Importance of Phonics in Reading

Heather Shelton

ED 626: Classroom Research

University of Alaska Southeast

 1

Abstract

Using qualitative methods, this study looks at the impact of explicit phonic instruction for 1st

grade students who struggle with word recognition or language comprehension on reading

comprehension. Understanding the importance of a solid foundation in phonics in higher grade

levels and how Scarborough's Rope breaks down the parts of reading, examining the

development of phonics was intriguing and the impact of phonemic segmentation by using

lessons that focused on beginning, middle, and end phonemes. Data was collected over a four

week period during the fall semester of 2023 with a small group of eight students. When

analyzing the data collected by pre assessment, post assessment, and student work samples,

progress was seen in word recognition and language comprehension but remained inconclusive

for reading comprehension.

 2

Introduction

Reading is an essential life skill that is taught everyday in schools and plays a major part

in life. We read at work, read to learn something new or study a new topic, read when on social

media, when out to dinner or shopping, and my favorite reading for pleasure. As a teacher, I

understand the importance of reading and being able to read well. Because I enjoy reading so

much and want to share that passion with students, I have often wondered how I can encourage a

love of reading. One thing that I kept coming back to was the importance of foundational reading

skills. The skill of reading is broken down into two main parts, comprehension and word

recognition, and if one skill is lacking reading will be a struggle. When a student struggles with

reading, they are more likely to be reluctant to read and may even dislike reading. Through

intervention and focusing on the lacking skills, reading ability can improve and students can

come to enjoy reading.

In my own classroom I have had struggling readers and have tried several interventions to

help strengthen the areas that are lacking and have seen some improvement. This led me to

wonder what can be done in younger grades to possibly prevent the lack of skill. With the lower

grade levels focusing on the two parts of reading as separate, I started looking at phonics and the

part it plays in reading. While I know that comprehension is a crucial part, knowledge of

something will only go so far in helping a student to become a successful independent reader.

They need to have the phonics part of word recognition so that the knowledge they have can be

applied to what they are reading.

Thematic Review of Literature

In reviewing the current literature, I was mainly looking at three themes relating to

phonics: small group instruction, explicit systematic instruction, and teacher instructional
 3

knowledge of phonics. Overall, there is a lot of information relating to phonics and it has been a

topic of conversation among educators for years. Research easily goes back twenty years and

most of the research is focused around the same topics with newer, updated information.

Small group instruction

This is probably the most researched area, even if it is not the main focus because it is

needed in the area of phonics. Small groups are often used to help struggling students with

specific phonic and phonemic skills, which allows for more one-on-one instruction due to the

small size of the group. The majority of small groups are four to six students with the occurrence

of up to eight students, depending upon the skill. One study focused for five weeks that looked at

if phonics flashcard drills and practice intervention was effective in improving number words

read correctly directly after instruction and were the words successfully retained when assessed

after one week. Findings were that immediate word recognition had an upward trend and that

students could immediately recall words following instruction; however many gains were lost

after a week (Noltemeyer, Joseph, & Kunesh, 2019).

While small groups are seen as needed by many, a small group might not be the best way

to help struggling students. It has been shown that phonic instruction in a small group does allow

for progress of students in their abilities however students don’t always ‘catch up’ to their

classmates because students are grouped based on their ability. It has been found that the

grouping of students by ability can be ineffective, go against what teachers view as best for the

student, and that constant change to testing and policy can be detrimental to teachers and

students (Bradbury, 2018).

Explicit and Systematic instruction

 4

These two areas are linked together in the sense that phonics skills are a necessary skill

for students to obtain and it has been shown that if students are missing skills, as they get into

higher grade, the missing skills cause learning to be harder for students. One benefit of

systematic phonics is that the order of letters and sounds do not matter, what matters is the

connection of phonemes to the letters.

Explicit instruction is the focus of just phonics for a set amount of time during the day.

