How to Teach Phonics using a Research-Based Approach

In the field of reading - phonics is a pretty common term. However, there is much more to phonics & teaching the skills it encompasses than you might think.

Today, we are going to break down what exactly phonics is, and how we ACTUALLY should be teaching these skills to our students. Here’s the thing - there’s a LOT of information out there and it can definitely feel overwhelming if you are trying to pull all of this together alone. The good news though? It doesn’t have to be hard! Our goal is to give you a clear framework you can use to implement research-based instruction!

First things first -

What do we mean by phonics?

If you have been following us for a while, then you know that we LOVE the literacy processing triangle (seen below). Phonics is the connection between orthography (visual pattern - or in this case recognizing the letters in “bat” as a ‘b,’ an ‘a,’ and a ‘t’) and phonology (sound patterns - in this case,/b/, /a/, and /t/). The letter-to-sound association is a necessary foundational skill for reading & the reciprocal sound-to-letter association is a necessary foundation for spelling.

There are 7 Steps to a SMARTER Research-Based Instruction Framework (we use the acronym SMARTER to help remember each of the key components!)

1 - Systematic Instruction

Phonics instruction has a progression for both reading and spelling

The progression is the sequence or order in which you teach specific skills. In research-based instruction, skills are building on one another and progress from the most basic concepts to the most complex concepts.

At the start of this progression, we have consonants and short vowel sounds. This moves up to digraphs and blends, and then through the six-syllable types.

2 - Multisensory Instruction

Phonics instruction should incorporate multiple senses wherever possible!

There are many ways you can incorporate multisensory components into your phonics instruction.

Visual: When you have students pair the syllable type rules and add them into a graphic organizer, you are supporting their visual sense. Seeing how all of the skills come together in this way can help students understand how the rules work.

Kinesthetic: Have you ever had students skywrite? This involves using their entire arm to “write” letters in the sky. We suggest pairing this with an auditory sense (have them trace a “ck” while saying “c, k, says /k/” to get both senses working together!

Tactile and Auditory: Similar to skywriting, we suggest pairing tactile & auditory sense engagement! Using glitter paper, have students trace the letters “dge” with their finger while saying “dge says /j/.” We love this because it engages the same sense that writing in shaving cream or sand does without any of the mess! A grid like the one you see in the picture below can also be placed underneath the paper & written over (we suggest using a crayon or marker so that the pencil point doesn’t tear through the paper) to encourage tactile engagement as well.

3 - Applied Instruction

Students should be taught how phonics ties into each level of the following progression (for reading AND writing).

Phonics instruction does not end with sounds or words. We need to be showing students how to apply their knowledge of sounds TO words and then how that comes together to make sentences, how sentences come together to make paragraphs, and how paragraphs come together to make passages and essays.

It is so important that we build a connection between the sounds students learn, to word reading, but even our youngest students need to see words in sentences and passages.

Now, if a student is only learning consonants and short vowel sounds, we don’t expect them to read every word in a passage. They do, however, need to see these non-controlled texts so that they can begin to see how what they are learning generalizes into what they will have to read in the world around them.

To help support this, we will give them a passage with the target phonogram throughout, but one that is not completely controlled. Their job is to find the target phonogram. If it is a word they CAN decode, they should. If it is a word they cannot yet decode, we will provide it to them. This helps them to see how what they are learning applies to higher-level work.

This can also be a great metacognitive task for students if you also have them identify which words they are not able to decode.

4 - Research Behind the Instruction

Research supports the explicit teaching of phonics as a gateway to efficient and fluent reading.

There is no disagreement amongst researchers that explicit instruction in the alphabetic principle helps students to become successful readers and writers regardless of whether this instruction occurs in general education classroom instruction, or as more intensive support for small groups and one-on-one intervention.

Barbara R. Foorman, Joshua I. Breier & Jack M. Fletcher (2003) Interventions Aimed at Improving Reading Success: An Evidence-Based Approach, Developmental Neuropsychology, 24:2-3, 613-639, DOI: 10.1080/87565641.2003.9651913⁠

Furthermore, words can best be memorized to use visual recognition when letter patterns are associated with specific sound patterns. It’s important to recognize that this instruction can be matched to students’ developmental levels. This type of instruction should NOT be solely provided at the kindergarten and first grade level - we need to continue this type of instruction through a student’s educational journey!

Ehri, L.C. (2020). The Science of Learning to Read Words: A Case for Systematic Phonics Instruction. Reading Research Quarterly, 55(S1), S45– S60. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.334⁠

Mesmer, H.A.E. and Griffith, P.L. (2005), Everybody's Selling It—But Just What Is Explicit, Systematic Phonics Instruction?. The Reading Teacher, 59: 366-376. https://doi.org/10.1598/RT.59.4.6⁠

5 - Targeted Instruction

You target specific Phonics patterns based on where students have strengths and struggles.

When teaching phonics, it is important that we follow a systematic and cumulative progression (like everything else in reading and writing). This means that all students should be explicitly taught the rules in the scope & sequence. As you go through these, different students will struggle with different skills. This is where targeted review & support comes in.

In every lesson, you should be completing a sound drill, decoding review, and spelling review. If a student consistently misses OA in the sound drill, be sure to keep including it and practicing it. If a student struggles with R-controlled words, include them in the decoding review. Games are a great way to support these skills, too!

6 - Explicit Instruction

The biggest hallmark of research-based instruction is that the instruction must be taught explicitly, meaning that we don’t assume students have prior knowledge of foundational reading and spelling concepts just because of their age or reading/spelling ability. When we teach phonics, it is important that we go through all of the phonograms explicitly.

Keep in mind - our students are smart. Often, it can appear that they know a phonogram because they read “milk, kick, pick, stick, desk, mask”: correctly. These students often have good memories though. It’s important we know if students actually know these words - or if they’ve memorized them. Can they spell them correctly or do they look more like “milk, kik, pik, stik, desck, masck.” If provided these nonsense words (pilk, gick, fesk, pask, spack) can they still read them correctly? We need students to explicitly what these phonograms say AND when we use them. We outline them like this:

Explicit Teaching of the six-syllable types

We like to bucket phonograms into syllable types so that students have a very clear way to organize what they are learning.

Explicit Teaching of Syllable Division Patterns

Once students know a syllable type, it is also important that they can generalize that knowledge to multisyllable words. This means we must also explicitly teach them the syllable division strategies so that they have a clear process for decoding longer words.

So how exactly do we divide syllables?

7 - Realistic Instruction

Do what you can with what you have, where you are.

Now obviously there is A LOT that goes into teaching phonics using a research-based approach, but again, it does not have to be difficult. One of the best things you can do is have a really clear scope & sequence to outline your lessons, and then create activities that will allow you to incorporate these multisensory, applied, targeted, and other components.

If you’re interested in learning more about teaching using a research-based, systematic approach, then you should check out the Delivering SMARTER Intervention (DSI) program. Use the link below to learn more!