Phoneme-Grapheme Frequency Chart – Vowels
Curious about how sounds are represented in print? Not sure about what the most common spelling is for a phoneme? This handout provides the most frequent spellings for the vowel phonemes in English.
A New Model for Teaching High-Frequency Words
Often, high-frequency words are called “sight words” with the expectation that these words are irregular and must be memorized. Integrating high-frequency words into phonics lessons allows students to make sense of spelling patterns for these words. To do this, high-frequency words need to be categorized according to whether they are spelled entirely regularly or not….
Elkonin Boxes
Elkonin boxes build phonemic awareness skills by segmenting words into individual sounds, or phonemes. To use Elkonin boxes, a child listens to a word and moves a token into a box for each sound or phoneme. In some cases different colored tokens may be used for consonants and vowels or just for each phoneme in…
Using Elkonin Boxes
This is a handy guide that explains how to use Elkonin boxes in instruction, with the helpful addition of word lists for teaching.
Essential Principles of Systematic and Explicit Phonics Instruction
Phonics instruction should be explicit and systematic – but what exactly does that mean? This article clarifies these commonly used terms.
Should We Teach Letter Names?
In early instruction, many educators wonder if we should teach letter sounds or letter names first. Dr. Timothy Shanahan unpacks this issue.
Put Reading First
Put Reading First is a summary of the findings from the Report of the National Reading Panel, summarized in a brief, easy-to-read comprehensive guide to evidence-based reading instruction. Intended for educators and administrators, this guide aims to improve reading outcomes for children in the early grades, summarizing key research findings on phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency,…
Is Rhyming Ability Important in Reading?
Dr. Tim Shanahan clarifies what we know about rhyming in this blog post. Should rhyming be a key component of early reading instruction?
Understanding Consonant and Vowel Phonemes in English
Curious to learn more about the nature of English phonemes and their production? This handout from the Colorado Department of Education unpacks consonant and vowel sounds.
Which Words Are Worth Teaching?
IDA Perspectives article about vocabulary instruction from early childhood to senior grades.
How Spelling Supports Reading
Comprehensive article outlining the key principles for making sense of the English spelling system.
Teaching Phonemic Awareness and Word Reading Skills
In this article from the International Dyslexia Association, Al Otaiba et al. emphasize the significance of evidence-based systematic and explicit instruction. They outline the typical process through which students grasp the alphabetic principle (the concept that words consist of distinct sounds). They also provide explanations of blending and segmenting instruction, accompanied by sample activities. The article also furnishes teachers with resources for explicit and systematic reading instruction as well as examples of explicit and systematic programs for teaching phonemic awareness and phonics.