This type of instruction allows for students to have targeted instruction in the different areas of

phonics, which allows for all students to work on skills and it has been shown that this type of

instruction helps in reinforcing skills for all students. In her doctoral study, Eliose Stewart (2011)

looked at the use of sequential phonics and found that a change in teaching practice to enhance

early literacy instruction and providing an alternative program for phonics instruction to

struggling readers who had not been successful with the traditional approach of teaching phonics.

It has also been found that the importance of phonics instruction is in the initial stages of

reading development, and that educators who recognize and acknowledge this reading gap and

deficit can and usually do something to help advocate for change and improve their students, and

that teachers need more assistance and training in understanding the foundations of reading and

how learning to read takes place (Knode, 2022).

Teacher instructional knowledge/ability

Having a coach/mentor with extensive experience in both teaching and phonics

instruction can help improve teacher ability in teaching phonics. When teachers understand the

importance of phonics and why teaching it is so critical to a students’ ability to become a

successful independent reader, the instruction of phonics becomes internalized and part of the

classroom routine. Receiving training and having a mentor/coach help with teachers feeling
 5

successful and seeing progress in the short term yet in the long term, there can be barriers or

issues preventing the success despite the teacher trying to implement and see success.

In her review of Language at the Speed of Sight: How We Read, Why So Many Can’t, and

What Can Be Done About It by Mark Seidonberg, Elizabeth Knode (2022) states that teachers

need more assistance and training in understanding the foundations of reading and how learning

to read takes place. This statement is supported by another study that shows how a phonics

mentoring model can be extremely effective in impacting both teachers and students. Teachers

who had begun with limited knowledge and skills and had become proficient by the end of the

year while students showed growth as well (Ehri & Flugman, 2017).

As the view of education changes and policies are created and put into place, the

importance of phonics will remain the same. The use of small groups to assist struggling readers

will continue to be used, based on the research showing that there is improvement with the

focused one-on-one instruction and because of the new phrase “Science of Reading”, the

knowledge that explicit and systematic phonics instruction is showing to be an effective and

crucial part of a students phonic foundation is being brought forward. The one area that will

continue to struggle is teachers receiving adequate training and being allowed the chance to

make changes to benefit not only the students but the teacher as the educator.

Phonics will continue to be found as a crucial skill that needs to be solid by the end of 1st

grade and if a student isn’t strong in phonics, they will struggle for the rest of their education.

There are many more ways to help support and as research into the themes discussed and other

areas continues, the importance of phonics will still remain the same.

Theoretical Framework
 6

In trying to understand the reasoning behind why higher elementary aged students are

one or more grade levels below in reading and how as a teacher I can help strengthen and close

the gap, everything kept coming back to phonics and how connected it is to everything relating

to reading, including comprehension. There is something to be said about the importance of

phonics instruction in the initial stages of reading development, and that educators who

recognize and acknowledge this reading gap and deficit can and usually do something to help

advocate for change and improve their students understanding of the foundations of reading and

how learning to read takes place (Knode, 2022). After making the transition from a higher

elementary grade down to a lower grade, the truth in this statement has started to become clear

and prompted the desire to learn more about how to take effective steps towards improvement.

Before looking at the importance of phonics in reading, first I need to look at the stages

of reading development. There are many ideas on how a child learns to read and while there are

several theories to go along with these ideas they all connect back to two main ideas, the simple

view of reading and an active view of reading, or the science of reading. The simple view of

reading has two parts, word recognition or decoding and comprehension. In 1986 Gough and

Turner presented this simple view of reading along with a formula, decoding x language

comprehension= reading comprehension, that helped to show that when decoding and language

comprehension are used together reading comprehension occurs. While these skills do not come

naturally they can be obtained through systematic instruction with the understanding that

repetition and intervention help strengthen these skills so that children can be successful when

reading independently.

