ParaReading Resource Hub: Phonics

Dr. Bernadette Zemeño:
Hi, I'm Dr. Bernadette Pilar Zemeño. Welcome to ParaReading. I'm so glad you joined us. I've been teaching children to read for more than 20 years, so I know that learning phonics is absolutely essential for our students. Our parareading courses are designed to give you the knowledge, the skills, and the practice that you'll need to teach students to read well. This course is all about phonics, enabling students to match letters to sounds so they can learn to read and spell with confidence. Students need to know, for example, that the letter 'm' spells the /m/ sound in "March," and that two letters 'o' and 'o' together spell /o͞o/ in "moon." Some of your students may have a hard time figuring out how to match letters with sounds while others just need a little bit more practice with you. We'll start this course by reviewing the common patterns of letters and sounds that every student needs to know.

Then we'll present some expert strategies for teaching phonics. In some places, we'll ask you to practice a new teaching strategy with a partner. This is important to do before you try any new strategy with your students. To get the most out of this course, I'd encourage you to always keep your own students in your mind. Think about what they do when they try to read a word they don't know. Do they guess? Do they look at the pictures? Or do they try to sound out each word based on the phonics patterns that they've learned? How can you help your students to decode new words when they see them? By the end of this course, you'll be much better prepared to teach your students everything they need to know about phonics. Let's get started, and I hope you enjoy this course.