{"id":16953,"date":"2025-02-14T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-14T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nwea.org\/blog\/?p=16953"},"modified":"2025-10-29T09:43:57","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T16:43:57","slug":"what-the-science-of-reading-tells-us-about-how-to-teach-decoding-including-phonics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nwea.org\/blog\/2025\/what-the-science-of-reading-tells-us-about-how-to-teach-decoding-including-phonics\/","title":{"rendered":"What the science of reading tells us about how to teach decoding\u2014including phonics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Yeah, yeah, we hear you, science of reading<\/a> fans. You want to talk about phonics!<\/p>\n

First off, let\u2019s be clear that the science of reading is bigger than phonics. The science of reading is the converging evidence of what matters and what works in literacy instruction, organized around models that describe the how and why. Phonics is smaller in scope. It refers to how letter patterns represent sounds\u2014and how we teach those patterns. Phonics is for supporting word decoding.<\/p>\n

Phonics grabs a huge share of conversations about elementary literacy for good reason: critical to understanding the science of reading is understanding how good instruction in word decoding supports good reading outcomes in English.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s a \u201cgood reading outcome\u201d? Ultimately, our goal is kids showing strong comprehension of challenging texts. Research addresses what kinds of skills matter for that outcome and what kinds of teaching work well for getting there. We\u2019re not talking about one study, here; we\u2019re talking about decades of accumulated and evolving insight from well-designed research.<\/p>\n

A lot goes into teaching kids to read with comprehension. In this post, I\u2019ll focus on one piece: word decoding (and, yes, that means we get to talk about phonics).<\/p>\n

Decoding matters. Big time.<\/h2>\n

When researchers investigate what matters in literacy instruction, they look at how a component skill affects growth in the bigger domain of reading with comprehension. Particularly for elementary readers<\/a>, improving word decoding gives kids a big boost in comprehension, in both the near and long term. That makes sense: if a student can\u2019t read the words at all, then they sure can\u2019t read them with understanding.<\/p>\n

Great word decoding is necessary for reading with understanding, but it is not sufficient. Remember the Simple View of Reading<\/a>?<\/p>\n

\"AnOnce a student has strong word decoding skills, growth in reading comprehension becomes more dependent on language, including vocabulary and knowledge.<\/p>\n

Early identification and intervention are critical<\/h2>\n

Because decoding matters big time, it is imperative that we support decoding for those who struggle through targeted early intervention<\/a>. Intervention really works best if it is, well, targeted and early. That means we want to find the right <\/em>kids, the ones likeliest to really need the intervention, and we want to do it before they are actually falling behind in reading.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s where the science of reading gets almost magical. Research tells us that by assessing particular early skills\u2014even before kids can read words<\/a>\u2014we can zero in on those students likely to struggle with decoding if we don\u2019t intervene. Screening for signs of dyslexia<\/a> and other decoding difficulties homes in on those early pre-reading skills that matter.<\/p>\n

With this kind of screening, the two biggies are phonemic awareness and alphabet knowledge. Phonemic awareness is about noticing sounds within words; alphabet knowledge includes knowing what sounds letters stand for. These two foundational components come together as kids sound out words.<\/p>\n

What works to launch decoding?<\/h2>\n

The science of reading clearly points to how teachers can best support the earliest stages of decoding. First, we know it works to systematically and explicitly teach kids to hear and work with the phonemes, or individual sounds, within words. We want them to hear the first phoneme in a short word like \u201cdog.\u201d Then we need to systematically move focus toward those final and middle sounds, too. Finally, we move on to working with words that have more sounds, like \u201cblast.\u201d<\/p>\n

While many think of this instruction as being focused only on sound, research tells us<\/a> that pairing sounds with visual letters in instruction is more effective. It helps kids to hear three phonemes in \u201ccat\u201d when they can connect those phonemes to letters. That\u2019s phonics supporting phonemic awareness. Conversely, it helps kids understand how decoding works when we connect word families\u2014\u201ccat,\u201d \u201cbat,\u201d \u201chat\u201d\u2014to the substituting of one first phoneme for another, orally. That\u2019s phonemic awareness supporting phonics. Phonemic awareness and letter-sound understanding share the best kind of friendship, where just by being together they help each other grow.<\/p>\n

Teaching of both phonemic awareness and phonics should be explicit: clearly demonstrate, then provide student practice and feedback, and then gradually support more independence in your students. Practice that looks like play keeps engagement high, which is critical to successful learning.<\/p>\n

Sample exercises: Pair sounds to letters<\/h2>\n

How might a few minutes in a primary-grade classroom following the science of reading in decoding look? Here are a few examples:<\/p>\n