Direct Instruction: Phonics
Overview
As students are learning to read, they benefit from explicit, systematic phonics instruction. Teaching letter-sound relationships in a research-based scope and sequence should be coupled with providing ample opportunities for students to practice these skills. Research shows that systematic and explicit phonics instruction has a greater impact on reading and spelling when it occurs early in kindergarten and first grade. For students to become good readers, phonics instruction must be in combination with meaning-focused activities, like reading rich texts and vocabulary activities.
Example: Use This Strategy in the Classroom
Watch how a teacher uses the Orton-Gillingham approach, which is highly multisensory, with her whole class. The program uses both hearing and touch to explore letters and their sounds.
Design It into Your Product
Videos are chosen as examples of strategies in action. These choices are not endorsements of the products or evidence of use of research to develop the feature.
Learn how the Simplex Spelling Phonics 2 app uses reverse phonics with a focus on syllables to foster Phonological Awareness through spelling. Providing a hint button that displays all of the possible letter combinations that make a sound supports a deeper understanding of Phonological Awareness and more complex spelling patterns.
Additional Resources
Additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.
Factors Supported by this Strategy
More Instructional Approaches Strategies
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Explicit spelling instruction helps to improve not only students' spelling, a key part of Foundational Writing Skills, but also supports reading skills development.
In guided inquiry, teachers help students use their own language for constructing knowledge by active listening and questioning.
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Using multiple methods of assessment can help educators gain a comprehensive understanding of learner progress across a wide range of skills and content.
A parent evening meeting about how to support literacy at home with one follow-up meeting with each family has shown strong results for students' reading development.
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A strengths-based approach is one where educators intentionally identify, communicate, and harness students' assets, across many aspects of the whole child, in order to empower them to flourish.
