Phonics and Word Recognition
During transitional kindergarten through grade one, children make great strides in their ability
to access print independently. They acquire sight words, that is, printed words that they can identify
immediately on sight. During this grade span, sight words include words that are important in their
lives and environment (e.g., their own names, names of significant others, classroom labels) and
common high-frequency words. These words have high utility; they are seen often in a variety of
texts and contexts. Some of the words are irregularly spelled (e.g., they, said, was), and some are
regularly spelled but the children have not yet learned the relevant letter-sound or spelling-sound
correspondences. In other words, he may be learned as a whole before children learn the letter-sound
correspondences for /h/ and /ē/.
Children become familiar with the purposes of English symbols and they learn how the alphabetic
code works, that is that sounds in words are represented by letters or combinations of letters (the
alphabetic principle). They build skill in using that knowledge to accurately decode words they do not
recognize by sight, and they begin to develop automaticity
(the ability to recognize a word effortlessly and rapidly) with
print. Instruction is systematic and explicit, and new learning
is applied to words in isolation and in text (RF.K–1.3). The
goal is for children to be able to rapidly recognize sight
words and rapidly employ phonics skills to identify words
they do not know by sight. Ongoing formative assessment
and interim assessments of children’s developing skills are
crucial in determining the targets of instruction for each child
and tailoring instruction to meet their needs and advance
their skills. (See chapter 8 in this ELA/ELD Framework for a
discussion of assessment.)
Relatedly, children also encode words (that is, put into print words they hear or are thinking about)
as they record their ideas in written form. They are encouraged to use their phonemic awareness
along with their growing knowledge of letter-sound and spelling-sound correspondences to do so, and
many words are spelled phonetically during this grade span. By the end of grade one, conventional
spellings are used for words with common spelling patterns (L.K–1.2d; see also the discussion of
spelling in chapter 4 of this ELA/ELD Framework). Decoding and encoding are mutually supportive
processes; instruction co-occurs and is complementary. Linking spelling and decoding instruction
deepens children’s knowledge of the written system (Brady 2012).
The acquisition of phonics and word recognition skills and the development of phonemic
awareness are significant foci of the early years as development of these skills provides children with
access to written language. Children who learn the alphabetic system and can employ decoding skills
rather effortlessly reap notable benefits: They can devote their mental energy to comprehension and
therefore experience the joy and satisfaction of independent engagement with text. They can access
a wide variety of texts; wide reading contributes to further skill development, vocabulary enrichment,
and content acquisition (Brady 2012). Research indicates that children have better future prospects
as readers if they develop understandings about and facility with the alphabetic code by the end of
second grade (Moats 2012), which makes progress in the transitional kindergarten through grade one
span crucial.
Figure 3.10 provides definitions of key phonics and word recognition terminology. Included are
terms related to morphology, linguistic units that contribute to the meaning of a word. These are
included because knowledge of morphology contributes to children’s ability to recognize a word.
The acquisition of phonics and
word recognition skills and
the development of phonemic
awareness are significant
foci of the early years as
development of these skills
provides children with access to
written language.156 | Chapter 3 Transitional Kindergarten to Grade 1