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Fluent reading, much like sight reading music, isn't a skill that occurs over night and can be measured by the individual. In our classrooms we'll begin to notice that not everyone is on the same reading level as one another and a great way to incorporate every students level to par, rather than just silent individual reading, is to begin small segments of silent reading, and then read the passage back aloud after a certain amount of allotted time. Student's will begin to recognize the pronunciation and the relationships words and letters have together this way. However, not all students will be able to keep up at this pace. Partner reading, reading as if one was speaking aloud, and the Read Natural study are all good ways to not only measure how fluent a reader is but how to improve the readers fluency as well.

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Phonics is simply put as the relationship between written letters and their correlation to producing sound out of those written letters. The practice of transforming these letters and words into speech is what is commonly referred to as "Decoding". This is taught to us at an early age during our childhood and often times before school. We even subconsciously begin to make the connections between words and their pronunciations just by familiarizing ourselves with the way these letters are produced and often grouped. There are two types of well known Phonic and decoding means of practice. The systematic approach is when letters and their sounds are taught in a logical sequence. The epitome of this idea would be beginning the teaching of phonics one letter at a time through the alphabet and providing a word as an example. The first letter is A, so the word apple would be a great example of the letters pronunciation. The next approach is the explicit phonic instruction method, where the blending of sounds and syllables is used to create and recognize words. According to Reading Horizons, a teacher based site full of reading resources, explicit phonic instruction is also known as synthetic phonics; building words from part to whole  (Horizons). The U.S. Department of Education have released findings based on factual research that explicit phonic teaching is the most effective means of phonic instruction.

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What Is the Difference Between Implicit and Explicit Phonics Instruction?

"There's more than one way to skin a cat" is an idiom (or saying) that means there are multiple ways to accomplish something. In most cases, it is absolutely true; there is usually more than one solution to a problem and different ways to approach most tasks. When talking about teaching reading, there are several approaches that have been researched and debated. The aforementioned idiom also means that an issue can be approached in different ways, but the final result will be the same. With reading, that is not the case. The manner of instruction is just as important, if not more so, as what is instructed, and it significantly affects the results.

What Is Explicit Phonics Instruction?

Explicit phonics, part of the structured literacy approach, also referred to as synthetic phonics, builds from part to whole. It begins with the instruction of the letters (graphemes) with their associated sounds (phonemes). Next, explicit phonics teaches blending and building, beginning with blending the sounds into syllables and then into words. Explicit phonics is scientifically proven and research based.
Learn strategies for teaching explicit phonics instruction and earn free PD credit: READING WORKSHOP
What Is Implicit Phonics Instruction?

Implicit phonics, also referred to as analytical phonics, moves from the whole to the smallest part. Phonemes associated with particular graphemes are not pronounced in isolation. Students analyze words and look for the common phoneme in a set of words. Through comparison and identification, they deduce which grapheme to write or which phoneme to read. Blending and building are not usually taught, and students identify new words by their shape, beginning and ending letters, and context clues. This analysis (breaking down) of the whole word to its parts is necessary only when a child cannot read it as a whole word. This is a whole-language approach.

Which Approach to Teaching Phonics Is Best?

Research has been conclusive that explicit phonics instruction is the most effective. The U.S. Department of Education, the National Research Council, and the National Reading Panel have all conducted research and have released finding reports that support this statement. The National Reading Panel's report on its quantitative research studies on areas of reading instruction was published in 2000. The panel reported that several reading strategies are critical to becoming good readers: phonics for word identification, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension. With regard to phonics, its meta-analysis of hundreds of studies confirmed the findings of the National Research Council: Teaching phonics (and related phonics skills, such as phonemic awareness) is a more effective way to teach children early reading skills than is embedded phonics or no phonics instruction (taken from National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [2000]. Report of the National Reading Panel. Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction [NIH Publication No. 00-4769]. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office).
Learn strategies for teaching phonics to beginning and struggling readers: READING WORKSHOP
Scientific research has clearly demonstrated that explicit phonics instruction is the single-most effective approach for all students. Obviously, many students can learn to read without such instruction; however, it is not only the at-risk students who achieve greater success under a phonics regime - so do those in the average and below-average reading groups (those who do OK but do not excel). A large-scale study by Barbara Foorman and colleagues from the University of Houston found that explicit, systematic phonics was by far the most effective approach. It was also more effective in reducing the occurrence of reading problems than any of the one-on-one tutorial programs that were evaluated, including Reading Recovery. Her findings are consistent with both currently accepted theories of reading development and instruction and with other empirical research emphasizing student outcome measures.

What Is the Outcome?

