What are Phonics Skills?

Phonics is the ability to match letters to the sounds that the letters make. It is a necessary skill to learn to read and spell. Instruction in phonics begins in the early grades and teaches the relationship between letters and their sounds. Phonics are skills one level of the Reading Rope. This instruction is direct and methodical. Children are taught one letter and sound at a time with frequent review. The sound-letter relationship is clearly stated, for example, “oa” says [oa] as in boat. This direct, systematic teaching is key to effective learning. Phonics instruction focuses on teaching the following skills.

Phonics Skills

1. Letters of the alphabet have specific sounds. Students learn to match sounds to consonants and short vowels. For example, “a” is the first sound in apple, “b” is the first sound in bat.

2. English has 44 phonemes. Kids will learn some of these as units, “ee” as in tree, “tch” as in catch, “or” as in corn.

3. Blending: Sounds blend together to make words, e.g. the sounds “f’, “i” and “n” make the word “fin.” Quick and accurate blending is necessary for fluent reading.

4. Segmenting: Words will get separated into the individual sounds, e.g., the word “hat” is made up of the sounds “h”, “a”, and “t” in that order. The ability to segment words is necessary for spelling.

5. Decoding: Using knowledge of letters and their matching sounds to sound out words, what we know as reading.

6. Knowing sight words: Sight words contain some letters that follow the letter-sound relationship, but break phonics rules. Knowledge of sight words improves reading fluency.

7. Manipulating sounds: Make new words by substituting, adding or removing sounds. For example, “cat” to “hat”, “hat” to “hats”, and “hats” to “at”.

Fluent readers and good spellers have strong phonics knowledge and are able to use these skills to excel in school.