Now the science of reading (active view) includes the two areas of word recognition and

language comprehension, this theory recognizes that there is more to each area and that these two
 7

areas need to connect for children to become skilled, independent readers. Simply stated

language comprehension and word recognition have sub parts to each area that children need to

develop in order to read. When children enter school, language comprehension and word

recognition start out as two separate entities that need to be taught and built upon. By the time

children are in the 3rd grade, these two entities have started to merge together and will continue

to do so throughout school and adulthood. Dr. Hollis Scarborough came up with the idea of a

reading rope in the late nineties as a way to help parents understand the various skills needed for

their child to master reading. In 2001, Scarborough’s Reading Rope was published and it became

a new tool used to help teachers and parents alike in learning about what is needed for a child to

become a skilled reader. (Staake, 2023).

In building upon these skills, intervention is discussed in both reading views because

there will always be children who struggle and need help. Each sub section of word recognition

and language comprehension must be strong in order for a child to feel successful when reading

and the most common way to help struggling children is through intervention. Both the simple

view and active view of reading discuss the use of small groups and explicit, systematic

instruction as effective means of intervention to help strengthen the lower areas a child is

struggling with.

Small groups

Small groups are often used to help struggling students with specific phonic and

phonemic skills, which allows for more one-on-one instruction due to the small size of the group.

The majority of small groups are four to six students however there can be up to eight students,

depending upon the focused skill. These small groups run for about thirty minutes, two to four

times a week, and often have focused drills as part of the instruction. Noltemeyer, Joseph, &
 8

Kunesh (2019) did a focused study for five weeks, looking to see if phonics flashcard drills and

practice intervention was effective in improving number words read correctly directly after small

group instruction and if the words successfully retained when assessed after one week. They

found that immediate word recognition had an upward trend and that students could immediately

recall words following instruction; however the gains made were lost after a week. It was

speculated that the loss was due to focus words not being reinforced once students had learned a

word.

While small groups are seen as needed by the majority, there are some that say a small

group might not be the best way to help struggling students. It has been shown that phonic

instruction in a small group does allow for progress of students in their abilities however they

don’t always ‘catch up’ to their classmates due to being grouped based on phonic ability. It has

been found that the grouping of students by ability can be ineffective, go against what teachers

view as best for the student, and that constant change to testing and policy can be detrimental to

teachers and students (Bradbury, 2018).

Explicit and Systematic Instruction

In the majority of the research relating to phonics you will find that explicit phonic

instruction and systematic phonic instruction are linked in studies as they relate to each other.

Explicit instruction is the teaching of only phonics for a set amount of time in the day while

systematic instruction is focused on connecting phonemes to letters, in no specific order.

When looking into the impact of phonic instruction, there is a lot of information about

explicit instruction and how receiving targeted instruction in a specific area of phonics helps to

build student skills in the small group setting. While the majority of explicit instruction occurs in

a small group setting, it can be used in the whole group setting to not only build but also
 9

reinforce skills for all students. In her doctoral study, Eliose Stewart (2011) looked at the use of

sequential phonics and found that a change in teaching practice to enhance early literacy

instruction and providing an alternative program for phonics instruction to struggling readers

who had not been successful with the traditional approach of teaching phonics.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate if students struggling with any part of word

recognition or language comprehension will benefit from explicit phonic instruction in both

small and whole group to help strengthen their reading comprehension skills? I am also

wondering if by having explicit phonic based instruction twice a day, is it possible for these

struggling students to catch up to their peers in decoding and language comprehension? Lastly,

will on level students comprehension skills be affected in any way by receiving explicit phonic

instruction in one setting instead of two?

Phonics will continue to be found as a crucial skill that needs to be solid by the end of 1st

grade and if a student isn’t strong in phonics, they will struggle for the rest of their education. As

the view of education changes, policies are created and put into place, and the research

continues, the importance of phonics will remain the same. The use of small groups to assist

struggling readers will continue to be used, based on current research showing improvement with

the focused one-on-one instruction and because of the new phrase “Science of Reading”, the

knowledge that explicit and systematic phonics instruction is an effective and crucial part of a

students phonic foundation is being brought forward.

