Week Seven Assignment Four

Phonics

Pretest: 8/10                Post test: 8/10

            The alphabetic principle is an important part of any reading program. It clearly defines the understanding that there are clear, logical and predictable relationships between written letters and spoken sounds. During phonics instruction students are able to recognize familiar words and are able to learn how to decode unfamiliar words. Children learn the relationships between letter and sounds and apple this type of knowledge into their daily reading activities. When students are breaking down sounds for specific letters the actual display of the letter is known as a grapheme. This is especially important when students reach words that are awkward to read because the letters in the word do not correspond to a specific sound that they are familiar with. One example of this is when students learn to read the word “phone”. To any child reading for the first time without any instruction on unfamiliar words they would write “phone” as “foan”. To a child using their phonemes and graphemes, it is easy to use the phonemes /f/ /o/ /a/ /n/ to write word “phone”. However this needs to be addressed to all children so they are able to move forward in their reading.

            Phonics is most effective when taught in the primary grades such as kindergarten and first grade. It is only part of a reading program and cannot be responsible for teaching children the other finer things of the English language. The English language itself is extremely complex and requires a lot of different components put together to help students understand the complications they may arise while attempting to read higher level material.

            I have a lot of concerns when it comes to the idea of phonics. As I have stated in my other posts my main concern is how to apply this newfound knowledge I have just gained into practice. For some learners reading can be stressful and boring especially if the child is struggling. There are many homes where both parents work or even single-parent homes that cannot keep up with the child’s homework. It is ideal to believe that every child goes home to a responsible and tireless parent that is able to help their children with their homework but this is not always the case. How as a teacher can we help reach out to every student outside of the classroom? How do we help those children who cannot come early to school or stay late for extra help?