Phonics Instruction: What I Wish I Knew by Sally Busby

2025-09-08 18:01:11 UTC

I used to think phonics instruction was just about teaching kids to match letters to sounds simple, right? But the moment that shifted for me was during a lesson on vowel teams. I realized that “ea” doesn’t always sound like /ē/ (as in “eat”) sometimes it’s /ĕ/ (as in “bread”) or even /ā/ (like in “great”). My students were confused, and honestly, so was I. For my internship class and I honestly tried this on my own kids at home.

What tripped me up was assuming consistency where there isn’t any. English is full of exceptions, and I hadn’t fully grasped how much decoding depends on context, morphology, and exposure to patterns over time.

What’s finally clicking is the importance of explicit, systematic instruction—not just teaching rules but helping students apply them flexibly. I’ve started integrating more word sorting, phoneme manipulation, and discussions about word origins. It’s made a huge difference in how my students approach unfamiliar words and how I approach teaching them.

Abby Hamner

2025-09-17 17:07:24 UTC

I realized how layered phonics instruction truly is when I was teaching vowel teams and assumed students would simply memorize the common patterns. What tripped me up was noticing that even when students could recite the rules, they struggled to apply them in reading and writing, especially when exceptions or less common patterns appeared. I hadn’t fully grasped how much phonemic awareness, decoding, and orthographic mapping needed to work together before those patterns could stick. What’s finally clicking is the importance of spiraling instruction, giving students repeated, meaningful exposure to patterns in context, and explicitly connecting sounds to letters while building on their prior knowledge. Phonics isn’t just rule-teaching, but it is also strategic, layered, and deeply connected to how the brain processes language.

Shraya Rao - Phonics Instruction

shrayarao — 2025-09-18 20:17:33 UTC

Seeing as I don't have much practical teaching experience yet, most of my knowledge of phonics instruction has come from my coursework in these past couple weeks. As someone who's been reading for 20+ years, I don't think about it - it's an automatic skill. I rarely have to sound out words when I read a book, unless it's a word I've never seen before, or a word rooted in a different language (French, Latin, etc.).

I've learned a lot from reading the RISE Reading Syllabus and working my way through the modules. I didn't realize how involved, and at times confusing, of a process learning can be to young children. They have to learn to differentiate between similar-looking letters ("B" and "D"), how certain consonant blends (i.e., "ph") are pronounced differently compared to how they look - for example, "ph" makes a /f/ sound.

There's a direct correlation between strong phonics skills and strong Reading Comprehension (RC). It's our job as teachers to make phonics instruction fun, engaging, digestible, and less confusing - that way they will feel motivated, excited, and encouraged to read as they get older.

Phonics Instructions - K. Hart

2025-09-18 23:20:31 UTC

I have always heard that English is one of the hardest languages to learn because of its complexity and many, many rules. I think that is what truly has fascinated me! After starting substitute teaching in elementary grades and beginning the T2T program, I realized the complexity of the English language goes beyond the rules and all the way to phonics. I quickly learned that phonics and learning to read is not automatic. It must be taught, practiced, and built upon. The ABC song is great for students to learn their alphabet and to be able to see a letter and say what that letter is. However, the next step is just as important. Students need to know what sounds each letter makes. Once they are successful at identifying the sounds letters make, they can begin learning the phonetic rules. From the RISE workshop, I have learned that students need direct instruction and engagement. Students need to have time with letters, sounds, and words to practice. Practice helps build their skills up over time.

Maria Goldstein - Phonics Instruction

2025-09-19 01:47:42 UTC

I realized how layered phonics is when I started my internship. I knew that phonics has many layers and that students are often at various academic levels, but I didn't realize the severity of that until I started my internship. Since my internship is in a 4th grade classroom, I don't experience the early reading skills that some do in this class, but I still see plenty of differences with students' phonics skills. I believe that many phonics programs are useful, but the teacher's ability to diversify teaching, engage prior knowledge, and adapt to students' needs is just as important as the program itself. Even some of the 4th graders lack phonics knowledge, especially with decoding words. I haven't had a moment where it tripped me up or is finally clicking, since I don't regularly teach most of the concepts. I would say that in the classes I have subbed in that have had phonics lessons the students generally do a good job with the lesson. Also, I have found the RISE workshop to be very interesting, and I have learned a great deal from that.

Phonics Instruction - Peighton Brown

2025-09-19 16:58:34 UTC

Growing up, I always struggled with English, specifically comprehension, but I have always had friends who struggled with phonics, and I never understood why until now.

With the RISE Reading Syllabus, I have learned so much, and it has helped me teach my special education students how to sound out words when spelling. The hardest ones I have realized for kids to differentiate are "S and C" and "TH" sounds. Being in the 5th-6th grade level, I do not see the learning of phonics as easily as the younger grades, but I do see their brains process the phonics when they ask how to spell words or what the word starts with.

I honestly thought children were just taught the patterns of phonics and remembered them, like I did in school. However, that is not the case. These students need way more hands-on learning and practice.

