Increasingly, music teachers are required to assist, tutor, or teach reading skills in the music classroom. In the effort to meet such mandates, music teachers may be challenged to either relinquish valuable music instruction time or attempt to combine instructional strategies of both music and reading into singular lessons, units, and classroom…

This article discusses how amusing mistakes can make for serious language instruction. The notion that close analysis of language errors can yield insight into how one thinks and learns seems fundamentally obvious. Yet until relatively recently, language errors were primarily treated as indicators of learner deficiency rather than opportunities to…

Several decades of research have established the critical role of phonemic awareness in the development of beginning reading. In particular, phonemic awareness makes early phonics instruction useful for children and facilitates their ability to blend letter sounds while decoding words, to learn sight words reliably, and to spell phonetically. A…

Describes the "Bag Game," an activity which keeps kindergartners or first graders absorbed and entertained while heightening their awareness of initial consonant phonemes in spoken words. (SR)

Reviews some basic knowledge of phonics all teachers should know. Provides instructional activities to incorporate phonics within a balanced literacy program. Recognizes different approaches to teaching phonics and the importance of phonics. Discusses the use of consonants, blends and digraphs, short vowels, long vowels, and other strange vowel…

Suggests three strategies to help students hear the sounds in words: developing phonemic awareness; explore sound/symbol relationships; and discover spelling patterns. This method is most effective if teachers continuously encourage students to think about how these strategies will help them as readers and writers. (SM)

Notes that the goal of phonics instruction is to help students develop the alphabetic principle. Explains how the words "explicit" and "systematic" are used in multiple ways in the context of phonics instruction. Suggests that educators should engage in serious discussions about how multiple approaches to phonics instruction…

Considers how good phonics instruction should encourage children to recognize rimes and to identify an unfamiliar word by blending its onset with the rime that follows. Discusses seven conclusions/implications for phonics software derived from research into phonics instruction. (SG)

Describes how some student teachers and cooperating teachers guided pupils in learning phonics through a study of rhyming poetry. Discusses class activities involved in teaching couplets, triplets, imagery in poetry, quatrains, alliteration, limericks, and onomatopoeia, and the rhyme and phonics elements involved. (SR)

A spelling study expert offers the following strategies for teaching elementary students to spell: making word-sorting games that categorize words by shared characteristics; playing letter-sequencing games; examining how root words and affixes combine to form new words; making spelling meaningful; and linking spelling study with editing and…

Describes how one elementary educator teaches word study strategies that enlarge students' understanding of phonics and vocabulary. A primary level activity has students create a thematic word wall. An intermediate level activity has students conduct a new word hunt. A reproducible student page helps students sort words by sound. (SM)

This article presents 20 activities to promote phonemic awareness in students, including teaching nursery rhymes, playing the "I Spy" game using initial sounds of words, creating a sound box, having students sort picture cards based on initial sounds, playing phoneme deletion games, and having students clap and count syllables. (Contains 4…

Surveys research on teaching spelling and describes methods to help poor spellers. Proposes a short course using 20 minutes of class time three times a week to help students develop skills in the following areas: sensory development, mnemonic devices, word groups, phonics, and rules. (RS)

Provides a theory- and research-based argument for the value of play in literacy instruction in the primary grades and offers examples of the ways teachers can create more playful phonics, read aloud, and expository writing experiences. Urges teachers to become well-versed in the values of play and be willing to educate administrators and parents…

Explores and enumerates best practice in the upper elementary and middle grades regarding word identification, including phonics and other subskills. Identifies 16 word identification strategies to attain eventual comprehension, including focusing on consonants, word sorting, chunking, and word building. Identifies less effective strategies such…