For years, I’ve
worked with struggling readers of all ages. One thing these struggling readers
all had in common is a gap in phonemic awareness skills. Phonemic awareness refers to the ability to
manipulate individual sounds or phonemes in words. Students who lack phonemic awareness skills
tend to have trouble with spelling (encoding) and sounding out words (decoding).
The National Reading Panel recommends that students receive explicit and
systematic phonics instruction. Explicit phonics instruction means that
students are directly taught sound-spelling relationships. Systematic phonics
instruction follows a scope and sequence that allows students to encode and
decode words.
For
decades, the “Reading Wars” have divided educators into those who believe in
whole language and those that believe in phonics instruction. Whole language
advocates believe that children should learn to read naturally as they learned
to speak. Students are taught to read whole words rather than learning to read
words through manipulating sounds. Whole language focuses on understanding text
structure, making meaning of the text and writing.
On
the other hand, phonics advocates believe that students learn to read by
learning the sound-spelling relationship of the 44 phonemes in the English
Language. The casualties of the Reading Wars are the countless numbers of
students who have not received one of the key skills necessary to become
literate readers. The Reading Wars didn’t leave room for neutrality. Literacy instruction does not have be an either-or
scenario. Literacy instruction should be balanced and include instruction in
phonics, vocabulary, comprehension, fluency and writing.
Phonics
instruction prepares students to decode words. Students who have strong decoding
skills can use their knowledge of letter-sound relationships as well as their
knowledge of spelling patterns to attack and pronounce written words. The
English language is made up of 44 phonemes or sounds. Those 44 sounds can be
spelled using 250 different spelling patterns.
For instance, the /ā/ sound can be spelled using eight different
spelling patterns.
/ā/ Spelling Patterns
|
a
|
apron
|
|
a-e
|
rake
|
|
ai
|
rain
|
|
ay
|
hay
|
|
eigh
|
neighbor
|
|
ei
|
vein
|
|
ey
|
obey
|
|
ea
|
break
|
In order to
build decoding skills, students must be taught these 250 spelling patterns
explicitly and systematically.
Students
who cannot decode words often struggle to comprehend written text. Struggling
decoders are not able to read text fluently.
Reading fluency is the ability to read text accurately and at an
adequate pace. Strong decoders are fluent readers thus spending less time
sounding out words which allows them to focus on comprehending and making meaning
of the text. Whereas struggling
decoders are not fluent readers and must
focus their attention on figuring out the words, leaving them little attention
for comprehending and making meaning of text.
Explicit
and systematic phonics instructions also allow students to become better
encoders or spellers. Encoding is the ability to use knowledge of letter-sound
relationships to spell and write words. For students to compose sentences and
paragraphs they must be able to spell words using their knowledge of
letter-sound relationships. Decoding and encoding skills can be built through
phonics awareness and phonemic awareness instruction.
As
we continue to think about improving the educational outcome for all students, we
must look at how we are teaching students to read. Schools must adopt curriculum that teach students phonemic and phonological awareness skills
explicitly and systematically. They must provide professional development to
teachers to build their understanding of how students learn to read as well as
how to support struggling readers. Teacher preparation programs must include
courses on how to teach reading so that future educators are equipped with the
skills necessary to teach students to be proficient readers.
