Making Sense of Phonics, Second Edition The Hows and Whys

This bestselling book provides indispensable tools and strategies for explicit, systematic phonics instruction in K-3. Teachers learn effective ways to build students' decoding skills by teaching letter-sound relationships, blending, word building, multisyllabic decoding, fluency, and more. The volume is packed with engaging classroom activities, many specific examples, and research-based explanations. It offers a complete phonics assessment and clear guidelines for sequencing instruction to give every student a strong foundation for reading. More than 30 reproducible forms and word lists are included in the appendices. Purchasers get access to a webpage where they can download and print the reproducible materials in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size and find a wealth of supplemental teaching resources.
 New to This Edition*Six additional chapters covering key topics, including assessment, phonemic awareness, orthography, and automaticity.*A complete phonics assessment with administering and scoring guidelines.*Downloadable forms and word lists, plus a companion website with rich supplemental resources, including word/syllable cards, assessment tools, and illustrated stories featuring target words, which teachers can project or print for classroom use.*More classroom examples and "Your Turn" activities, as well as expanded word lists.

See also Bringing Words to Life, Second Edition: Robust Vocabulary Instruction and Creating Robust Vocabulary: Frequently Asked Questions and Extended Examples, by Isabel L. Beck, Margaret G. McKeown, and Linda Kucan, which provide essential tools for K-12 vocabulary instruction.

 

Isabel L. Beck, PhD, is Professor Emerita in the School of Education at the University of Pittsburgh. Before starting her career at the university, she was a public school teacher, and has taught most elementary grades. Dr. Beck's work has been acknowledged by awards from the International Reading Association, the National Reading Conference, and the American Federation of Teachers, among others. Most recently she was elected to the National Academy of Education. Mark E. Beck, MEd, is a reading specialist at Manchester Academic Charter School in Pittsburgh, where he works with children in grades K-5. After practicing law for 14 years, Mr. Beck changed careers, obtaining his Pennsylvania elementary teaching certification and working as a classroom teacher. Subsequently he obtained his reading specialist certification. He has also been a part-time instructor in the Reading Department in the School of Education at the University of Pittsburgh.

1. Situating Phonics Instruction 2. The Alphabetic Principle and Phonics 3. Phonemic Awareness: A Bit of a Different Take 4. The Phonics Landscape 5. Teaching Children the Sounds That Letters Represent 6. Blending 7. Word Building 8. Assessment 9. Multisyllabic Words 10. Syllasearch 11. Orthography: A "Sticking Point in Word Recognition" 12. Automaticity Appendix 1. Word Building Lists Appendix 2. Specific Phonics Assessments Appendix 3. Word and Syllable Matrices for Syllasearch Appendix 4. The Word Pocket Appendix 5. List of Online Materials Glossary