Hi, I'm Martha from Primary Paradise, and welcome to the first episode of Phonics Rules for Teachers and How the Heck to Teach Them. If you are an elementary school teacher, you are likely working to incorporate more phonics and structured literacy into your classroom. However, there's a good chance that you didn't learn any of this stuff in college. So, how are teachers supposed to use a structured approach with their students if they don't know the rules themselves? The answer is this series right here. I am going to work to demystify the rules of the English language. Each episode will include a simple explanation of an aspect of phonics instruction from a teacher to busy teachers. No gimmicks, no catches, just clear phonics rules laid out in a way to save you time and stress.
You might be wondering, okay cool, who are you lady? A bit about me so you can decide if you want to hear what I have to say. I'm Martha Moore. I am a teacher with 10 years of classroom experience. I've spent seven years teaching first grade, one year teaching second grade, and two years as a reading interventionist teacher. And I have 12 years of experience researching, learning, and creating engaging and effective classroom resources. I am not ashamed to admit that I did not begin my teaching career teaching phonics in an effective way. I began my career with a balanced literacy classroom, and I had no clue how students actually learned how to read. When I realized that things weren't working after a few years of teaching, I started looking for a better way to do things. After reading and researching, I began to use a structured literacy approach, and I saw my students make tremendous leaps in their reading and in their writing. I want to share with you the rules and strategies that have been effective in my classroom.
Why does teaching phonics actually matter? If you're already on board with the idea of phonics and you just want to get to the next part, go ahead and skip a few minutes ahead. But if you want to know why phonics actually matter, let's talk about it. You might be wondering, why is there this big push towards phonics all of a sudden in the last, you know, five years? The reality is that researchers have known for about a hundred years the benefits of a phonics-based approach when it comes to reading. Let's just focus on what the research says first. Our brains are not actually wired to read or understand written language. While human brains are wired for spoken language, for speaking and listening, reading and writing is not a natural process. That means it takes a lot of cognitive work, a lot of cognitive function to be able to read. And since it's a skill that doesn't come naturally, it makes sense to make the process of learning as logical and as simple as possible.
So let's break it down. The English language consists of 26 letters that make 44 sounds or phonemes that can be spelled about 250 ways. These are called graphemes. A grapheme is just a group of letters or a letter that makes a single sound. If a child memorizes 10 words, how many words can they read? It's not a trick question. If a child memorizes 10 words, they can read 10 words. However, if a child learns 10 sounds, they can read hundreds, possibly thousands of words. Phonics matters because it allows children to build independence in their reading and eventually unlock the entire world of the written language. If students are taught phonics in a consistent way, in a logical way, they are able to unlock the code.
People like to joke about English being illogical, but the reality is that English is actually a pretty logical language. 98% of the words in English are decodable if you know the code and the rules of the English language. 98%! So, if a student learns the code, they will be able to confidently read almost any word that they come across. There are about 170,000 words in common use in the English language. There are about 250 graphemes. Remember, those are letters or a letter that represent a sound in the English language. It's easier to memorize 250 things versus 170,000 things. So, if you're like, "Okay, I get it, phonics is great. How in the world do we get students' grown-ups on board with this?" I've got you.
One thing that can be tricky about switching the way or making changes to the way that you're teaching something in your classroom is that grown-ups of your students may not always be on board. This might be especially the case if it's not how they learned how to read, or if maybe they're pushing their child to read sooner, and they're not really sure how to get there, and they think, "Oh, they need to learn lots of words to get there." Oftentimes, both of these feelings come from a place of care and love and concern and wanting the best for their child without actually knowing sort of how to get them there.
In my experience, if you lay out the facts, if you let them know the reason behind why you're making the change and why you're teaching things the way they are, the majority of parents, the majority of grown-ups are going to be on board, and they're going to support you. And that's what I did. I had them actually simulate going through the thought process to read a new word that they've never read before and talking about all of the components that they have to have in their brain going on in order to understand that. It's also really helpful to explain the benefits of teaching phonics and how it can help them become more confident readers who have a really good, solid foundation in their reading understanding.
If it's possible, you can share Scarborough's Reading Rope with them so they can see all of the different components that go into being able to read. And I think the most important thing you can do is you can share the rules that you are teaching your students with their grown-up so that way, first of all, they can understand the phonics rules and use them themselves, and they will then feel confident to be able to help their child with their reading and with their writing as well.
So, if you're thinking, "I'm in, this sounds great. I can't wait to learn," you are in the right place. Come back each week to learn a new phonics rule or a phonics strategy or some background information that will make it easier for you to teach your students the phonics rules that you probably didn't learn when you were in college. Come back next week, and we're going to be talking about consonants and vowels, what's the difference, why it matters, and why your students should know what they are too. Don't forget to like and subscribe, and I will see you next week.