What is phonics and word analysis?

Phonics and word analysis in plain words

Phonics is the pairing of letters with the sounds they make. A student who knows the pairings can take a word apart into sounds and push them back together, and that reading is called decoding.

Two letters often work as one. A digraph makes a single sound: sh, ch, th, wh, ph, ck, so the ch in chin is one sound and the word holds 3 sounds and 4 letters. A blend is two consonants that keep both sounds: cl, br, st, tr, sk. In stack, st gives /s/ and /t/ and ck gives one /k/, so the word holds 4 sounds.

A vowel team is two letters that spell one vowel sound: ai, oa, ee, ow. In boat the oa is one sound. A few teams spell more than one sound, so the reader tries each and keeps the one that makes a real word: ow reads one way in cow and another in snow.

Word analysis is the other half. Many words are built from a root that carries the main meaning, with a prefix in front or a suffix behind. In replayed the root is play, re- means again, and -ed marks the past. A prefix changes the meaning and a suffix changes the form, as in stop and stopped.

Phonics sits on the sounds and beats of a spoken word, which the phonemes and syllables lesson takes first. ETS lists understanding grade-level phonics, such as digraphs, consonant blends and vowel teams, and word analysis skills in decoding words, among the topics for the Reading & Writing subtest (5758). Every example on this page is an English word, because ETS administers the test in English.

Why a paraeducator uses this in class

A student who can decode spends attention on the meaning of a text instead of the spelling of its words. That is why phonics is taught even when the lesson is a reading passage: one unfamiliar word can stop a student three lines into a paragraph, and the comprehension behind it never happens.

In a small group one word takes seconds: cover it, say the parts, blend them, say the word, then read the sentence to check it. A student who hears a decode modelled once copies the routine on the next word.

It also shows where a student takes a shortcut. A student who says every letter by name, r-a-i-n, is naming letters rather than reading a word, and a student who guesses from the picture is not reading. Both habits break on a new topic.

Word analysis pays off across a whole topic: once a student knows play in replay, playful and replayed, each new word built on that root is one known part and one new part.

Worked example

A student reads the sentence "The bus stopped at the corner" and stops on the word stopped.

1. Chunk the letters: st, o, pp, ed.
2. Check the pairs. st is a blend, so it keeps two sounds, /s/ and /t/. The double p still gives one sound.
3. Check the ending. The -ed follows the voiceless sound /p/, so it adds one /t/ sound.
4. Blend the parts: /s/ /t/ /o/ /p/ /t/.
5. Say the word: stopped, a real word that makes sense in the sentence.
6. Count it: 7 letters, 5 sounds.

The check at step 5 is the one students skip: a blend read in a hurry comes out wrong, and a word that sounds wrong means going back to the chunks.

Practice questions

Continue learning

• Phonemes and syllables: the sounds and beats under the letters.
• Helping students read: the wider support a struggling reader needs.
• Context clues: checking a decoded word against the sentence.

Try it on a full practice test

Once you can take a word apart, work through the free ParaPathways practice test.

Our study book covers every skill on both subtests, in English and Spanish.