The Literacy Lowdown- What is Phonics?

In a nutshell, phonics is the part of literacy instruction that teaches kids the relationship between letters and sounds.  Students apply this knowledge when they decode and read words.  Early in their elementary career, readers also begin learning to distinguish between different syllable types.  This knowledge comes in handy when learning to read longer words with many syllables.

What are nonsense words?  What is their role in phonics instruction?

Nonsense or make-believe words are often incorporated into phonics instruction.  A nonsense word is a word that has no meaning. For example, het, blate, grop, and lim are all nonsense words.  You cannot find these words in a dictionary.  

You may be asking yourself, Why do teachers ask kids to read this nonsense? (pun intended)  Well, there are a couple of reasons why we embed nonsense words into our phonics instruction.  When students are asked to read make-believe words they must rely only on their phonics knowledge to read.  With real words, students sometimes recognize the word by sight.  A teacher may present nonsense words to students to ensure that they are relying only on their understanding of a specific phonics skill(s) to read the word.

Another reason that teachers ask children to read nonsense words is because they are often found within longer, multi-syllabic words.  For example, the nonsense words rel, mas, and nic can be found the following real words: relish, mascot, and picnic.  When children can read nonsense words quickly and with ease, they are likely to solve "tricky" words that they encounter while reading in the same manner.