While results show that most types of phonics instruction can be beneficial for students, it has been conclusive that explicit phonics is the most effective and is necessary for those with processing issues. Empowering any student with these decoding strategies helps ensure reading success and gives them a solid foundation for their academic future.
Teaching Phonics to Beginning and Struggling Readers › Misconceptions About Phonics Instruction - #1 - Most Children Learn to Read Naturally › Misconceptions About Phonics Instruction - #2 - Phonics Instruction is Boring › Misconceptions About Phonics Instruction - #3 - The English Language is Inconsistent › Misconceptions About Phonics Instruction - #4 - College Prepares Teachers to Teach Reading ›
Learn More:

The following are fantastic teacher resources that can help you enhance reading instruction in your classroom. To find the answer to the question: " what is decoding?" or to find a list of reading strategies, visit the Reading Horizons Reading Strategies Homepage.

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Reading Strategies: Explicit vs. Implicit Phonics Instruction

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"There's more than one way to skin a cat" is an idiom (or saying) that means there are multiple ways to accomplish something. In most cases, it is absolutely true; there is usually more than one solution to a problem and different ways to approach most tasks.

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Print awareness can occur well before students even enter the educational system. It's the recognition of understanding that print is organized in a specific way. Whether the print is organized as a menu, a newspaper, ending credits to a movie, or a newspaper. Print awareness relies heavily on social interaction between adults and a Childs curiosity. Funny enough, McDonalds' was one of the first words (other than my name) that I learned to spell. As a kid we see fast food signs everywhere and identify the relationship between the signs and their specific restaurants. The golden arch's are a clear indication of McDonalds and is a nifty tool to recognize the pronunciation of each letter in its name. This doesn't just apply to fast food or McDonalds though. When word games and engaging with different types of prints as children, we begin to understand the concept of what reading actually is and how to read. Not necessarily how to read full sentences and words right away but the skillset to identify a passage or the front and back of a book. Teachers can apply print awareness through many means of engaging material such as labeling objects around the room, constructing a birthday card or shopping list, working through picture books, and reading books in class.  (Kame'enui, 2002).

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While systematic phonic instruction is only one approach to the teachings of word building and pronunciation, it remains to be the building block of the larger picture of reading comprehension and fluency. I was curious to the differences of actual phonic applications and teachings and an article on Reading Rocket struck my interest. "Keep your eyes on the words"  (Submitted by George Barbuto (not verified) on May 2 et al., 2017). This particular rule of thumb stuck out to me because it also applies to my discipline of music. Much like phonic pronunciation and decoding, music is similar in the same sense where letters (notes) are given to the reader (musician) and it's up to them to decode their sounds and meaning. While one note can stand out on its own, it's often that the grouping of notes in a measure combine together to create a bigger picture. In music, when we complete a given measure and tie it to the next, we call it phrasing. It's a perfect analogy of combining letters to make a word and combing words to make a sentence. Now, while a lot of actors and musicians don't necessarily need to look at their lines and music in order to play or act. It is paramount that when they are practicing that they keep their eyes on the words and the music itself in order to maintain focus and learn their meanings. This also applies to teaching phonics and decoding.

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Other types of Phonological instructional methods

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Other types of Phonological instructional methods

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While explicit phonic instruction provides to be the most successful and widely used form of phonic instruction, it is not the only one.

Analogy Phonics: The recognition of using well known words and syllables that rime with unknow words and then blending the two to make an unknown word more familiar. Ex. Brick and kick. Both contain the suffix ick and can easily be transferred to new words with new meanings.

Analytic Phonics: Teaching students to identify the relationships between familiar letter-sounds in other words to avoid producing singular sounds on their own.

Embedded Phonics: Is exactly what it sounds like. Embedding phonic instruction through text based reading. This tends to grow with the students skill level and is often incidental to the individual.

Phonics through spelling: Often what we all start out learning by using phonemes to spell words individually.

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As a licenced teacher and later as a principal, I have successfully educated more than 300 students ranging in age from 5 to 20 at a private school I founded and operated for 9 years. All my students were failing in either public or private schools when they came to me. The one main thing that all my students had in common regardless of the medical designation they had was that their reading comprehension skills were extremely weak. This is a common occurance for a full one third of the population. Hence my brand name...One Third.

We did not focus on Phonics at this point as my research indicated that until someone has mastered the art of a basic reading vocabulary (alphabet, 150 words that mean nothing, sentence formation, the parts of speech, punctuation), it is impossible to progress with success to a writing vocabulary which of course includes sounds and blends, etc.

Most schools today blend the reading and writing vocabularies. That is one of the main reasons why fully one third of students today are failing in school and have difficulty in the workforce.

If schools want to allow all children the opportunity to reach their potential, it is my opinion based on solid evidence that we must change how we introduce our children to reading. If you cannot add....you cannot subtract. If you cannot add and subtract, you cannot multiply. If you cannot add, subtract and multiply, you cannot divide.

The same is true for listening, spoken, reading and written vocabularies.

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As a licenced teacher and later as a principal, I have successfully educated more than 300 students ranging in age from 5 to 20 at a private school I founded and operated for 9 years. All my students were failing in either public or private schools when they came to me.