Teaching Phonics and Words

to Emergent Readers
Created by Adelia Blankenship
What is Emergent Literacy?
Emergent literacy, as defined by Thomas Gunning, “consists of
the reading and writing behaviors that evolve from children’s
earliest experiences with reading and writing and that gradually
grow into conventional literacy” (169).
• As literacy begins to emerge in young children it is important
that they develop a concept of print
• When children understand how print works and its role in
life, they begin to build a foundation on which they can learn
to read and write.
• Phonological awareness and alphabetic awareness help with
developing a concept of print.

(Gunning, 115)
 The Role of Alphabetics and
Phonological Awareness
“Phonic skills are absolutely essential for all readers. Most of the words we
read are sight words...without phonics, we would not be able to read new
words” (171-172).
• Phonics are the sounds created when specific letters are combined
together. Phonics are what we ask students to identify when “sounding
out” a word.
• Students must learn how letters of the alphabet work and sound together
in order to learn how to read and gain new vocabulary.
• There are four stages children go through when learning to read words.

(Gunning, 171-172)
 Stages in Reading Words

Prealphabetic Stage (Prephonic)

• Children learn words with selective association, meaning there are certain
characteristics they associate with certain words.
• When there are no specific clues to help them identify words, they are unable
to learn new words.
• No distinct knowledge of the alphabet or phonics- they often make up letters
to represent words or have memorized certain letters.
Partial Alphabetic Stage (Early Letter Name)
• Learners now have partial clues- they know some letters (and their sounds) but
not all. They do not know how vowels correspond with each other.
• May read words by identifying several known letters and guessing what it says.

(Gunning, 172-173)
 Stages in Reading Words

Full Alphabetic Stage (Letter Name)

• Students can process all letters- students can slowly read.
• Can begin to recognize commonalities between words and sounds
• Over analyzing how students say these words and over-correcting can
slow their progression down.
Consolidated Alphabetic Stage (Within-Word Patterns)
• Learners can process and consolidate longer and more sophisticated
words.
• With practice, speed of reading increases and patterns are unlocked.
• Learners do not have to sound out each letter. Instantaneous recognition
is eventually achieved.

(Gunning, 172-173)
Phonics Instruction
• Phonics instruction should be geared towards a learner’s
reading stage.

• Phonics instruction must teach the needed skills to decode

words like vowel sounds, consonant sounds, silent letters, etc.

• All skills taught should be new and build on what they already
know. Skills taught should also correspond with what students
are learning or will learn soon.

“Phonics instruction must be functional, useful, and contextual to

be of value. It also should be planned, systematic, explicit, and
differentiated” (174).

(Gunning, 174-176)
Tips for Phonics Instruction
• With differentiation, all students should be assessed on what they
already know.

• Whole-class instruction is not recommended. Small groups can be used

to teach phonics at different levels.

• It is important to take students dialects into account and teach based on

them.

• Spelling can assist with reading and knowledge of phonics, but phonics
needs to be taught separately.

• Phonics should be taught and applied to extensive reading so that

students can connect phonics with the total language system.

(Gunning, 174-176)
Elements of Phonics
Instruction
• Consonants
• Vowels
• Onsets- the consonant or
consonant blend preceding the
rime.
• Rimes- a vowel or vowels and any
consonants that follow
(phonograms)

(Gunning, 176-178)
Approaches to Teaching
Phonics
Analytic Approach
Consonants are not isolated but taught within the context of
the whole word.
Synthetic Approach
Words are decoded sound by sound with sounds pronounced
in isolation.
Whole or Whole-to-Part Approach
Specific sounds are taught during or after reading.
Embedded or Systematic Approach
A systematic approach teaches phonics in a sequence.
Embedded instruction teaches phonics as the need arises.

(Gunning, 179-180)
High Frequency Words
• High-frequency words are common words that are
categorized as “irregular” words and that students may
have trouble spelling because they are learned
phonologically.
• Students may pick up some of these words, but direct
instruction may be necessary.
• Students need to be able to rapidly recognize and read
these words accurately.
• Common Strategies to Teach High Frequency Words:
• Children’s books
• Words Banks

(Gunning, 219-220)
(Sedita, 2021)
Shared and Interactive
Reading Practices
To help build fluency in reading, different reading practices can be
used.
• Choral Reading
• Paired Reading
• Repeated Reading
• Recorded-Book Method
• Fluency-Read Alongs
• Alternate Reading

(Gunning, 226-228)
 Planning for Preschool Students
• In order for children to succeed in learning literacy later in life, it is vital for
them to have a well-developed and efficient preschool reading program.
• While they do not have the skills to read on their own, certain practices
can help them build a literacy foundation. The following activities can help
with language, alphabetical and phonological awareness, and print
knowledge.
• Listening to/discussing stories and songs
• Engaging in conversations with adults
• Retelling stories
• Engaging in drawing
• Exploring alphabet books
• Observing adults read and write
• Exploring picture books.

(Gunning, 161)
Informal Assessment
Techniques
• Observations are the key to assessing literacy acquisition and
should be broad.
• Observations should look at the strategies students use, their
routines, what they produce, and the comments they are making
about literacy.
• Other informal assessments include:
• Taking writing samples
• Testing print familiarity
• And testing letter knowledge.

(Gunning, 162-166)
Formal Assessment
Techniques
• There are a series of formal assessments that can be given to
students to measure their emergent literacy.
• These formal assessments tend to measure reading behaviors,
rhyme, sounds, alphabet recognition, letter sounds, concepts of
spelling and print, and more.
• Some tests include
• Concepts about Print (CAP)
• The Observational Survey
• The Bader Reading and Language Inventory
• The Phonological Awareness Literacy
Screening (PALS)

(Gunning, 167)
 References
Gunning, T. G. (2016). Creating literacy instruction for all students.
London: Pearson (pp.115-241).
Sedita, J. (2021). High frequency sight words. Keys to literacy.
https://keystoliteracy.com/blog/high-frequency-sight-words/.