| Article Index |
|---|
| Phonics Phacts |
| What is Phonics? |
| Phonics as Method |
| How Much Phonics? |
| Further Reading |
| All Pages |
Page 4 of 5
How Much Phonics?
Phonics is an important part of reading English, but when we make it into a method of teaching reading, we're making these mistakes:
- We're turning reading from a process of making sense to one of saying sounds for letters.
- We're ignoring what kids already know about how to make sense of print.
- We're ignoring the meaning and structure of the language. That means we are distorting the phonics by taking it out of the language context.
- We're beginning with abstractions instead of functional, meaningful language which is easy to learn.
- We're confusing speakers of different dialects who, therefore, have different sound systems.
- We're postponing the payoff: the joy of getting the story or the message of the print.
If we support our pupils in developing their phonic generalizations while they are learning to make sense of print, then we avoid these mistakes. In Through the Looking Glass , Lewis Carroll said it well: "Take care of the sense and the sounds will take care of themselves."
