Phonics Instruction in the Classroom

The subject of phonics in the early elementary classroom is the main topic of discussion in two informative articles, Catherine Compton-Lilly’s “Sounding Out”: A Pervasive Cultural Model of Reading and Anna Lyon’s and Paula Moore’s Sound Systems: Explicit Systematic Phonics in Early Literacy Contexts. Both articles discuss strategies that young students use when learning to read and write, though Lyon and Moore’s article does go into more depth surrounding a complete phonics curriculum. I have seen aspects of both articles played out in my field experience classroom thus far.

The idea of “sounding out” words when reading is so engrained in our minds as a society that it is difficult not to go to this strategy every time a student runs across a difficult word. Compton-Lilly’s article discusses this phenomenon and how children are using many other strategies to help themselves read; however, the term “sounding out” always seems to be mentioned first. In my field experience classroom this semester I have already come across the term “sounding out”. I witnessed a student having trouble with a particular word during their reading time. As I approached their desk, another student was telling them to “just sound it out.” Shortly after this, the student figured out the word. When I asked the student how they knew they were right, they first explained that they had sounded out the word and then told me that the picture at the top of the page helped as well. Though children are using a multitude of strategies when reading, “sounding out” seems to be the first thing on their minds.

While Compton-Lilly’s article explores the cultural usage of the term “sounding out” and the actual strategic practice of sounding out in students’ reading processes, Lyon and Moore detail developmental reading and writing stages and how they fit into a phonics curriculum. As a future teacher, it’s helpful to read about the different stages and how students move throughout the spectrum from emergent to early, early to transitional, and ultimately arriving at the fluent stage. The article also lays out a rough outline of a developmental curriculum for phonics instruction. I found this to be very interesting when comparing it to the classroom which I am currently doing my field experience. Although I have only been in the classroom for one week, the phonics instruction is matching the developmental stages and activities that Lyon and Moore describe for this age group in their article. There is somewhat of a range of abilities in the classroom, making it absolutely necessary to modify phonics instruction for the varied reading and writing stages that are present. When phonics instruction meets the needs of students by correlating with their particular developmental stage, significant gains can be made in reading and writing. I am eager to see how this plays out in an actual classroom over the semester.