Methodology

I am conducting an action classroom research investigation using qualitative data

collection and analysis procedures to evaluate if students struggling with any part of word
 10

recognition or language comprehension will benefit from explicit phonic instruction in both

small and whole group to help strengthen their reading comprehension skills.

The two views of reading, simple and active, are closely aligned about the skills of word

recognition and language comprehension. Both areas have subsections and each sub section must

be strong in order for a child to feel successful when reading and the most common way to help

struggling children is through intervention. Both views of reading discuss the use of small groups

as an effective means of intervention to help strengthen the lower areas a child is struggling with.

This research investigation is focused on the active view of reading specifically on phonics,

which is a subsection of word recognition. The use of Scarboroughs’ Rope will be a guide as

students will also need some work in comprehension to help in committing what was learned

from short term to long term memory.

Participants are a small group of eight 1st graders at Ptarmigan Elementary located in

Anchorage, AK. The purpose of the small group is for reading intervention (WIN) and these

specific students were chosen based on their score from the mClass Beginning of the Year

(BOY) assessments in areas of phonics, phonemic awareness, and reading ability. All students

need work on phonological awareness and sounding out and blending. Four of these students are

currently in my own classroom and the other four are from two other 1st grade classrooms.

A week before WIN groups begin, I will pull each of the eight students individually to

administer the pre-assessment. Once WIN begins, each student will be in my classroom for thirty

minutes, four days a week for four weeks. Lessons have been pre-set by mClass and I will be

adding learning activities to help reinforce the skill or skills learned. Data will be collected using

the following methods: Observations and Field notes, Assessments, and Student Documents.

Each of these methods were chosen to help track and show student progress or lack of progress.
 11

Observations and Field Notes

Observations will occur Tuesday through Thursday from 12:30-1:00 pm, during the WIN

block, in my classroom. During the mClass lesson, I will be doing informal observations of

student engagement and after the lesson, I will take field notes on how students are doing with

the assigned activity related to the skill being taught along with how they did during the lesson. I

will also be taking field notes of the four students in my own classroom to see if the skills being

worked on during WIN are being transferred over from short term to long term memory.

Sources of Assessment Data

A pre-assessment will be used to establish a baseline and the same pre-assessment will be

used as a post assessment. Pre-assessment will be given the week before WIN groups begin and

the post assessment will be given after four weeks to evaluate if students have increased in

phonological awareness and decoding skills.

Documents

The documents to be analyzed are writing and spelling samples using VC and VCV

words. These documents were chosen because student progress can be tracked to see if lessons

and activities are successful or not and may need to be changed.

Data Results

WIN took place in my classroom setting, with a group of eight students. Four of the

students are familiar with the classroom as they are enrolled in my classroom and the other four

students came from two different classrooms and were unfamiliar with my classroom setting.

Data was collected by pre and post assessment, observation of participation during lessons, and

student work samples. WIN took place in the early afternoon, four days a week.
 12

Two pre-assessments were administered on two different days. The first assessment given

was letter names and sounds along with naming the sound of eight digraphs and double letters

done at the student pace. The list of letters for name/sound identification had ‘Q’ and ‘Y’ omitted

and the digraph ‘QU’ was included as one of the eight sounds in the digraph/double letter

section. The second assessment was a one minute timed reading from a preset list of CVC words.

Both pre-assessments came from the Amplify CKLA Skills Unit 1 curriculum.

