6 Strategies for Teaching Phonics to Older Students
When people think of phonics, they often picture young children learning to sound out words. But what happens when older students haven’t mastered these essential skills?
Teaching phonics to older students is critical for struggling readers, newcomer students, and English learners (ELs). This blog will explore why phonics for older students remains important, effective strategies for building reading skills, and resources to make instruction meaningful and age-appropriate.
Why Phonics Matters for Older Students
Research has shown that explicit instruction focusing on decoding, spelling, and understanding multisyllabic words is crucial for learners. Without such support, students may continue to face reading challenges that impede their academic progress.
While early phonics instruction lays the groundwork for reading, some students reach the upper grades without mastering these essential skills due to interrupted education, limited exposure to English, or a lack of explicit instruction.
When teaching phonics to middle school and beyond, it’s essential to use materials that respect students’ maturity and learning needs.
Many traditional phonics methods are designed for young children and may feel too immature for older students. To be effective, instruction should be structured in a way that is aligned with their cognitive development.
Phonics instruction is equally vital for middle and high school newcomers. These students may require additional support to grasp the complexities of alphabetic principles in English, which can differ significantly from their native languages.
Tailored phonics programs can bridge this gap, enabling ELLs to improve their reading skills and access grade-level content more easily.
6 Effective Strategies for Teaching Phonics to Older Students
Implementing phonics instruction for older learners requires approaches that respect their maturity while addressing their specific learning needs. The following strategies and resources can help you develop your older students’ foundational phonics skills.
1. Assess Individual Needs
Begin by evaluating each student’s abilities to identify specific areas of need. Many students have varying degrees of phonics knowledge. Using assessments such as decoding inventories can help you create targeted phonics lessons for older students.
2. Use Age-Appropriate Materials
Older students who struggle with reading often feel self-conscious about using materials designed for younger children. To address this, select resources that are both engaging and developmentally appropriate.
High-interest, low-reading-level (hi-lo) books are designed to engage older readers while accommodating lower reading levels. While they are not strictly phonics-based, hi-lo books can support phonics instruction by providing accessible text that reinforces decoding practice in a meaningful context.
Pairing hi-lo books with targeted phonics instruction can help students apply their skills in age-appropriate reading materials. Here are some recommended hi-lo resources:
- YALSA’s Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers – The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) curates an annual list of books to capture the interest of reluctant teen readers.
- Reading Rockets’ High-Low Books for Children – This resource provides an overview of hi-lo books and recommendations for struggling readers, helping educators and parents select appropriate texts.
- Austin Public Library Hi-Lo Books for Teens– The Austin Public Library compiled a comprehensive collection of hi-lo books, including fiction and nonfiction titles.
- School Library Journal’s Hi-Lo Books for Striving Middle Grade and YA Readers – School Library Journal has a curated list of 24 hi-lo books aimed at middle school and young adult readers, featuring stories across various genres.
- We Are Teachers’ Best Books for Reluctant Readers – We Are Teachers created a list of recommended books, including hi-lo titles and graphic novels, that will interest struggling readers of all ages.
By incorporating hi-lo books, you can provide older students with reading materials that are engaging and appropriate for their developmental levels.
3. Implement Multisensory Instruction
Multisensory instructional techniques can enhance phonics instruction. This approach has been shown to improve word reading accuracy and boost confidence among older struggling readers.
Some examples of multisensory phonics strategies include:
- Elkonin Boxes: Use tokens or manipulatives to break words into phonemes.
- Tapping Out Sounds: Physically tap fingers on the table or arm to segment sounds.
- Colored Overlays: Use tinted reading strips to help focus on decoding without visual distractions.
- Sand or Textured Writing: Write words in sand, salt trays, or on textured surfaces to add a tactile element to spelling practice.
- Magnetic Letters and Word Building: Use magnetic letters to manipulate and build words, reinforcing spelling and phoneme-grapheme connections.
- Chanting and Rhythmic Reading: Use rhythmic repetition, songs, or chants to reinforce phonics skills.
