Don’t Ever Teach Phonics

That may seem like a bizarre title seeing as I’m addressing teachers about phonics.  However, if you want to get the best results from your learners, please think of phonics is a tool to be used rather than a subject to be taught.

If you were teaching phonics, you might start by telling your students that letters are how we write the sounds that we say then give them the example that “l” “a” “g” is the word “lag”. Then give them a list of words and get them to figure out the sounds.

When you’re using phonics as a tool, you could give your students a small whiteboard each and say, “We’re going to build the word ‘lag’. What’s the first sound you hear when I say ‘lag’?” (see individual lessons for how that’s going to progress.) At the end, your students will have built the word and will have discovered for themselves that letters are how we write the sounds that we say. By the end of that first lesson, most of them will be able to read, write and spell every CVC (one sound to one symbol) word in the language – whether they’ve heard of them or not.