Word Recognition

Teaching children how to recognize words is the heart of reading instruction, and it is the center of the enduring controversy about the best way to teach reading.  Many boil the issue down to a thumbs up or down on phonics. Despite persistent doubts about phonics instruction, the science of reading is quite clear. Phonics works for all young children and with no deleterious side effects. The arguments against phonics boil down to a few easily refuted ideas.

• Every child does not learn differently; there are some universal principles of reading instruction. Teaching phonics is one of them.

• The English language is not irregular; its sound patterns are evident and teachable.

• Phonics is boring only if you believe that practicing basic skills is boring. Ask that question of any successful athlete.

•  Even though you think you learned to read without phonics, you inferred its principles.

What sets Teaching Reading in the 21st Century apart from most other texts is the explicitness of our instruction.  Effective phonics instruction is systematic, detailed and it focuses on transferring what children have learned about letter-sound patterns to the reading of connected text. We are not bragging when we say there is enough information in chapter 8 for any teacher to create a complete phonics program. The features in this chapter include:

•  Careful explanation of which high frequency sight words should be taught and lesson plans for how to teach them.

  An explicit sequence for teaching the sound and morphological patterns of English.

• Explicit lesson plans for teaching consonants, digraphs, short and long vowels and blending and all other phonics patterns. 

• A word recognition strategy called decoding by analogy that is effective for older students who still struggle with word recognition. 

• A classroom structure that helps teachers organize the weeks of instruction.

The following page contains suggestions for teaching about word recognition in your college classroom. This and all other posts with College Classroom Suggestions are available at www.teachingreading21stcentury.