Let's Get Kids Hooked On Phonics

In Classrooms That Work, Cunningham and Allington put a very strong emphasis on the importance of students being able to use their phonics knowledge to read. This knowledge not only helps readers understand words they have not seen before, but also enables them to write. They say that good readers look for patterns of letters they have seen together before and then search their mental word banks, looking for words with similar letter patterns.

Cunningham and Allington's opinion on strategies that good readers use to successfully decode unfamiliar words:
  1.   Recognize that this is an unfamiliar word, and look at all the letters in order
     2.  Search your mental word bank for similar letter patterns and the sounds associated with them
     3.   Produce a pronunciation that matches that of a real word that you know.
     4.  Reread the sentence to cross-check your possible pronunciation with meaning. If meaning 
         confirms pronunciation, continue reading. If not, try again.
     5.   If it's a big word – “chunk it”

    Recognizing patterns in words is one of the most important aspects of phonics and reading. When looking at short words, students need to focus on onsets -- commonly called big letters, and rimes --spelling patterns. When looking at big words, students should focus on morphemes -- prefixes, suffixes, and roots -- patterns that allow readers to quickly decode an spell longer words. Spelling and word patterns help readers gain meaning, and is especially important when reading polysyllabic words. One lesson in teaching phonics, is the Wheel of Fortune game. This helps students learn to identify patterns in bigger words and is an enjoyable and engaging game for the classroom.

In Clark's What can I say besides Sound it out article, the strategy of "Coaching" is highly recommended in reading instruction. 

Steps of Coaching

     1. Review the reading process

     2. Elaborate on coaching

     3. Present examples of coaching

     4. Share elements to consider when preparing to coach

     5. Discuss implications for practice, and offer conclusions about the nature of effective coaching

Coaching is said to promote thought, and helps foster students' ability to become strategic and independent readers. By giving cues to students and helping them along in the process, while having them to the primary thinking and explaining, you are causing the students to think in different ways that they would have previously. Also, by demonstrating this process, the effects will rub off onto the kids and they will start picking up on cues just as the "coach" is. I think coaching is an especially effective strategy in teaching phonics and reading, because they readers are repetitively walking through the process and explaining the reasoning behind why a word is the way that it is.