Phonics instruction teaches common letter-sound relationships, including sounds for common letter patterns, so that readers can apply them in decoding unfamiliar words.
Only a small percentage of English words have irregular spellings and letter-sound relationships. This means that nearly all English words can be read by applying knowledge of letter-sound relationships and blending sounds together to form a whole word. To learn more, see How Words Cast Their Spell (opens in a new window) .
Being able to decode words effortlessly (convert spelling into speech sounds) means children are able to focus their attention on comprehending what they read.
Regardless of grade, start phonics lessons with consonant letter sounds that are easy to pronounce and less often confused with similar letter sounds. This enables students to master one letter sound before having to learn a similar letter sound. For example, students may confuse the letter sounds for t and d. Since the letter t is more common, instruction should introduce t many lessons before introducing d.
Learning sounds for letters is basically rote learning, and for rote learning, the use of memory cues can be very helpful. For instance, for short a, children can learn that the letter a looks like an apple with a broken stem, and short a represents /a/ as in apple. Multi-sensory activities, such as repeatedly tracing the vowel letter and saying its sound, are often useful as well.
Start explicit phonics instruction with short vowel words because these vowels have one predictable spelling (with few exceptions) and are the most commonly occurring vowel sounds in English. Because the short vowel sounds are highly confusable, they should be taught individually, not all at the same time.
Phonics lessons in kindergarten focus on students becoming automatic at letter naming, single- grapheme letter sounds, and reading single- syllable words with short vowel spellings. Instruction may include common digraphs (ch, sh, th, wh, and ck). For some kindergarten students, articulating some consonant sounds may be difficult, but this does not prevent them from reading and comprehending words with those sounds.
To learn more about when kids learn different consonant sounds, see this Speech-Sound Development chart (opens in a new window) .
In first grade, phonics lessons start with the most common single-letter graphemes and digraphs (ch, sh, th, wh, and ck). Continue to practice words with short vowels and teach trigraphs (tch, dge). When students are proficient with earlier skills, teach consonant blends (such as tr, cl, and sp).
Ensure students understand the difference between blends, digraphs, and trigraphs: that each letter in a blend retains its own sound, while the letters in digraphs and trigraphs represent one sound.
In first grade, we may also include two- syllable words with short vowel sounds (e.g., cat∙fish, pic∙nic, kit∙chen). Inflectional endings such as ing, er, and s would also be included. When students have mastered short vowel spelling patterns , introduce r-controlled (e.g., er, ur, or, ar), long vowel (e.g., oa, ee, ai), and other vowel sound spellings (e.g., oi, aw, oo, ou, ow).
Teaching of common syllable types is also very useful for first-graders. By the end of first grade, typical readers should be able to decode a wide range of phonetically regular one-syllable words with all of these letter patterns and syllable types, including one-syllable words with common inflectional endings (e.g., sliding, barked, sooner, floated).
Teaching children about syllable types is useful because vowel sounds in English vary, and knowledge about syllable types can help children determine the vowel sound of a one-syllable word. Later, once they have learned some rules for dividing long words, children can also apply their knowledge of syllable types to decode two-syllable and multisyllabic words .
Instruction in syllable types should focus on children’s abilities to classify words correctly (e.g., sort one-syllable words that are closed from one-syllable words that are not closed) rather than on children’s abilities to recite rules or definitions. However, it is very important for us to present clear, consistent definitions of the syllable types, in order to avoid inadvertently confusing instruction.
The six syllable types common in English are closed, silent e, open, vowel combination, vowel r, and consonant-le. The chart below lists these syllable types along with their typical vowel sounds, definitions, some examples, and some additional comments.