Student E D A L M J R G
Pre-assessment 1
21/25, 23/25
Letter Name pause 'e' 21/25 23/25 25/25 22/25 23/25 sc 'v'
25/25 25/25 23/25
Letter Sound 18/25 24/25 25/25 sc 'd' sc 'f' 16/25 sc 'u'
9/10
pause
Digraph/double letter sound 8/10 5/10 'qu' 9/10 6/10 5/10 9/10
Missed letter name
Pre-assessment 2
1 min-reading CVC words 11 total 15 total 9 total 8 total 17 total
Missed entire word 5 4 0 0
Missed part of a word
Sounds missed-beginning 'd' for 'b' 'v' for 'y' 'z' for 's'
'a' for 'e',
Sounds missed-middle 'i' for 'a' 'o' for 'a' 'o' for 'a'
Sounds missed-end

Both assessments were given after a 15 minute lesson due to timing and lack of support

staff during WIN time. I started by assessing my students followed by the other four students

because my students are comfortable with the setting and it allowed the other students to become

familiar with the setting. Each week a student work sample was collected using a whiteboard or

by student writing. Two of the work samples were students sounding out and spelling words
 13

from previous lessons and the other two samples were student made sentences using words they

learned from lessons.

Lessons had been focused on isolating the beginning, middle, end sounds in decodable

words. In the first sound spelling, students were working on beginning sounds and it was the

second time this activity had been done. The second sound spelling was given after working on

middle and end sounds. Both sound spelling samples were completed at the end of the lesson as

an exit ticket for the lesson.

Sound Spelling 1
E D A L M J R G

bed x x x x x x x

wave x x x x x x x

fire x x x x x x x

jar x x x x ‘g’ x x ‘g’

Sound Spelling 2
E D A M J R

fit ‘o’ for ‘i’ ‘i’ omitted x x x x

sat x x x ‘t’ omitted

mat ‘u’ for ‘a’ x x mta

rat ‘v’ for ‘t’ x x x

fat ‘t’ omitted x x x x

tab ‘d’ for ‘b’ ‘d’ for ‘b’ x ‘d’ for ‘b’

it x x x

frog ‘f’ omitted x x

beef x

with ‘f’ for ‘th’

 14

Student sentences were completed during the last two weeks of data collection, after a

lesson had occurred. Words used in both samples had been reviewed during the lesson and

students helped in identifying words for the word bank. Students were encouraged to use

“creative spelling” or spell the word how it sounded as they worked on their sentences and if

they were struggling, I would help by sounding out the word for them.

Student Sentences using a word bank

Student Sentence

G Dad, wiye my cat go to the vet (dad why did my cat go to the vet)

M Dad is tiyrd bcus he is tiyrd (dad is tired because he is tired)

D To cat i cot is

L The sit The cat and dog.

E Me and my dad

Student Sentences using learned words

Student Sentence

L Of dad sit bat a dad non the cat

M Dad is third of all of his wrk dad had to sit ban

R Fithso th men rasis th fis (the man is catching the fish)

J I love cas (I love cats)

D Zoo wit to fh sisov. I lv ces. (Zoo when to the other day. I love monkeys)

E The wrld i round (the world is round)

The post assessment, as the pre-assessment, came from the Amplify CKLA Skills Unit 1

curriculum. The post assessment used a mix of CVC and CCVC words as lessons were

beginning to include CCVC words towards the end of the data collection period. Due to time
 15

constraints, only the preset word list was given and the letter name/sound assessment was

omitted.

Student Table
Post Assessment E D A L M J R G
1 min-reading CVC,
CCVC words 19 11 13 9
Missed entire word 1 1
2-droppe 2-droppe
d a letter d a letter
when when
Missed part of a 1-droppe saying saying
word d 't' word word
2-'f' for
Sounds 1-'b' for 's', 'p' for
missed-beginning 'd' 'd'
3-'i' for
'o', 't' for
Sounds 'p', 'd' for
missed-middle 'b'
2-'d' for
'b', 'b' for
Sounds missed-end 1 'd'
Self correct any part
of word 1 1-'i'
Read word by:
Sound out aloud,
blend, say word
Sound out aloud,
say word x x x x
Pause, say word
Say word x

Data Analysis

Administering the pre-assessments to my students first does not appear to have an effect

on the first assessment of letter names and sounds however there was a difference in the second

assessment showing that my students were able to read a higher number of words with fewer
 16

errors. Both pre-assessments worked because I was able to gain a baseline of what students knew

and it gave an opportunity to modify the lessons to benefit the whole group.

