Most teachers begin their careers with a limited knowledge of teaching phonics. If you are blessed to teach a primary grade it is critical that you learn how to teach phonics. As I started my first full year of teaching, I found myself teaching 2nd grade. As I began this new chapter in my life, I realized how important phonics was to my students' ability to decode new words. Luckily, I was trained with Intensive Phonics and later Orton Gilligham. These programs unpacked a new area of instruction that sadly is hidden to most teachers. For some reason, colleges don't see the need to include phonics as part of the curriculum for new teachers. Many words in the English language have very predictable spelling and decoding patterns that will help your students learn to read and spell well. This page will help you discover some of these rules and empower you to teach these to your students. Students will also need to be taught specific decoding strategies as well to deal with all the "rule breakers." |