Systematic synthetic phonics teaches students to link sounds and symbols. In other words, they connect phonemes to graphemes or sounds to letters. It’s called synthetic phonics because students learn to link the sounds and written symbols and then blend or synthesize the sounds to read words — and it’s an incredibly effective way to teach reading (writing and spelling too!)
And it’s systematic because you move systematically through the 44 sounds of English. Students start with the most common consonant sounds and short vowel sounds and progress to digraphs, other consonants, and r-controlled vowel sounds.
A systematic synthetic phonics scope and sequence provides you with a systematic and explicit plan for teaching core code knowledge.
Get your free systematic synthetic phonics scope and sequence:
No more wondering what to teach when or moving willy-nilly through phonics topics. Keep your students moving through a clearly defined system to help them read and write!
Teaching phonics skills and more key literacy skills
Phonics and literacy go hand and hand. When you teach language skills, you need to cover these six areas:
Phonics
We’ve discussed phonics some already. Students build phonemic awareness and learn to recognize alphabet letters and sounds and to manipulate phonemes. Synthetic phonics skills help students crack the code for reading.
Reading
Students learn to blend sounds together to read. They usually start with CVC words and move on to more advanced sound combinations. In addition to decoding words, students need to work on fluency, comprehension and reading thinking skills.
Vocabulary
Building strong vocabulary skills helps students with reading comprehension and improves word usage in speaking and writing. Teach students prefixes, suffixes, and root words to help build vocabulary. Students can learn words they discover in reading and develop vocabulary to bring to their reading and writing.
Spelling
You could call spelling the opposite of reading. Where students blend sounds together to read, they learn to segment sounds to spell. Teaching phonics skills in a structured way helps students learn to spell as well as read.
Writing
Writing is a literacy skill of it’s own, and students need practice writing in various styles and for different audiences. In addition to writing for writing sake, you can use writing to reinforce phonics skills.
Grammar
Grammar is connected to vocabulary and writing. Students need to learn and practice grammar to improve writing and speaking.
Making teaching phonics skills easier
There’s a lot to teach when it comes to phonics and literacy. But that doesn’t mean it has to be hard or time consuming! The Top Notch Literacy Club makes it easier on you.
The Top Notch Literacy Club covers all six parts of literacy: phonics, reading, vocabulary, spelling, writing, and grammar. You’ll find resources for all these skills:
- Phonemic Awareness
- Alphabet Letter & Sound Recognition
- Blending Sounds to Read
- Segmenting Sounds to Spell
- Phoneme Manipulation
- Reading Fluency
- Reading Comprehension
- CVC Words
- Digraphs & Consonant Blends
- Vowel & Consonant Alternative Spellings
- Orthographic Mapping
- Prefixes, Suffixes, Root Words
So if you’re looking for how to teach phonics step by step or activities to improve reading fluency or comprehension, or any of these other literacy skills, you’ll have done for you resources at your fingertips.
Help kids practice blending, segmenting, and phoneme manipulation with mini books, bingo games, or cootie catchers. Or get digraph and consonant puzzles and worksheets or digraph activities and games. Or maybe you need games for alternative spellings or phonics writing prompts.
All of these — and so much more is available in the Top Notch Teaching Literacy Club! We opened the club with 150 resources and will add a minimum of five new resources a month. They include:
- Structured Scope and Sequence
- Lesson Plans
- Teaching Tools and Posters
- Worksheets
- Activities
- Games
- Assessments
- Homework
- Teacher Reference Material
The structured scope and sequence is your guide to teaching phonics step by step. The other tools are designed to help you plan and implement lessons to help students master phonics skills — all done for you and ready to go!
Teaching phonics step by step just got easier. Join the club!
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