Lessons were preset by mClass and after reviewing the activities in each lesson, I

rearranged the order of activities on some days to focus on what students needed based on the

pre-assessment, which was isolating the beginning and middle sound, along with adding in my

own activity that helped connect what was being taught to things the students were interested in.

Changing the order of activities and really focusing on the beginning and middle sounds

appeared to help based on the post assessment as there were fewer missed phonemes.

As lessons progressed the students started to progress in their ability to identify the

sounds auditorily. I wanted to test if they could hear a sound and then write it instead of

responding and at first students were successful however after having no school for a week, there

was a decrease in correct phoneme identification for middle and end sounds. Based on this,

lesson activities were modified to mainly focus on middle and end sounds. Because students

were struggling in writing, instead of having students write words that were given during the

lesson, students started working on writing a sentence that included the words. This showed

some progress as students were given some freedom but also able to put the skills they were

developing into use.

It was expected that word recognition skills would increase and student sentences and the

post assessment showed that a small amount of progress was made in regards to correctly

identifying the beginning phoneme in a CVC or CCVC word. Middle phoneme identification

showed no progress or a decrease in ability for some students while the end phoneme showed a

need, which was unexpected. Another unexpected thing that occurred was students dropping the

second phoneme in CCVC words when saying the word after correctly sounding out each
 17

phoneme. The decrease in progress for middle phonemes along with dropping the second sound

in CCVC words caused me to question if students were possibly struggling due to instruction

techniques in the other two classrooms as four of the students were not in my classroom for

whole group phonic instruction.

Data Discussion

In looking at data collected and reviewing the research on explicit phonic instruction, the

importance but also the harm of small group instruction was seen. The four students who were in

my class were receiving both small group and whole group instruction that was consistent while

the other four students had to learn my style of teaching and still are learning it. The potential

harm of a small group that I saw was some frustration or confusion from students. There were a

few that were frustrated to be working on phonemic segmentation because they felt that they

didn’t need the focus because they could already read and claimed to be bored. Other students

seemed to become confused and regress as the weeks went on. Part of this could be related to the

fact that students were having to learn a new teaching style and how to work with some new

students.

Based on the data, half of my research question was answered successfully and the other

half is still unanswered. When looking at how the data collected supported my research question,

it showed that having explicit phonic instruction on a skill in a small group was beneficial and

that for some, both small group and whole group instruction helped. The only part that was

unanswered is if reading comprehension was strengthened. This could be due to the short amount

of time but also not much was done to test if comprehension of word meaning was gained. I was

expecting to see progress from the explicit phonic instruction but more time will be needed for
 18

comprehension skills. Student writing did show some word understanding but not much was

done with reading and then writing about it in the small group.

As I continue with instructing this group, I want to try and incorporate more independent

and partner reading within the weekly lessons so that students have an opportunity to practice the

skills they are learning because the auditory skill is there but being able to write what was heard

has been a struggle for all students.

Conclusion

As this study came to a close, I am interested to see what progress can be made by

continuing to focus on phonemic segmentation and how reading comprehension could improve

by incorporating things that students are interested in. A new question that arose from this study

is can students develop their reading skill and confidence by practicing phonemic skills gained

through reading a book of their choosing and then summarizing what was read.

This study showed me just how important phonics really are for students as the workload

continues to increase throughout the year. I will continue to strengthen student skills in both the

whole group setting and small group setting as both show some merit for students. A new

practice that I have considered incorporating is having students lead a small group phonics

instruction, do more partner reading, and have reading stations once a week that focus on

reviewing and refining different word recognition and reading comprehension skills.