The specific order in which syllable types are taught can vary substantially, depending on the phonics program being used. However, the closed syllable type is usually taught first, because closed syllables are common in English, and it is virtually impossible to write even a very simple story for children that contains no closed syllables. Conversely, consonant-le syllables always occur as part of two-syllable (or longer) words, so that syllable type would often be taught last.
| Syllable Type ( Synonyms ) | Vowel Sound | Definition | Examples | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Closed | Short | Has only one vowel and ends in a consonant. | splash, lend, in, top, ask, thump, frog, mess | The main prerequisite when children learn the closed syllable type is that they first have to be able to classify letters as either vowels or consonants. |
| Silent e (magic e) | Long | Has a –VCE pattern (one vowel, followed by one consonant, followed by a silent e that ends the syllable) | plane, tide, use, chime, theme, ape, stroke, hope | Words like noise, prince, and dance are not silent e, even though they end in a silent e, because they do not have the -VCE pattern; noise has a –VVCE pattern and prince and dance have a -VCCE pattern. |
| Open | Long | Has only one vowel that is the last letter of the syllable. | he, she, we, no, go, flu, by, spy | This syllable type becomes especially useful as children progress to two-syllable words. For example, the ti in title, lo in lotion, and ra in raven are all open syllables. |
| Vowel combination (vowel team) | Varies depending on the specific vowel pattern; children must memorize sounds for these individual vowel patterns. | Has a vowel pattern in it (e.g., ay, ai, aw, all, ie, igh, ow, ee, ea). | stay, plain, straw, fall, pie, piece, night, grow, cow | Vowel patterns do not always involve two vowels but can also consist of a vowel plus consonants, if this pattern has a consistent sound (e.g, igh almost always represents long /i/; all almost always represents /all/). Also, some vowel patterns can have more than one sound. For example, ow can represent long /o/ as in grow or /ow/ as in cow. For these patterns, children learn both sounds and, when decoding an unfamiliar word, they try both sounds to see which one makes a real word. |
| Vowel r (bossy r, r- controlled) | Varies depending on the specific vowel r unit; children must memorize sounds for these units (e.g., ar, er, ir, or, ur). | Has only one vowel followed immediately by an r | ark, charm, her, herd, stir, born, fork, urn | Does not include words in which the vowel r unit is followed by an e (e.g., stare, cure, here) or in which the r follows a vowel combination (e.g., cheer, fair, board). These words can usually be taught as silent e (in the first case) or vowel combination (in the second). |
| Consonant-le | Schwa | Has a –CLE pattern (one consonant, followed by an l, followed by a silent e which ends the syllable) | -dle as in candle, -fle as in ruffle, -ple as in maple, -gle as in google, -tle as in title, -ble as in Bible | Consonant-le syllables never stand alone; they always are part of a longer word. Also, they are never the accented syllable of a longer word. |
In this video, reading expert Linda Farrell works with Aiko on a common letter reversal — confusing the letters ‘b’ and ‘d’. Ms. Farrell coaches Aiko to look at the letters during b/d practice and to look at the words while she works with Aiko to read short vowel words accurately. See more videos here: Looking at Reading Interventions.
TranscriptLinda Farrell: Okay. We’re gonna have a lesson. And we are gonna have some fun …
Today reading expert Linda Farrell will be working with Aiko, a second grader here at Windy Hill Elementary in Calvert County, Maryland.
Ms. Farrell will help Aiko with telling the difference between the letters ‘b’ and ‘d,’ keeping her eyes on the text rather than looking up to think of words, and reading words with short vowels.
Linda Farrell: Do you ever get your ‘b’s and ‘d’s mixed up?
Linda Farrell: Sometimes? Well, let’s see if we can’t fix that.
Linda Farrell: Aiko confuses ‘b’s and ‘d’s. She’s in the second grade. And it’s going to get in the way of her reading. So we have to fix that problem. Lots of children confuse ‘b’s and ‘d’s. They look alike. It’s a ball and a stick. So we know we have to straighten that out, because that’s going to hurt your reading because there are lots of words with ‘b’s and ‘d’s.
Linda Farrell: We’re gonna work on fixing that. So we’re gonna learn about our ‘b’ hand. Have you ever used your ‘b’ hand?
Linda Farrell: They have a ‘b’ hand. Their ‘b’ hand, it looks like a ‘b.’ Here’s the circle. Here’s the line. And we teach them to not guess and to slow down and compare your hand to the letter.
Linda Farrell: This is your ‘b’ hand, okay? So I’m gonna put this little rubber band on you, so you can remember which one’s your ‘b’ hand. So which one’s your ‘b’ hand?
Linda Farrell: Okay.
