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Phonics
Children's reading development is dependent on their understanding of the alphabetic principle – the idea that letters and letter patterns represent the sounds of spoken language. Learning that there are predictable relationships between sounds and letters allows children to apply these relationships to both familiar and unfamiliar words, and to begin to read with fluency.
In Houston, the teacher of an advanced kindergarten class connects letters and sounds in a systematic and explicit way.
The goal of phonics instruction is to help children to learn and be able to use the Alphabetic Principle. The alphabetic principle is the understanding that there are systematic and predictable relationships between written letters and spoken sounds. Phonics instruction helps children learn the relationships between the letters of written language and the sounds of spoken language.
Related articles
By: Reading Rockets (2004)
These six short video clips give you the chance to watch and learn effective phonics activities. The video clips are from Reading Rockets' PBS television series Launching Young Readers. 
By: Between the Lions (2003)
Creating a word family chart with the whole class or a small group builds phonemic awareness, a key to success in reading. Students will see how words look alike at the end if they sound alike at the end - a valuable discovery about our alphabetic writing system. They'll also see that one little chunk (in this case -an) can unlock lots of words!
By: Sebastian Wren (2002)
Who can understand all the jargon that's being tossed around in education these days? Consider all the similar terms that have to do with the sounds of spoken words – phonics, phonetic spelling, phoneme awareness, phonological awareness, and phonology – all of them share the same "phon" root, so they are easy to confuse, but they are definitely different, and each, in its way, is very important in reading education.
By: National Reading Panel (2000)
Phonics instruction is a way of teaching reading that stresses the acquisition of letter-sound correspondences and their use in reading and spelling.
By: Learning First Alliance (2000)
Early skills in alphabetics serve as strong predictors of reading success, while later deficits in alphabetics is the main source of reading difficulties. This article argues the importance of developing skills in alphabetics, including phonics and decoding.
