Evidence-based (best) practices (EBP) in teaching Phonics are based on scientific reading research results.

Phonics and phonemic awareness are pretty much the same thing.

To score as proficient on the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), a fourth grade student could score as low as 70% accurate in word reading.

To be effective, phonics instruction must be inferred and incidental to the meaning of interesting narratives, especially for at-risk students.

Is based on efficient word recognition skills.

Is essential to reading fluency.

Will lead to poor fluency in reading.

Allows students to focus on understanding what they read

Each activity is designed to strengthen two or more specific reading skills.

The targeted skills relate to an appropriate instructional progression and reflect students' needs.

Each activity connects students' reading and speaking skills.

Targeted skills are grade-appropriate and taught to all students using the same instructional methods.'

Struggles with reading ability may be inherited.

Reading ability may be environmentally influenced.

The ability to read is only about 6000 years old in evolutionary terms.

There is one and only one brain circuit dedicated to the ability to read, in addition to the language circuits.

Are based mainly on predictable (frequently occurring) words.

Are composed entirely of phonetically irregular exception or sight words which are infrequently occurring.

Are based strictly on the grade and developmental level of the student.

Contain both sight or exception words and phonetic patterns of words students have already learned.

include instruction in related consonant blends when introducing individual consonants.

Make certain that students have mastered vowel sounds before focusing on consonants.

Ensure that students master the spelling of practice words using the target sound before teaching a new sound

Provide reading opportunities for students to practice sounds in words after studying the sounds in isolation.

Using teacher read-alouds followed by echo reading, and then choral rereading of the students' favorite texts that include some simple words

Exposing students to common environmental print to provide frequent exposures to everyday words and phrases.

Providing modeling and guided practice sounding out simple, regular words from already-taught patterns subvocally and then reading them out loud.

Scheduling frequent silent independent reading practice of word lists based on the students' oral language vocabulary.

Explicitly teaching the students to read the unit -ing in isolation before teaching them to decode familiar words that end in the inflection.

Using think-aloud during a guided reading to model how to use contextual analysis as a strategy for recognizing words ending in -ing.

Having students practice reading word lists that include words ending in both the more familiar rime -ing as well as the inflection -ing.

Teaching the inflectional ending -ing in the context of an instructional unit on identifying open and closed syllables in multisyllabic words.

Inability to sound out unfamiliar words.

Listening comprehension is worse than reading comprehension.

Limited sight-word vocabulary

Listening comprehension is much better than reading comprehension.