Linda Farrell: I don’t tell a kindergartener, a first grader, or a second grader, “It’s your left hand,” because they don’t know which one is their left hand. Sometimes I don’t even know which one’s my left hand. When we first teach it, we put something on their hand. We might put a sticker. I put a rubber band on Aiko’s hand so that when I say, “Where’s your ‘b’ hand?” she’s got something that reminds her. Three lessons she won’t need the rubber band anymore. She’ll know what it is. Some kids get it right away.
Linda Farrell: Would you put your ‘b’ hand up like this … and make a fist. And then put your finger out. Okay? That is your ‘b’ hand. And I’m gonna show you why it’s your ‘b’ hand. Go like this. We put this down here. And this letter is a ‘b.’ And your hand looks like this letter. Can you see that? We have the circle right here. Where’s the circle on the letter? Point to the circle on the letter. And where’s the circle on your hand? Yeah. Right there. Where’s the stick on the letter? Show me a stick on your finger. This is your ‘b’ hand because the stick is on the same side of the circle as your finger. So your finger and your, and the stick are on the same side of the circle.
Linda Farrell: Lots of kids get ‘b’s and ‘d’s mixed up — kindergarten, first and second grade. It does not mean that they have dyslexia . Students who have dyslexia have phonological processing issues. They do not differentiate sounds easily. Their problems are primarily related to phonological awareness . ‘B/d’ is about shapes. That is not about sounds.
Linda Farrell: Will you put your ‘b’ hand by the ‘b’? Yep. And is your finger on the same side of the circle as the stick or on a different side of the circle?
Linda Farrell: The same side. Yeah. Let’s go down here. Is this a ‘b’ or a ‘d’?
Linda Farrell: Okay. And when you answer, I want you to look down here and compare it. Here’s what you did. You went [looking upward]. Well, you’re not gonna figure it out unless you look and you compare. Okay. So you have to look and say, “Ooh, I can tell.” So is that a ‘b’ or a ‘d’?
Ms. Farrell’s explicit lesson about recognizing the shape of the letter ‘b’ will take some time to sink in for Aiko. And there’s a common habit she’ll need to deal with. When Aiko is working on identifying a letter, she often looks up to think, looking away from the letter.
Linda Farrell: The answer to what is an incorrect letter or an incorrect word is in the print. And we have to teach Aiko to keep her eyes on the print, on the words, when she’s reading, or the letters. I’ve worked with many kids that have this same difficulty. And I’ll say, “Keep your eyes on the words,” and they can’t do it, because their habit is so strong that they can’t try to do what I’m asking them to do and remember to keep their eyes down. So we just practice keeping your eyes down.
Linda Farrell: We’re gonna practice looking down here, okay? So I’m gonna ask you a question, and you can’t look up until I go like this [pounds fist], okay? So you keep looking down. Don’t look up. Look down. Look down. Look down. Look down. [pounds fist] Now you can look up. Okay. Let’s try it again. Look down. Look down. Look down. [pounds fist]
Eventually, Aiko will need to have images of words stored in her brain. This is critical to the immediate word recognition necessary for fluent reading. When students say a word without looking at it, they miss opportunities to develop those images.
Linda Farrell: So hold your hand up here. So I’m gonna go ‘a,’ cause I don’t need my ‘b’ hand. But do I need my ‘b’ hand for that letter?
Linda Farrell: Yes, I do, cause that’s a ‘b’ or a ‘d.’ So I have to put my ‘b’ hand and … let me see. Is that a ‘b’ or a ‘d’? Which one do you think? Ohp. Where are you gonna look?
Linda Farrell: Yes. Okay. Is that a ‘b’ or a ‘d’?
Linda Farrell: Let’s try that. Put your ‘b’ hand next to that. Okay. Is your finger on the same or a different side?
Linda Farrell: Different. So is that a ‘b’ or a ‘d’?
Linda Farrell: Yes. And we’re gonna keep looking down. Remember? You don’t get to look up until I stomp. Okay? So now, I want you … we’re gonna go just right to here. Okay? So watch me. ‘a, d, s, b.’ You do it. Okay. Put your hand up here for the ‘a.’ Okay. Do it.
Linda Farrell: Okay. Now. See how far away your hand is? You gotta go like this. And you know where you looked when you read? You looked at me. But where are you supposed to be looking?
Linda Farrell: Yep. At the letter. So. Okay. So we did those four. You do these four.
