Teaching phonics has seen a resurgence in importance over the last few years. From the Sold a Story podcast by Emily Hanford to The Right To Read movie to Lexia LETRS Training and professional development sessions all over the country these days, new words are being taught to teachers everywhere. OR SO I THOUGHT.
I am fortunate enough to be able to work with teachers across the country in helping to share best practices for teaching reading, writing and phonics. It is a role I take very seriously and I am honored to do so.
I am, however, sometimes surprised when working with different schools in different states and mention some research about reading or practices and the teachers in the room don’t know what I’m talking about.
I had a teacher say to me, “I have heard of the word, but I’m not sure what it means.”
Another teacher said, “Between phonemes, morphemes, graphemes, and I-don’t-know-memes, it’s too confusing.”
I wanted to help with this. I started talking to teachers and principals and literacy professionals and gathering words. These are the “38 Words Every K-2 Teacher Needs to Know About Teaching Phonics.”
Teaching phonics: Words you need
This collection is NOT complete. There will always be more words to add to the list, but this is a start. Many experienced teachers today were in college years ago and don’t have the background knowledge to know the “terms” relevant today.
Likewise, explaining these words during parent-teacher conferences can feel intimidating to teachers.
Most teachers want to know the latest research, but between doing their job, managing their out-of-school lives, and just surviving, they don’t know it.
We demand “explicit teaching” for our students, but often we forget to teach the teachers.
One such topic is Phonological Awareness. I have done blogs posts about the umbrella of Phonological Awareness. How this umbrella has 6 parts to Phonological Awareness, including Phonemic Awareness, which also has 6 parts. Phonemes are the sounds in words, not to be confused with graphemes (the letters they represent) or morphemes (word parts with meaning in a word).
There are phonics terms like diphthong (a sound formed by two vowel sounds sliding together in one syllable) or split digraphs (also known as CVCe) that are actually phonics skills we use daily, without effort, we just may not know the name. Distinguishing between decoding (breaking down words to read) and encoding (putting together letters to spell) can be easily explained, but no one has.
teaching phonics: Lessons you know
Each term starts with a definition. The definition is written in plain terms with examples, where necessary. It also may contain related words or acronyms.
A doublet is a double letter (ff, ll, ss, zz) that represents one phoneme. The f, l, s, and z are doubled when they follow an accented or are in a one-syllable word. This is also known as the FSZL (pronounced “fizzle”) rule or the Floss rule (FLSZ).
There are “rules” for English that tell when you use the doublet (when it’s at the end of a short vowel single-syllable), but of course, there are exceptions.
Another part of this Phonics Vocabulary “Dictionary” of sorts, is that I have tried to cover how these lessons would look for your students. There are lessons with pictures, quick directions, activities, and examples. This could include mentor texts, anchor chart ideas or actual lessons.
Teaching phonics: Resources you need
The final section of each page is a resource section. This section can contain related blog posts, resources, workbooks, or related YouTube videos.
In the case of phoneme- grapheme correspondence, I have included one blog post from www.cathycollier.com, but there are more.
It also includes three pre-made sets from my teacherspayteachers store, including using 3 phoneme cards, alphabet interactive notebooks and letter sound match.
These are obviously not the only sets in my TPT store dealing with phoneme-grapheme correspondence, but it is a good start for teachers.
In addition, I have linked an alphabet practice workbook I created that is listed on Amazon.com. The alphabet practice book covers penmanship, letter-sound correspondences, writing words, writing sentences and practicing each letter with repetitious activities to promote independence. Finally, some resources also contain links to YouTube videos I have created for clear demonstration of skills.
Teaching Phonics
This teaching phonics resource is completely free of charge. I hope that it is used by teachers, parents and any caregivers working with emerging reader. If you would like a copy of this booklet, make sure you fill out the form below. You’ll be directed to join my mailing list, but the booklet is yours to keep and you may unsubscribe at any time.
Let me know if you think I should add more words to this set.
