help students learn the systematic and predictable relationships between letters and sounds, ie. the alphabetic principle.  This succinct professional article from The National Institute for Literacy summarizes the main findings from evidence-based research on phonics instruction.  There are nine major findings listed to inform instruction. (author/jlkrause)

Knowing letter names is important for phonics acquisition and reading fluency.  Accuracy as well as speed is a factor.  This professional presentation from the International Reading Association's Pre-Institute on Early Literacy (2008) highlights the importance of letter naming and writing.  It also offers activities for teaching letter names and assessing students' knowledge of letter names.  Further, author D. Ray Reutzel challenges the tradition of learning a "Letter a Week" and offers compelling evidence that learning a "Letter a Day" can be more successful.  (author/jlkrause)

Understanding educational jargon can be confusing, especially when considering all the terms related to the sounds of spoken words.  These terms are phonics, phonetic spelling or reading, phonemic awareness, phonological awareness, and phonology.  Each of these terms is related, but all have distinct meanings.  This article explains these terms and the relationships among them.  Examples are provided for each term. (author/jlkrause)

The use of phonics or word analysis can assist beginning readers to quickly and effectively decode words.  This professional article from the National Institute for Literacy describes and discusses the value of various types of word analysis as well as the best way to assess each.  Suggestions are made for teacher made inventories and tests.  Some tests are made with real words and some with pseudowords so teachers can gain a true understanding of what the learner knows.  The article addresses phonetic letter combinations, onset and rimes, structural analysis, compound words, affixes, and syllables.  There are research related references throughout the article for those who would like to do further reading.  (author/jlkrause)

Explicit instruction in phonics is one approach that benefits students as they learn to understand letter-sound relationships and decode words, yet some students struggle with these concepts.  When a student struggles with reading, understanding the problem and what can be done to help is critical.  The student, teacher, and parents all have different perspectives of how this struggle looks and feels to them.  This professional article offers a unique view of snapshots into three different perspectives of a student who is experiencing problems with decoding.  The three perspectives examined are those of the student, the parent, and the teacher.  The article follows with ideas of "How to Help".  Suggestions and tips are offered for: 1) What kid's can do for themselves, 2) What parents can do at home, and 3) What teachers can do at school.  The coordinated effort will help target the problem and have students learn the strategies necessary to develop effective decoding and reading. (author/jlkrause)

This professional resource is the National Institute for Literacy's (NIFL) description of phonics instruction.  It states that the goal of phonics instruction is to help children learn and use the alphabetic principle, or the relationship between phonemes and graphemes.  Listed are the main findings from evidence-based research on phonics instruction.  (author/jlkrause)