Megan Jones

Edok #1 Phonics
Fall 2010
Dr. Jeanie Cozens

Villaume, S. K., & Brabham, E. G. (2003). Phonics instruction: Beyond the

debate. The Reading Teacher, 56(5), 478-482.

CENTRAL THEME:
This article presented information about the two types of phonics instruction. All
students develop the alphabetic principle, whether or not this is done best using explicit
instruction or systematic instruction was discussed. Different activities and materials
were presented as well as how different teachers might use this knowledge to help their
students learn to read better.
MAIN IDEAS:
1. Explicit instruction is a fully developed and clearly expressed set of instructions that
teachers use to teach phonics. Scripted/Explicit instruction is beneficial in some uses
especially for newer teachers, although this style of instructions in phonics is both
important to new and older teachers. Research has confirmed that the expertise of a
teacher is more significant in a student’s reading progress than the method of teaching.
When decoding, direct explicit instruction has given children more control of the
apathetical principle as well as learning new words. Explicit instruction fosters active
learning and high engagement of thinking for students.
2. Systematic instruction is a method used to teach phonics, it is orderly and has steps. If
using systematic approach, teachers in a school need to map out a progression of when to
teach the letter sounds in the curriculum guide to ensure that all students are progressing
the same. Many teachers who use systematic instruction use activities that are designed
to engage student and introduce a new letter sound. This type of instruction is important
to effective phonic instruction and some teachers have noticed how some students can
link phonemes to reading and sounding out words when using this type of instruction.
AUTHORS’ CONCLUSION:
Goal of phonics instruction is to help student develop the alphabetic principle. If
student understand the alphabetic principle, then they understand sounds of spoken words
are mapped onto written words in systematic ways. Phonics instruction is essential for
reading. The challenge is about which type of instruction to use. As the article states: If
we “embrace a broader band of purposes for phonics instruction, we are compelled to
develop greater expertise for integrating aspects of direct and embedded instruction in
ways that benefit all students.” The bottom line is that as teachers we need to find the
best method to teach students as well as always learning ourselves.
EVALUATION:
I found this article to be very informative. Not knowing much about phonics or
the concept behind it, I had not idea that there were two main styles of phonics
instruction. This article was not only informative but started me to think about learning
styles in general and whether or not if some children learn better using explicit learning
or systematic learning. Over all I thought reading this article to be incredibly helpful,
something that I can reference back to during my teaching career.