In this blog post, I’ll share the importance of literacy skills and the benefits of using a phonics approach to teach them.

Why is literacy important?

The ability to read and write is an essential skill. It allows us to access information, communicate with others, express ourselves, and advance our careers. Reading can help us relax, boost our imaginations, and learn about the world we live in. Writing gives us the opportunity to articulate our opinions, share our expertise, and advocate for ourselves and important causes.

From a language learning perspective, learners who are developing literacy skills may be at a disadvantage to their peers with stronger literacy skills. In my classes, there was a noticeable divide between learners whose first script was Roman and those who were learning to read and write in a new script.

Learners whose first script was Roman would take notes quickly, understand meaning while reading more easily, and be able to write well-structured texts confidently. Learners who were developing their literacy skills in English (and perhaps in their first language too) took more time and required more support.

What are the challenges of teaching literacy?

There are many reasons why literacy skills are challenging to develop. Students may need to learn how to identify and form a whole new alphabet. They also have to develop an understanding of punctuation, sentence structure, and paragraphing. Then there’s rhetorical styles, formality, and a diverse range of text styles with which to become familiar.

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of literacy is spelling-pronunciation agreement. English is notoriously irregular when it comes to pronunciation rules. Think about the spelling of "ough" for example. It is pronounced differently in "though," "through," "thought," and "tough." And the word "read" is spelled the same way in both the simple present tense and the simple past tense, but sounds like the color "red" in its past form.

What are the benefits of teaching phonics?

In order to develop students’ reading and writing skills, we need to work on their ability to match sounds to spelling. Teaching phonics is a great way to do this. It provides an opportunity for students to become familiar with common sound-spelling agreements as well as their exceptions.

How to teach phonics?

There are many ways to teach phonics. I like to devote time in any reading lesson to identifying a few similar sounds and ways to spell them and then have students add them to their vocabulary notebooks. You could also have them make silly sentences or short texts using the target sound or spelling.

Ellii's Phonics Stories

A great way to teach sound-spelling agreement is to use Ellii’s collection of Phonics Stories. Each one cleverly introduces words that use the same target sound in context. Students can read, listen, and repeat the fun short stories. This raises awareness of new words, their pronunciations, and their spellings.

This collection of stories is perfect for learners of all ages and has been graded to different levels. 

Let’s look more closely at A Whale with a Veil. In this lesson, students read about a whale that wore a wedding veil in a gale. It focuses on the sounds and spellings for /w/, /v/, and /e/ (long a).

The digital version of the lesson also contains a video of the story with captions to follow along.

There are lots of possibilities for teaching and adapting this lesson (or any of Ellli's Phonics Stories) in class. Here are some ideas:

1. Say the title aloud and have students predict the story.

2. Read and listen to the story.

3. Check comprehension by asking and answering questions.

4. Have students identify the sounds and spellings by circling the words in the text:

• wh - whale, white, what
• w - west, wait 
• silent w = (ow) - blown
• v - vest, veil
• a_e - tale, whale, gale
• ai - tail, wait, wail
• ei - veil
• ay - way
• est - best, vest, rest

5. Practice pronouncing the sounds individually and the whole words. 

6. Listen to the story again and complete a gap-fill text using the target words. 

7. Have students read the text aloud. 

8. Have students turn the story into a script and perform it. 

9. Help them to find or think of other words that use this sound and spelling. Create a list on the board or in their notebooks. 

10. Create a picture dictionary with the new words—either with drawings, digital images, or printing images to cut out and glue in the dictionary. 

Some examples of picture dictionaries from my adult ESOL Literacy class.

11. Write definitions and find synonyms or antonyms for each word. 
12. Make sentences, questions, tongue twisters, or short texts with the words.
13. Set the individual tasks for homework. 

Do you teach phonics? What are your top tips? Do you have any favorite Phonics Stories?