Phonics Instruction in a Balanced Literacy Program

Current research demonstrates the importance of phonemic awareness and the ongoing support that phonics provides for reading.  In the past, phonics became a battleground in the “Great Reading Wars” between advocates of whole language and a return to basics, or “phonics first” (Sensenbaugh, 1996).  Research supports the role of phonics in balanced reading instruction that combines “language and literature-rich activities” with “explicit teaching of the skills needed to decode words” (Honig, 1996); and teachers recognize that phonics skills are “worthless as isolated knowledge but powerful as strategies used purposefully and masterfully” by children learning to read (Strickland, 1998).

Balanced reading instruction has received widespread support because of its success and effectiveness for a variety of learning styles (Weaver, 1998; Pressley, 1998; Cunningham and Hall, 1998; Atterman, 1997; Kelly, 1997; Lap and Flood, 1997).  While researchers agree on the importance of balanced reading instruction, they define it in different ways.  According to Cunningham and Hall (1998), balanced reading instruction is achieved simply by dividing instruction equally among four different approaches to reading – Guided Reading, Self-selected Reading, Writers' Workshop, and Working with Words.  For Strickland (1998), balanced reading and phonics instruction take place within a “whole-part-whole” framework that is “meaningful,” “strategic,” and “characteristic of the way proficient readers actually use skills when they read and write.”  I personally agree most with Strickland's framework, which is not unlike that of Dombey and Moustafa (1998).  They advocate a continuum that moves from learning with, through, and about whole written texts, and then, learning about the parts of the written language within the text.  Finally the reader is able to apply what was learned from the whole text, and its parts, and reunite it as a whole, in order to apply the new skills learn to other texts.  Historically the search for the ‘smallest units' has been used in reading instruction.  In reality, rimes (the part of the syllable from the first vowel onwards), are much more reliable in their sound-spelling relationship than are their individual phonemes (Dombey and Moustafa, 1998).  These experts hold the view that children learning to read should focus first on whole words and then on their constituent parts.  To begin with, constituent parts should be the syllables and parts of syllables and then the letters and sounds.  The belief that children process new words bit-by-bit no longer stands, instead the experts believe that children draw on a complex repertory of spelling patterns to identify words rapidly.

Whole-to-part phonics instruction differs from traditional phonics instruction in that (1) it teachers parts of the words after a story has been read to, with, and by children rather than before the story is read by children and (2) it teaches letter-onset, letter-rime and letter-syllable correspondences rather than letter-phoneme correspondences.  Yet, like traditional phonics instruction, it is explicit, systematic and extensive (Dombey and Moustafa, 1998, p.19).  “Phonics instruction should be considered a means to an end, not an end in itself” (Strickland, 1998).  Phonics should never become “a gatekeeper, a prerequisite to being allowed to read real books and participate in the world of literacy” (Weaver, 1998).  Phonics should act as a “gateway” to literacy development.

A balanced approach to reading is based on a whole-part-whole format that helps students use their phonics skills with whole texts, including storybooks and their own writing.  Phonics should be connected to meaningful reading experiences that enhance literacy development and the love and joy that is associated with reading quality material.  Whole-to-part to whole phonics instruction is a method of instruction that keeps the “balance” in literacy instruction.

Reference:

Atterman, J.S.  (1997).  Reading strategies for beginning and proficient readers.  Bloomington, IN:  ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading, English, and Communication.  [ED 416447]

Cunningham, P.M., & Hall, D.P.  (1998).  The four blocks:  A balanced framework for literacy in primary classrooms in K.R. Harris, S. Graham, & D. Deshler (Eds.),  Teaching every child every day:  Learning in diverse schools and classrooms.  Cambridge, MA:  Brookline Books.

Dombey, H. & Moustafa, M.  (1998).  Whole to Part Phonics.  Portsmouth, NH:  Heinemann.

Honig, B.  (1996).  Teaching our children to read:  The role of skills in a comprehensive reading program.  Thousand Oaks, CA:  Corwin Press.

Lapp, D., & Flood, J.  (1997).  Where's the phonics?  Making the case (again) for intergrated code instruction (point-counterpoint).  The Reading Teacher, 50 (8)  96-98.

Pressley, M.  (1998).  Reading instruction that works:  The case for balanced teaching.  New York:  Guilford Press.

Sesenbaugh, R.  (1996).  Phonemic awareness:  An important early step in learning to read.  Bloomington, IN:  ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading, English, and Communication. [ED400530]

Strickland, D.S.  (1998).  What is basic in beginning reading?  Finding common ground.  Educational Leadership, 55 (6), 6-10.

Weaver, C.  (1998).  Toward a balanced approach to reading in C. Weaver (Ed.),  Reconsidering a balanced approach to reading.  Urbana, IL:  National Council of Teachers of English.