THE PHONICS INSTITUTE

A Sampling of Reading Instruction Dos and Don’ts

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Dos

1. Encourage the students to take on the responsibility of figuring out the "sound values" of all letters in all written words they are reading, developing the phonics habit.

2. By direct instruction, explicitly and systematically teach the students the phonics rules for reading and writing including the 70 Orton phonograms, consonant clusters/blends, the Spalding phonograms,, and the Spalding 28 rules of spelling.

3. Limit vocabulary in early lessons to letters, syllables, and words for which the children have been taught the needed phonics rules.

4. By direct instruction, teach blending, enunciation of successive sounds, and syllabication.

5. Use lots of dictation and reading aloud with corrections.

Don’ts

1. Encourage memorization of words (or even expressions, phrases, or whole sentences, some whole language advocates will tell you) as wholes without necessarily understanding the "sound values" of all the letters in the words.

2. Encourage use of incomplete or imprecise visual cues to guess the "identity" of words encountered in reading by using, for instance:

b. familiarity (but not letter "sound value" knowledge) with a word’s prefix.

c. familiarity with a little word within a longer word; or

3. Encourage guessing the "identity" of an encountered word by reference to its shape or the context where the word is found, including pictures.

Whole language advocates typically recommend the "don’ts" listed above, saying it’s o.k. to encourage these reading strategies. "Phonics-first advocates, who want direct, explicit, extensive, systematic teaching of phonics say about the "don’ts": "No, these aren’t recommendable strategies. Teach them the phonics rules they need to figure out all words they encounter with precision, on their own. Go ahead and limit their early attempts at reading to letters, syllables, and words they know the rules to - that includes some common short, frequently-appearing words with highly specialized rules (that may apply only to one or two words). This controlled exposure in early serious reading lessons limits the need for guessing. Those ‘reading strategies’ listed above (the "don’ts") are really, in the long run, crippling bad habits. Don’t let them get started. Be smart. Pay attention to reading habits - that’s the key."