Maria Weaver-What I Wish I Knew...

2025-09-19 17:16:18 UTC

I wish that I had realized there were so many different components to reading and the need for it to be automatic in us. Honestly, I'm not sure that I had really given it much thought BEFORE this class. I knew that some of us struggled more than others, but I had not looked into what the problem/problems might be for students. By breaking the beginning process down into smaller components, the RISE Reading Workshop will certainly make it easier to pinpoint specific areas where a student is in need of more practice. For myself, more practice in order to make the process more automatic would've been my biggest help. When I was younger, there weren't as many book series available. When I hit around middle school, I remember loving The Babysitter's Club and Choose Your Own Adventure books. Today, there is such a wide variety of book options to choose from. Countless ways to practice!!

What I Wish I Knew

2025-09-19 22:16:04 UTC

I started teaching 5th grade in January and I moved to 3rd this year. Truly anything and everything tripped me up with phonics when i came down to 3rd. At the beginning of the year we took a placement test for students to be put into small groups based off what skill they needed to work on and I was absolutely lost. I had no idea what digraphs, VC/CV, vowel digraphs, etc. were, but with this RISE workshop everything is finally started to click. The workshop goes so in depth with each step and I'm slowly understanding phonics even more. I can definitely feel myself growing and my students growing because of it.

What I Wish I Knew

annalisarouse — 2025-09-21 01:07:13 UTC

Going to education classes has made me learn the terms of everything I have learned, in a way I had never thought of. In school, I do not remember learning about diphthongs but I know the principles, and I feel that way about phonics. I still struggle remembering the difference between diphthongs and digraphs, in terms of remembering what they are with the perspective of a teacher. But, my classes last semester focused heavily on phonics instruction, and Rise helped me out so much. For some reason, r-controlled vowels have never clicked, but I am starting to get a better understanding now.

Phonics: What I Wish I Knew

2025-09-21 01:08:38 UTC

I haven't been in the classroom yet, I actually start subbing next week so I’m hoping to have some more experience for these padlets! Which I am very excited about! When I think about the knowledge that I have obtained from RISE these past few weeks, I’m not sure I would have been able to go very far in my own classroom without it! Before I started RISE I knew how to read but there is no way I could have told you about specifics of the English language and what makes up the reasons we spell and sound out different words. Which actually I’m a little embarrassed about, having gone through an entire bachelor degree program and not knowing something that I feel as if everyone should know. I want to give the children that I do teach in the future the best chance and I feel like what I have learning from RISE really dos that! So not actually what I wish I knew but what I’m so grateful to now know and how much my future students will benefit from that!

hp118_1 — 2025-09-22 14:14:19 UTC

I have learned so much about phonics within the last month and am loving it. I feel like it could be a niche in my career that I would look forward to....my brain seems more English aligned vs a Math brain. I feel like a lot of the techniques in how to explain sounds to students is finally clicking for me this month now that I am teaching some of the lessons myself. When teaching the students the onset sound of a word, I tap my shoulder. So for example, a CVC word like "cat" would have me tapping my shoulder for the C sound and stopping at my elbow for the middle (A) sound and ending at my wrist with the T sound. It seems to give the kids a visual of the letter sounds and word as we practice. I enjoy hearing them accurately identify the sound that we start with and then go into the rest of the rime. My mentor has recently been teaching the Kindergarten class more blending techniques which is great to see and learn how to teach. I know that I have a ways to go to be proficient but am already feeling more comfortable in teaching phonics now that I can understand how it all pieces together.

2025-09-23 00:32:43 UTC

I learned how in depth phonics is when I started teaching this year. I have been a teacher in a different subject for the past 5 years before transitioning to 1st grade this August. I have always assumed I knew the correct way to say every letter sound, but making sure I pronounce every sound clear and accurate is something I never thought I would put so much thought into. I did not think about all of the different components that are involved in learning phonics. Growing up I always remembered having a "spelling list" every week and memorizing the words and that is completely different from how I am teaching my students today. The RISE workshop has been extremely helpful to use in my classroom. They give so many helpful tips and ways to teach specific rules. With all of this being said there is so much that tripped me up when first beginning teaching phonics, but I have learned so much these past few weeks in my classroom, this course, and the RISE workshop.

What I Wish I Knew About Phonics

2025-09-26 01:17:59 UTC

I realized phonics is way more layered than I thought the first time I was working with students on vowel sounds. I figured once they knew the “short” and “long” vowels, we’d be good to go—but then came all the vowel teams, silent letters, and exceptions that totally threw me (and them) off. What really tripped me up was seeing a student read a word “right” based on the rule I just taught, but then it wasn’t actually pronounced that way. It made me realize how confusing it must feel for them.

What’s finally clicking for me is that phonics isn’t about drilling rules until kids memorize them—it’s more about giving them tools and strategies to try out when they hit a tricky word. I’m starting to see how much practice and flexibility it takes for kids to apply what they know in real reading, and that’s helped me be more patient when it doesn’t stick right away.