Linda Farrell: And this is isolated practice. I see lots of teachers who use a ‘b’ and ‘d’ hand or a ‘b’ hand. But they only do it when the kid misses a word. So, “Oh, you read ‘bog’ as ‘dog.’ Use your ‘b’ hand.” You don’t have to use your ‘b’ hand. If it’s not “bog,” it’s “dog.” We’ve gotta have isolated practice to rewire the brain … to stop guessing and start looking. And that’s what we did with Aiko. Aiko has pretty significant ‘b/d’ issues. With this kind of practice, she could solve her ‘b/d’ issues, I believe, in three to four weeks if we did this every day.
Linda Farrell: You got it. Do you think you can do 10 in a row?
Linda Farrell: I think you can. Let’s try it. Okay.
Linda Farrell: [whispering] Hand down. Is your finger on the same side or a different side?
Aiko: Different, so it’s a ‘d.’
Linda Farrell: Yes. Okay.
Linda Farrell: Ten out of 10! That’s …
After a little more practice with ‘b’ and ‘d,’ Ms. Farrell will help Aiko work on another skill … reading short vowel words without sounding them out aloud first. And Aiko will need to lean on her new skills … distinguishing between ‘b’ and ‘d’ using her ‘b’ hand, and concentrating on looking down at the words while she thinks.
Linda Farrell: Can you just read these words right here?
Linda Farrell: Could you read these words right here please?
Linda Farrell: Could you check and see if that’s a ‘b’ or a ‘d’? Use your ‘b’ hand. Is that a ‘b’ or a ‘d’?
Linda Farrell: It is a ‘d.’ So what’s …
Linda Farrell: Okay.
Linda Farrell: What’s the word?
Linda Farrell: Look down. Always keep your eyes on the words.
Linda Farrell: Okay. You got five words right. Can you touch and say that word?
Linda Farrell: It is hug. Read them all again.
Linda Farrell: Okay. You got six out of six right. When you read this word, you went /k - i - t/. Did you hear yourself do that? Okay. It’s okay. I want you to do that in your head. So what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna close our mouth until we’re ready to read the word. It goes like this. [pause] Did. [pause] Ad. I have to think those sounds in my head. So can you do that? Let’s read these.
Linda Farrell: [whispering] Mouth closed.
Linda Farrell: Okay. Now. Two things: you got five right. Can you? What’s that word?
Linda Farrell: It is kip. And the other thing is, you looked up. So we’re gonna practice looking down. Okay. You’re gonna look down, look down here until I stomp, okay? [pounds fist] You can look up. Okay? Do it again. [pounds fist] Now you’re gonna read, and you can’t look up until I stomp, okay? So remember, you’re not gonna look up until I stomp, so I’ll hold this, okay? So start reading.
Linda Farrell: [pounds fist] That was perfect. You kept your eyes down the whole time. Can you check and see if that’s a ‘b’ or a ‘d’? Use your hand. Use your ‘b’ hand.
Linda Farrell: Yeah. So what’s the word?
Linda Farrell: It is. We’re gonna go over here … and again, don’t look up until I stomp. So read those.
Linda Farrell: You can use your ‘b’ hand, right there.
In one short lesson, Aiko has made a lot of progress. She’s learning to keep her head down as she reads, focusing on the letters. She’s using her ‘b’ hand to help her identify her ‘b’s and ‘d’s more accurately. And she’s reading words as a whole rather than sound by sound. As she practices and works toward mastery of these skills, her reading will get better and better.
Linda Farrell: Mud. You kept your eyes down and you got ‘em all right! Six out of six! Yes!
We’d like to thank the wonderful students and families at Windy Hill Elementary School in Calvert County, Maryland. We hope that sharing these experiences will help other children who are learning to read.
Special thanks also to Kelly Cleland, Julie Donovan, Joanne Harbaugh, and their outstanding colleagues at Windy Hill Elementary … and to Leanne Meisinger at Calvert County Public Schools.
We are deeply grateful to Linda Farrell, Michael Hunter, and Nicole Lubar of Readsters for their invaluable contributions to this project.
Produced by Noel Gunther
Edited by Christian Lindstrom
Graphic Design: Tina Chovanec
Camera: Richard Chisolm
Audio: Dwayne Dell
For more information about teaching reading, please visit
Reading Rockets is a service of WETA, Washington, D.C.
