ABSTRACT
Phonics is a very important component of reading. The National Reading Panel report concluded that through examination of numerous studies that systematic and explicit phonics instruction makes a bigger contribution to children’s growth in reading than alternative programs providing unsystematic or no phonics instruction. Synthetic phonics instruction consists of teaching students to explicitly convert letters into phonemes and then blend the phonemes to form words. Moreover, systematic synthetic phonics instruction was significantly more effective in improving the reading skills of children from low-socioeconomic levels. Teachers must ensure that the phonological awareness foundational component is in place for students. The only way to know that is to give this additional diagnostic. Once the teacher has determined who just needs phonics and who needs both phonics and phonological awareness intervention, the teacher should group students with similar skills together so that the intervention materials can be matched to the needs of the learners.
