What You Need to Know about Systematic Phonics Instruction

This post will provide basic information on systematic phonics reading instruction.  It will also highlight the differences in systematic phonics instruction and random phonics instruction.  As I stated in my post on whole language reading instruction, it is my intention to help early childhood educators have a working knowledge base of the types of reading instruction used in the various school situations in the United States.

What Is Systematic Phonics Instruction?
Basically, systematic phonics instruction involves the application of various rules and letter sounds to decode words.  It usually involves the teaching of word families to help children gain familiarity with how certain groups of letters work together to make certain sounds.  These rules work for approximately 90% of the English language.  The other 10% are taught as sight words using the same methods as the whole language method of instruction.

Random Phonics Instruction
Some schools employ a system of phonics instruction called random phonics instruction.  This type of phonics instruction usually accompanies whole language instruction.  The mix of phonics and whole language can vary widely from school system to school system.  The new Common Core curriculum falls into this category with approximately a 50/50 mix.  This type of phonics instruction usually involves learning the letter sounds as well as some of the mixed-letter sounds without a great deal of emphasis on the rules of phonics.  Children are taught to sound out the first part of a word or all of a short word, and then taught to employ the whole language clue system to figure out the entire word.

The Work of Dr. Jean Chall
Systematic phonics instruction follows the guidelines set forth in the work of Dr. Jean Chall.  This type of phonics instruction follows a set pattern.  Children are taught all the letter sounds as well as combination of letter sounds before they are taught whole words.  When whole words are introduced, they are introduced in such a way that the phonics rules are taught in a systematic way.  Many private school and homeschool curriculums follow this method of reading instruction.  Very few public schools follow this system.  Why?  Systematic phonics instruction is labor intensive in the beginning stages.  It requires a more academic preschool background to be successful in kindergarten.  In public school settings too many children arrive at kindergarten not prepared for systematic phonics instruction due to the lack of academic content in many preschools.

The Biggest Criticism
This leads me to the critics of phonics instruction.  The biggest criticism of phonics instruction comes from what I stated in the previous paragraph.  Phonics instruction is labor intensive.  Many public schools struggle with simply maintaining control of the classroom and simply do not have the time needed to work on phonics on a large scale.  This is probably the biggest reason public schools opt for random phonics instruction over systematic phonics instruction.  Private schools and homeschool situations do not have the same chaos problems, and therefore have the time to devote to working on phonics on a large scale.  This also comes into play with the preschools.  Public and large private preschools have the same chaos problems as public school systems.  Working extensively on academic content becomes difficult.  Heavy regulations and a whole language bias also play heavily into why preschools have a hard time preparing students for a systematic phonics reading program in kindergarten.

The Next Biggest Criticism
The next largest criticism of phonics instruction I actually find very racist.  Many early childhood experts will say with a straight face that minority and underprivileged children cannot learn systematic phonics instruction.  These are the same people that would basically throw the rest of us in jail for even hinting at such a proposal.  However, during one of my research projects in graduate school I came across a study that refuted their assertion.  This study took a sampling population of underprivileged and minority preschoolers and broke them into three different groups.  Each group was assigned a method of prereading instruction.  Two of the groups followed a variation of whole language and the third group followed a systematic phonics approach.  The third group greatly outperformed the other two groups.  This study proved not only that systematic phonics instruction is superior, but it also refuted the claim that this population could not handle this type of instruction.

The Last Criticism
The last criticism usually launched against a systematic approach is that in the beginning the stories must contain words that follow the rules the children have learned thus far.  Whole language approaches throw larger words at children sooner to add greater variety to the beginning stories.  However, it does not take the phonics approach very long to surpass the whole language approach in the variety of words used in the stories, and once surpassed, the systematic phonics approach can add words exponentially faster than the whole language approach.  The kindergarten and beginning first grade readers in the phonics approach do have very simple vocabulary.  However, halfway through the first grade, phonics readers surpass whole language readers and never look back.

How Does It Work?
What does phonics instruction look like in the early childhood setting?  This will actually be the topic of the next several weekend posts.  Starting next Saturday I will begin to explain how early childhood educators can prepare the children in their care for a systematic phonics approach to reading.  Even if the children enter a school where the Common Core curriculum is used, this foundation will serve them better than a fully whole language approach to preschool.  If the children in your care actually do enter a school that uses a systematic phonics approach to reading, your parents will think you are worth your weight in gold.

I hope you have enjoyed this post.  Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at:  https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457