© 2019, WETA, Washington, D.C.
As students enter Grade 2, they should be learning to decode a wide range of two- syllable and then multisyllable (i.e., three syllables or more) words. Instruction in decoding these longer words should include attention to common syllable division patterns and syllabication rules.
To decode words of more than one syllable, children need a strategy for dividing longer words into manageable parts. They can then decode the individual syllables by applying their knowledge of syllable types and common letter-sound patterns, blending those syllables back into the whole word.
The chart below provides some useful generalizations for teaching students how to divide (syllabicate) two-syllable words with various common patterns, in order to decode them. These generalizations also are useful for decoding multisyllabic words , those with three or more syllables.
| Pattern | Generalization | Examples | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Compound | In a compound word, divide between the two smaller words. | back/pack, lamp/shade, bed/room, bath/tub, work/book | To be a true compound word, each of the smaller words must carry meaning in the context of the word (e.g., carpet is not a compound word, because a carpet is not a pet for your car or a car for your pet). |
| VCCV | If a word has a VCCV (vowel-consonant-consonant-vowel) pattern, divide between the two consonants. | or/bit, ig/loo, tun/nel, lan/tern, tar/get, vel/vet | There is an exception if the two consonants form a consonant digraph (a single sound), as in bishop, rather, gopher, or method. In these cases, treat the word as a VCV word, not VCCV (see below). |
| -CLE | If a word ends in a consonant-le syllable, always divide immediately before the -CLE. | ma/ple, stum/ble, i/dle, nee/dle, gig/gle, mar/ble, tur/tle | |
| -VCV | If a word has a VCV (vowel-consonant-vowel) pattern, first try dividing before the consonant and sounding out the resulting syllables; if that does not produce a recognizable word, try dividing after the consonant. | hu/mid, ra/ven, mu/sic, go/pher; |
Continue explicit phonics instruction through second grade with increasingly complex spelling patterns . By third grade, shift explicit phonics instruction mostly to explicit morphology instruction. Students move from learning about letter/sound relationships to sounds for prefixes, suffixes, roots, base words , and combining forms.
Vocabulary and spelling can be integrated with instruction in reading words. For example, as children learn to read the root geo, they learn that it means earth and that it will have a stable spelling across related words such as geology, geologist, geological, geography, geographic, etc.
Although many word-reading skills are developed by the end of Grade 3, children may be learning some of these skills even beyond Grade 3. Developing an understanding of etymology (word origins) is o ne example of this more advanced kind of skill for reading words.
For instance, j is pronounced /h/ in words of Spanish origin, and this pronunciation is retained in English words borrowed from Spanish, such as jalapeno and junta.
As another example, words that end in –ique such as boutique, antique, and mystique are borrowed from French and retain the French pronunciation for this pattern, /eek/.
Children do not need to learn sounds for all letter patterns in every language, but if they understand that many words in English are borrowed from other languages, and that these words often retain at least part of their pronunciation in the original language, this can benefit their word reading as well as their spelling.
Lesson plans for explicit phonics instruction start with a clear, achievable objective. An objective may be learning two to three new consonant sounds, one new vowel sound, or a new phonics concept (e.g., in one- syllable words, ck spells the sound /k/ after one vowel letter and only at the end of a word). Lesson plans will likely span many days and include multiple layers of instruction and practice.
Lesson plans can start with a review and include previously taught concepts throughout the lesson. Lessons pull forward everything taught previously.
New concepts (e.g., letter sounds) are explicitly taught before being practiced. All practice should include an “I do, We do, You do” practice. In “I do,” model the activity. In “We do,” guide the group through practice. In “You do,” have students practice individually and model proficiency.
Build scaffolded instruction and practice into activities. Each subsequent practice activity contains less scaffolding until students are independently proficient. Practice activities move from isolated skills to skills that are more complex. For example:
Have students read individually for accuracy and again for fluency while reading lists as well as sentences and passages. This need not be included in every activity.
Assess each student’s skills individually before introducing new concepts. When individual students have not mastered the objective, use your best judgment. Should the group move forward? Should the individual student receive extra practice? The answer will vary based on the composition of the group and the proportion of students in it who are struggling.
From our sister project, Reading Universe, browse these student practice activities and decodable texts:
