Learning to Read -- Phonics & Early Reading

Tonight I am delighted to introduce you to Brooke Vitale, an author, editor, and mom, who recently founded Charge Mommy Books to feature playful books for new readers! She is sharing information here for us about learning to read! (You can scroll to the end to learn more about her in her bio!)  

Brooke, take it away!

Learning to Read

Learning to read is no easy task, and these days our kids are being taught at a younger age than ever before. So how can we get our kids ready to read and help them along the way? By understanding the science behind reading.

The science of reading is a research-based approach to literacy that focuses on five elements: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. For the youngest readers, two of these elements are key: phonemic awareness and phonics.

What Is Phonemic Awareness?

The English language consist of 44 unique sounds, or phonemes. Phonemic awareness is the ability to identify these letter sounds and blend them together to form words. 

Phonemic awareness does not require that children recognize letters in written form. Rather, it requires children to recognize the sounds letters make. For example, a child who displays phonemic awareness might not know that the word CAT begins with the letter C. Instead, they would recognize that it begins with the phoneme /k/.

Phonemes do not always have a direct visual correlation to the letters that represent the sound. The letters PH, for example, use the phoneme /f/, while the phoneme /s/ can be represented by either a C or an S. The grid below shows all 44 phonemes, with examples.

Letter Recognition

Letter recognition is the ability to identify a letter that is being shown or to pick out a specific letter from among a group of other letters. As parents, it can be tempting to begin by teaching capital letters. This makes sense because they are easier to write. The trouble is, we write in a mix of capital and lowercase letters. Which means that teaching only capital letters leaves children at a disadvantage. 

Instead, focus on learning capital and lowercase letters together. Teach your little ones not only to recognize the letters, but that a letter makes the same sound, regardless of how it is printed.

For more tips on teaching letters, practicing letter recognition, and the best order to teach letters in, check out my article What is Letter Recognition and Why Is it Important. The best order to teach letters may not be what you think!

Phonics and early reading

Phonics is the relationship between letters and sounds. 

As parents, we may be tempted to toss all the sounds a letter can make at a kid at once: “This is an A and it can say ah or ay. We can spell it a, ay, ai, a-e, ei, eigh, or ey.”

But that much information will just confuse kids. Reading is a cumulative process. It must be taken one step at a time, with each step building on the next. 

Below are the ten stages of phonics:

Stage 1: Consonant and short vowel sounds

Begin by teaching consonants and short vowel sounds in the context of CVC words. CVC stands for consonant-vowel-consonant. These are words like rag, hen, fib, but, and cub. By using CVC words, kids don’t have to worry about blending multiple consonants. Instead, they can focus on individual phonemes and the short vowel sound in each word. And because short vowel sounds are consistent, kids can more easily learn to recognize and master them.

When focusing on short vowel sounds, encourage your reader to sound out several words in a row using the same vowel. This repetition is key to learning a sound. Once your reader has mastered one short vowel sound, then it’s time to move on to the next.

For a complete list of short vowel word lists, word families, and activities like the one below, head on over to Charge Mommy Books for articles such as What is the Short I Sound? 

Stage 2: Consonant blends

Once your child has mastered short vowel sounds, it is time to start blending consonants. This is a bit harder as kids need to hear more sounds together. Some consonant blends include gr, bl, and tr.

Stage 3: Double letters and digraphs

Digraphs are two letters together that make one sound, such as ck, ph, and ng. Double letters appear in words such as off, buzz, and pull.

Stage 4: CVCe words

Long vowel sounds can be tricky. Remember that list of sounds for A above? Seven of those eight spellings make the same long A sound. Which means that teaching long vowels is a process. 

Start with CVCe words such as cake, rice, and cube.

Stage 5: Word ending spelling patterns

Some words end oddly, and learning to recognize these spelling patterns can help kids advance their reading. Popular spelling patterns to teach include -tch, -dge, -all, -oll, -ull, -le and -y.

Stage 6: R-controlled vowels

Words like for and car seem like they should use short vowels, but they don’t. The R controls the sounds, changing it to something else. R-controlled vowels include: ar, or, ore, er, ir, and ur.

Stage 7: Vowel teams (long vowels)

Vowel teams are two vowels that work together to form a new sound. They include ai, ay, ee, ea (as in bead), oa, ow (as in row), ie, and igh.

Stage 8: Other vowel teams

These include oo (as in soon), oo (as in book), ew, ui, ue, au, aw, augh, ea (as in head), and ea (as in break).

Stage 9: Dipthongs

A dipthong is a sound formed when two vowel sounds appear in a single syllable, as in the letters oi, oy, ou, and ow (as in cow).

Stage 10: Silent letters

Sometimes letters don’t make any sound at all. These include: kn, wr, gn, gh, mb, and silent t (as in listen).

As your kids work through each new sound, you’ll find that the old sounds they mastered come more and more easily until they are learning to read words they never thought they could! And when you’re ready, don’t forget to check out our new Short Vowel sound decodable readers!

About the author

Brooke Vitale is a children's book editor, author, and proud founder of Charge Mommy Books (chargemommybooks.com), an independent publisher of playful, high-quality stories that children can really enjoy. She has written over a hundred books, including The Magic Is in You, The Mandalorian: A Clan of Two, Goonies: An Illustrated Classic, and her new Charge Into Reading Early Reader series, featuring the level 1 early readers Stuck Duck, Bug Hunt, How to Pick a Pet, and I Am Not a Rooster, as well as her upcoming line of short vowel sound decodable readers. Brooke spent more than fifteen years as an editor at prominent publishing companies, including Penguin Books for Young Readers and Disney Publishing. She now runs brookevitale.com, a website dedicated to helping aspiring authors navigate the publishing and self-publishing industry. Brooke can be found on Facebook @BrookeVitaleBooks and @ChargeMommyBooks, and on Instagram @brooke.vitale and @chargemommybooks.

Thanks Brooke! This is fantastic information about learning to read! If you're looking for more tips, click here for a whole series about how to teach reading!

Happy Educating,

Carla

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