Teaching phonics and letter-sound relationships is an important part of literacy education in early childhood classrooms. To be fluent readers and writers we need to understand the relationship that exists between the letters and sounds of our language. This knowledge is what enables us to extract meaning from texts we read and ensure that others can interpret the intended meaning in words we write.
The process of expressing thoughts in writing can be laboured for young children as they stretch out words to identify individual sounds and the letters we use to represent them. From the initial stages of making arbitrary marks upon the page, children develop into proficient writers through recognisable stages of approximation. Readable writing is dependent upon the effective use of letters to represent sound.
Reading is not so dependent as there are other cues and strategies that readers can employ to interpret a writer’s message. Young children garner information about texts they read from supporting illustrations, prior knowledge of the subject matter and text type (for example, narrative or non-fiction) and understanding of how language works. This information supports their reading which is guided by words they recognise by sight as well as their knowledge of letter-sound relationships.
When teaching children to read, it is important to ensure children learn to use effective strategies that access all available cues. Over-dependence on any one cuing system leads to a break-down in the process. While the teaching of phonics has an important place in early childhood classrooms, I have resisted making resources for teaching phonics in isolation for two main reasons.
Two reasons against making resources to teach phonics in isolation
#1
I believe reading is best learned and taught by reading. Knowledge of letters and sounds can be learned while reading meaningful and enjoyable texts. Teaching and learning can occur in literacy lessons, lessons in any subject, or whenever an opportunity to interact with print exists, which is frequent in our print-rich environment.
I have previously written about some strategies I consider beneficial for teaching reading and will no doubt write more in the future. You can read some of those posts here:
What’s in a name? Teaching phonics, syllabification, and more!
Engage Learners with pizza-themed cross-curricular teaching and learning resources
Continue reading: readilearn: Teaching phonics and letter-sound relationships in early childhood classrooms
Norah Colvin 
I’ve always loved teaching phonics to my Kinder but definitely agree with your statement that “Over-dependence on any one cuing system leads to a break-down in the process”. It is always best to give the kids an array of methods as we are teaching them. Great post, Norah.
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I’m so pleased you enjoyed the post, Laurie, and agree with offering children a variety of strategies to use when reading. I see you have some fun activities on your web site. Thanks for joining in the conversation.
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I so agree with you Norah. Phonics are a good form of teaching, but they don’t replace reading or learning through the alphabet. 🙂
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That’s right, Debby. Each has it’s own place. The main thing is developing a love of books and an interest in what can be discovered by reading. Reading is empowering. It saddens me when kids are turned off reading by inappropriate teaching methods.
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Me too Norah. It’s sad.
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Excellent, Norah!
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Thank you, Jennie. 🙂
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You’re welcome, Norah.
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I always felt phonics was important for kids. But, when my daughter was in school years ago, I was surprised at how the methods kept changing — which I didn’t always agree with. Teaching has come a long way since we were in school, but learning the letter-sound relationship was important. While I read your review, I kept thinking of Peter Reynold’s book “The Word Collector” as a great book to use with kids — its fun, but educational.
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You’re right, Patricia. Phonics is important. Children need to know what sounds those letters represent.
I didn’t know of Peter Reynolds’ book “The Word Collector”. I just watched a video of him talking about it. I must get a copy. It looks amazing. I was just discussing with my granddaughter on the weekend what a collection is. In fact, I remember having a discussion with her on the same topic almost two years ago. How her understanding has changed. But she loves words and loves making up her own stories and poems. She’s at just the right age for Reynolds’ book. Thank you. 🙂
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i so agree with this, norah
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Thank you, Beth. 🙂
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