The Importance of Phonemic Awareness in Teaching Children to Read

Matt Burns discusses the importance of phonemic awareness in reading instruction. Phonemic awareness is an outcome of skilled reading, not a precursor, and it has a reciprocal relationship with reading. Matt also emphasizes the need to focus on decoding skills in second, third, and fourth grade, rather than solely on phonemic awareness. Matt provides practical takeaways for teachers and recommends additional resources for learning about phonemic awareness.

Takeaways

• Phonemic awareness is an outcome of skilled reading, not a precursor.
• Phonemic awareness and reading have a reciprocal relationship.
• Decoding skills are a strong predictor of reading success.
• Nonsense word fluency assessments can be beneficial for assessing decoding skills.
• Avoid teaching nonsense words and focus on decoding instead.

Resources

• Phonemic Awareness, Research, Misconceptions, and Fads with Dr. Matt Burns
• They Say You Can Do Phonemic Awareness Instruction “In the Dark”, But Should You? A Critical Evaluation of the Trend Toward Advanced Phonemic Awareness Training
• RIP to Advanced Phonemic Awareness | Shanahan on Literacy
• Phonemic Awareness with Letters YouTube video, Matt Burns
• Matt Burns YouTube Channel 
• National Reading Panel Report 
• Elkonin Boxes, Reading Rockets
• Florida Center for Reading Research 
• UFLI Foundations 
• Ep. 159: Back to School: Science of Reading or Snake Oil with Holly Lane 
• Road to the Code, Book 
• IES Practice Guides 
• Empirical Analysis of Drill Ratio Research: Refining the Instructional Level for Drill Tasks, Matt Burns (meta-analysis)

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