Reading Instruction and Phonics (2nd edition) R-K Royce-Kotran Publishing Boston Reading Instruction and Phonics Theory and Practice for Teachers (2nd edition) Stephen Parker Second edition copyright © 2019 by Stephen Parker First edition copyright © 2018 by Stephen Parker Royce-Kotran Publishing 55 Westchester Road Boston, MA 02130 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form for commercial purposes without written permission from the publisher. This book may be reproduced by reading teachers for use in their own classrooms, by parents for use with their own children, and by speech-language pathologists in their work with reading-impaired children. Printed and bound in the United States of America. Last digit is the edition number: 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 ISBN 978-0-9994585-3-2 Library of Congress Control Number: 2019904995 Table of Contents Foreword: Professor Pamela Snow, PhD ..................................................................... 9 Foreword: First Edition ............................................................................................. 13 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 15 Table 1: Sounds of American English ........................................................................ 20 Theory Chapter 1: The Alphabetic Code ................................................................................ 23 Chapter 2: A Glossary for the Reading Teacher ......................................................... 34 Chapter 3: The Simple View of Reading .................................................................... 45 Chapter 4: A Brief History of Reading Instruction ...................................................... 51 Chapter 5: Synthetic Phonics versus Balanced Literacy ............................................ 69 Chapter 6: This Book’s Program ................................................................................ 80 Practice Stage 1: Sounds of A, E, I, O, U, M, N, S; Reading Begins ......................................... 91 Stage 2: Sounds of D, G, P, T; Consonant Blends .................................................... 101 Stage 3: Sounds of B, F, C/K; Spelling Begins ......................................................... 110 Stage 4: Sound of L ................................................................................................. 113 Stage 5: Sound of R ................................................................................................. 115 Stage 6: Sounds of H, J, Qu, V, W, X, Y, Z .............................................................. 117 Stage 7: Sounds of CH, SH, TH; Forming the Plural ................................................ 125 Stage 8: Reading Sentences (Part I) ......................................................................... 133 Stage 9: Sounds of NG, NK; Multi-Syllable Words ................................................... 146 Stage 10: Long Vowel Sounds ................................................................................. 152 Stage 11: Reading Sentences (Part II) ...................................................................... 159 Stage 12: More Vowel Sounds ................................................................................. 173 Stage 13: Words Ending in Long Vowel Sounds; Y as a Vowel ................................. 187 Stage 14: Reading Sentences (Part III) ..................................................................... 196 Stage 15: Unusual Spellings; Open and Closed Syllables ........................................ 212 Stage 16: Soft C, Soft G, Contractions ..................................................................... 221 Stage 17: Independent Reading ............................................................................... 230 Appendices A: Supplement to Stage 1 .................................................................... 241 B: Supplement to Stage 2 .................................................................... 242 C: Supplement to Stage 3 .................................................................... 244 D: Supplement to Stage 4 .................................................................... 246 E: Supplement to Stage 5 .................................................................... 247 F: Supplement to Stage 6 .................................................................... 248 G: Supplement to Stage 7 .................................................................... 250 H: Supplement to Stage 9 .................................................................... 252 J: Supplement to Stage 10 .................................................................. 255 K: Supplement to Stage 10 .................................................................. 257 L: Supplement to Stage 12 .................................................................. 260 M: Supplement to Stage 13 ................................................................. 264 N: Supplement to Stage 15 .................................................................. 269 O: Supplement to Stage 16 .................................................................. 273 P: The Code: Sounds to Letters ........................................................... 278 Q: The Code: Letters to Sounds ........................................................... 280 R: Consonant Blends .......................................................................... 284 S: The Tricky 50 .................................................................................. 285 T: Supplement to Stage 17 .................................................................. 286 U: The 100 Most Frequent Words ........................................................ 291 W: Dick and Jane ................................................................................ 292 Y: Over 400 Rimes .............................................................................. 294 Bibliography ........................................................................................................... 297 9 Foreword to the Second Edition I f you have read my Foreword to the first edition of Stephen Parker’s Reading Instruction and Phonics, you will know that I first became aware of Stephen and his writings in early 2018, when I received an email out of the blue from him, telling me about some books on phonics instruction that he had written, and was making freely available via the internet. Such is the ongoing confusion in the early reading instruction space, that it’s not unusual for me to receive emails from a range of practitioners: strangers wanting to share their (typically free) resources and spread the word about ways of improving knowledge and practice in early years classrooms. However, I quickly realised that Stephen’s email was distinctive, as the resource he was asking me to review (the first edition of this text) was one I could see would have strong and immediate appeal to teachers keen to change their knowledge and practice, in the interests of stronger student outcomes. In the less than two years since the first edition of this book was made available for free download, Stephen has engaged actively with his readership via social media, email, and closed language and literacy discussion groups. He has done so with openness and curiosity, listening to criticisms of the first edition and engaging in debate about any number of contested topics in early reading instruction. This second edition is the result of these processes of listening and reflection. It retains the key features that caught my attention the first time around, while incorporating several improvements and additions. Notably, the book remains low on academic jargon and high on valuable knowledge and practical skills for teachers keen to change their classroom practise now. Stephen writes for his fellow teachers in ways that are clear and logical with respect to classroom practice. He also deconstructs some practises that have illegitimately gained icon-status in early years reading instruction. Education unfortunately has a history of adopting practices ahead of the science being in, and this is nowhere more evident than in early reading instruction. That Stephen has placed the murky and contested history of reading instruction into the hands of teachers is as significant a gift as the knowledge itself contained in this book and his companion blogposts. Teachers need to know how we landed at this messy impasse if they are to be at the forefront of the campaign to do better in classrooms around the globe. To this end, in addition to the valuable history lesson, Stephen explains the all-important Simple View of Reading in this edition and positions this as