Whether you are a new teacher with your first class or an experienced educator with many strategies to use, teaching phonics can be the magic key that opens the world of reading for many children. My experience both in Australia and the Solomon Islands with beginning readers and English Language Learners (regardless of their age) proved that phonics instruction improved their reading fluency.

My own phonics story

I taught primary school for many years. Whether it was foundation, third grade, or fifth grade, I always started early with a story about the letters in the alphabet and why individual letters made different sounds.

It helps young children identify the letters, track the words from left to right, and with older children, understand how spelling changes the sounds the letters make. For example, the sound of the letter “A” in “cap” and “cape” is different.

In Letterland, a programme for teaching phonics, “Mr Ẳ” says his name and looks after Ẳnnie Ẳpple, who can only say “Ẳ” if someone takes a big bite. The vowels can talk and say either their name or their sound.

I have used Letterland to teach phonics successfully with both native English speakers and English as a foreign language learners. Letterland develops a character and a story for each phoneme and grapheme, which makes teaching phonics silly, fun, and easy to remember.

I have no affiliation with Letterland; I just love using the programme. One of my favourite phonemes is the “sh” story, where Hairy Hatman, who hates noise, shushes Sammy Snake, who loves to make noise when they are together in a word.

Letterland “sh” story:  Hairy Hatman hates noise so when he’s near Sammy Snake he shushes Sammy, who loves to make noise.

Letterland: some of the Harry Hat Man stories

What is Phonics?

Phonological awareness is the ability to hear and make the sounds associated with the letters of the alphabet. Teaching phonics helps children link these sounds with the visual letters and combine them into words.

To read, a child must look at a word, see the individual letters, “hear” how the letters sound, and combine them mentally. The next step is making sense of those words in a sentence.

Many children struggle to distinguish between the sounds of different letters. For example, they might see the difference but cannot hear the difference between “B”, “V”, “D”, and “P”. They can all sound like “E”. Teaching children to observe how the mouth forms sounds—like lips together for “B” or teeth and tongue touching for “D”—can be incredibly helpful.

Letterland: some of the vowels out walking stories

What are we really teaching?

When we teach, we train brains to think in specific ways. All brains are similar structures, but they learn differently. Some children learn to read by memorising sight words. Others decode phonetically. If you only teach one method, you risk leaving behind many learners. Phonics instruction increases the likelihood that all your students will become fluent readers.

Phonics connects sounds with written letters to create meaning. Each sound in a word is called a phoneme. Did you know there are 44 phonemes in English? Some are single letters, while others are made by combinations like /sh/ or /th/. Teaching phonics systematically helps children connect these sounds to letters and combine them into words they understand.

Letterland: some more stories

What does academic research say about phonics instruction?

Research shows the value of teaching phonics. A study in Australia found that experienced teachers were more likely to use phonics with kindergarten students than newer teachers. It concluded that more pre-service training is needed to ensure all teachers understand the importance of connecting letters, sounds, and meanings.

Combining phonics (letter-to-sound instruction) with Whole Language (words-to-meaning instruction) creates Balanced Literacy. When the two strategies are combined, students become fluent readers with an understanding of what the written words mean. However, when used alone, Whole Language is less effective compared to phonics.

Interestingly, teachers who strongly support phonics instruction often work with at-risk populations, such as students with dyslexia or English Language Learners. Their focused training equips them to see the benefits of phonics firsthand.

Letterland: some of the Walter Walrus stories

Methods of phonics instruction

There are four main methods of phonics instruction:

1. Systemic Synthetic Phonics: Breaking words into individual sounds and building them into complete words. This is ideal for beginners.
2. Analytic Phonics: Starting with whole words and breaking them into phonemes. This method often involves sorting words into families with similar sounds.
3. Embedded Phonics: Teaching phonics in the context of real books. While useful for reinforcing skills, it’s not sufficient on its own for teaching non-readers.
4. Analogy Phonics: Teaching students to decode unfamiliar words by comparing them to known words with similar patterns. For example, knowing “dark” can help decode “park”.

Letterland: some of the robot stories

Is phonics only effective for K-2?

While phonics is most commonly introduced in grades K-2, it’s valuable for learners of all ages. Students with dyslexia or those learning English as a second language can benefit from phonics instruction even in high school or adulthood.

Letterland has been an invaluable resource in my classroom. I introduce the stories and letter role-plays early in the year, then gradually phase them out as students become more confident. By the end of the year, they refer to letters and sounds without needing the stories.

Letterland: some of the magic e stories

What is the Best Way to Use Phonics in my Classroom?

Quality teacher training is key to effective phonics instruction. Many free online courses and YouTube videos can help you learn to teach phonics. Letterland also offers FREE online training videos, which I highly recommend. It’s another tool to help you become the best reading teacher you can be. And, as I’ve mentioned, I have no affiliation with Letterland—I just love using it!