Overall the importance of phonics has been reinforced and continues to show that if a

student struggles now, they will continue to struggle as they go throughout their academic career

and into their adult life. The reading skills learned in 1st grade are the foundation that students

will continue to build upon during their life and this is when reading intervention is critical and
 19

of the utmost importance for struggling students so that they can become confident, skilled

readers who understand that reading is not only for learning but can be done for pleasure as well.
 20

References

Bradbury, A. (2018). The Impact of the Phonics Screening Check on grouping by ability: A

‘Necessary Evil’ amid the policy storm. British Educational Research Journal, 44(4),

539-556. https://research.ebsco.com/c/77a4d6/viewer/pdf/ksfr6qyktj

Bradley, R. & Noell, G. (2018). The Effectiveness of Supplemental Phonics Instruction Employing

Constant Time Delay Instruction for Struggling Readers. Psychology in the Schools, 55(7),

880-892. https://research-ebsco-com.ezproxy.uas.alaska.edu/c/77a4d6/viewer/pdf/4dz2spstdr

Dahl, K., Scharer, P., Lawson, L., Grogan, P. (1999). Phonics Instruction and Student Achievement

in Whole Language First Grade Classrooms. Reading Research Quarterly, 34(3), 312-341.

https://research-ebsco-com.ezproxy.uas.alaska.edu/c/77a4d6/viewer/pdf/k4wy7yylvv

Ehri, L. & Flugman, B. (2017). Mentoring Teachers in Systematic Phonics Instruction:

Effectiveness of an intensive year-long program for kindergarten through 3rd grade teachers

and their students. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 31, 425-456.

https://research-ebsco-com.ezproxy.uas.alaska.edu/c/77a4d6/viewer/pdf/kdinhjviqv

Flynn, N., Powell, D., Stainthorp, R., and Stuart, M. (2021). Training teachers for phonics and

early reading: developing research‐informed practice. Journal of Research and Reading,

44(2), 301-318.

https://research-ebsco-com.ezproxy.uas.alaska.edu/c/77a4d6/viewer/html/i4gljy3lrj

Knode, E. (2022) Critical [Review of the book Language at the Speed of Sight: How We Read,

Why So Many Can’t, and What Can Be Done About It by Mark Seidonberg]. Literacy Practice

and Research, 47, 2.

https://research-ebsco-com.ezproxy.uas.alaska.edu/c/77a4d6/viewer/pdf/gxig3m4adn?proxyA

pplied=true
 21

Noltemeyer, A., Joseph, L., Kunesh, C. (2019) Effects of Supplemental Small Group Phonics

Instruction on Kindergartners’ Word Recognition Performance. Reading Improvement, 56(3),

149-160. https://research-ebsco-com.ezproxy.uas.alaska.edu/c/77a4d6/viewer/pdf/fxcqh6g6ab

Shaffer, G., Campbell, P., Rakes, S. (2000). Investigating the status and perceived importance of

explicit phonic instruction in elementary classrooms. Reading Improvement, 37(3), 110-118.

https://research-ebsco-com.ezproxy.uas.alaska.edu/c/77a4d6/viewer/html/tnlu7xisyf?proxyAp

plied=true

Stewart, E. (2011) The Impact of Systematic and Multisensory Phonics Instructional Design on

Decoding Skills of Struggling Readers. (UMI 3443911). [Doctoral Study, Walden University]

ProQuest Dissertation Publishing.

https://www.proquest.com/openview/7e328c6ebd0aafef8018bfbd9b453aa0/1?pq-origsite=gsc

holar&cbl=18750

Syuhadi, M. (2020) Decoding Ability of Students with Visual Impairment Under Systematic and

Explicit Phonics Instruction. Indonesian Journal of English Teaching, 9(2), 148-161.

https://jurnalftk.uinsby.ac.id/index.php/IJET/article/view/552/301
 22

Appendices