What is Phonics?
By Dana Gomez, Reading & Literacy Specialist
So often I hear this question: “Wait—how is phonics different from phonological awareness?” It's a great question, especially since the terms are often used interchangeably in professional development sessions or curriculum guides. But understanding the difference matters—because while phonological awareness is about hearing sounds, phonics is about connecting those sounds to letters and spelling patterns.
Let’s break it down.
So, What Is Phonics?
Phonics is the system of relationships between letters and the sounds they represent. It’s where the auditory world of spoken language meets the visual world of print. Phonics instruction helps students learn to decode (read) and encode (spell) words by recognizing predictable sound-spelling patterns.
For example:
The letter m represents the sound /m/
The letters sh together represent the sound /ʃ/ as in ship
The pattern CVCe often signals a long vowel sound, as in cake
While phonological awareness is taught without print, phonics always involves letters. When a student sees the word cat and sounds it out as /k/ /ă/ /t/, that’s phonics in action.
Why Does Phonics Matter?
In California’s Central Valley, many of our students are developing literacy skills in more than one language or have limited access to early print-rich experiences. Systematic and explicit phonics instruction gives all students, regardless of background, access to the alphabetic code. It allows them to become independent readers, not just memorizers of words.
When we skip phonics or rely too heavily on context or pictures for decoding, we create fragile readers. Without a strong grasp of how letters map to sounds, students may hit a wall by third grade—especially as text complexity increases and pictures disappear.
And let’s be honest: English has a complicated orthography. Teaching phonics isn’t about “sounding out” forever—it’s about building the knowledge and confidence students need to tackle unfamiliar words in any subject area.
What Does Strong Phonics Instruction Look Like?
High-quality phonics instruction is:
Explicit: We tell students exactly what sound each letter or pattern makes.
Systematic: Skills are introduced in a planned sequence, building from simple to complex.
Cumulative: New learning builds on previous skills and is continually reviewed.
Multi-sensory: Students use their eyes (to see the letters), ears (to hear the sounds), mouths (to say the words), and hands (to write the letters).
In a K–2 classroom, this might look like:
Introducing a new phoneme-grapheme pattern during whole group (e.g., "Today we’re learning that ph makes the /f/ sound.")
Practicing it through decoding and encoding with words like phone, elephant, and graph
Reinforcing with word sorts, blending drills, dictation, and decodable texts
Following up with small-group review based on assessment data
Even in upper grades, phonics instruction is essential for students who struggle with multisyllabic words or have decoding gaps. This is particularly true for students with dyslexia or those who missed foundational instruction during early elementary.
A Note on Balance
Phonics is not the entirety of reading instruction—but it is necessary. It’s the part of the puzzle that helps students crack the code. Once decoding becomes automatic, students can shift more energy to comprehension and vocabulary building.
Think of it this way: phonics is not a “worksheet” activity—it’s a bridge to meaning. If we want students to read rich texts independently, they need a reliable method for figuring out unfamiliar words. Phonics gives them that.
Final Thoughts
As teachers in the Central Valley, we work with an incredibly diverse range of learners. When we prioritize strong, systematic phonics instruction—alongside oral language, vocabulary, and comprehension work—we give our students a path to literacy that doesn’t depend on guesswork.
If you’re not sure where to start or if your current phonics routines need refining, I’d be happy to help you build a sequence, look at student data, or co-teach a lesson.
Because when students know the code, they can read anything.