- Highlighter Strategy: Have students highlight specific phonics patterns, prefixes, or suffixes in printed text to build pattern recognition.
- Interactive Foldables: Create flipbooks or interactive notebooks to break down syllables, morphemes, or phonics rules.
By embedding multisensory activities into instruction, you can design lessons that reinforce key phonics skills for middle school and high school students.
4. Focus on Morphological Awareness
Morphology instruction supports older students in recognizing patterns within words, which can make reading multisyllabic words more manageable. While not a replacement for phonics, teaching prefixes, suffixes, and root words can complement phonics instruction by helping students break down unfamiliar words and understand their meanings.
Morphological awareness enhances decoding and comprehension, providing learners with additional tools to navigate complex texts.
5. Incorporate Phonics into Content-Area Instruction
To effectively support middle and high school students, phonics instruction must go beyond basic drills and isolated word lists.
Phonics for older students should be integrated into meaningful lessons that show them the real-world value of decoding skills. When phonics instruction is woven into academic content, students not only strengthen their reading abilities but also gain access to higher-level concepts.
This approach also helps build academic language, which is crucial for all learners but especially for ELs. Academic language includes subject-specific vocabulary and the ability to comprehend and produce language that goes beyond everyday conversation.
Incorporating phonics into all content areas allows students to apply their decoding skills in varied contexts. While phonics instruction helps students break down words by sound, understanding word structure through morphology can further support their ability to decode and comprehend complex vocabulary.
Below are some examples of how to include phonics and morphology in various curricular areas:
- Science: Breaking down terms like photosynthesis into photo (light) and synthesis (combining) helps students recognize familiar word parts and grasp scientific concepts more easily.
- History: Teaching the meanings of Greek and Latin roots, such as democracy (demos meaning people, -cracy meaning government), supports comprehension.
- Math: Decoding mathematical terms like quadrilateral by identifying quad (four) and lateral (side) aids in understanding geometric concepts.
By embedding phonics into other areas, you can create opportunities for students to strengthen their decoding skills while engaging with rigorous, grade-level content. This ensures that phonics instruction helps students develop the vocabulary needed for academic success.
6. Digital Tools for Fun Phonics Practice
Consistent practice with reading and spelling activities tailored to each student’s needs reinforces phonics skills. For older students, it’s critical to provide practice opportunities that are age-appropriate and connected to real-world literacy tasks.
Websites like Education.com and Smart Boarding School offer interactive phonics games designed for learners up to grade 4. These platforms provide skill-building activities that help reinforce phonics concepts in a way that feels relevant and enjoyable.
Utilizing interactive activities, technology, and phonics games for middle school and beyond can boost practice sessions.
Tips for Supporting Newcomer Students
Newcomer ESL (English as a second language) students face the dual challenge of acquiring a new language while adapting to a different educational system. Phonics instruction plays a pivotal role in their literacy development.
We’ve compiled a list of top strategies to develop phonics for older ESL students:
Create a Welcoming Environment
Establish a classroom atmosphere that celebrates cultural diversity and encourages risk-taking in language learning. A supportive environment fosters confidence and lowers students’ affective filters which promotes better learning. Some ways to create a welcoming classroom include displaying bilingual signage, allowing students to share their backgrounds, and incorporating multicultural literature.
Scaffold Instruction
Supporting newcomer students as they develop literacy skills requires intentional scaffolding that bridges language barriers, builds confidence, and provides access to grade-level content. Utilizing newcomer resources, such as picture dictionaries and bilingual glossaries, can further support language acquisition and comprehension.
Gradually reducing support over time as students gain proficiency ensures they become independent learners. Scaffolding techniques include:
- Sentence Frames: Offering structured sentence starters.
- Graphic Organizers: Using Venn diagrams, flowcharts, and mind maps.
- Anchor Charts: Displaying phonics rules and patterns on classroom walls.
Explore these Continental resources to support scaffolding:
- Ready, Set, Go! Newcomers Kits grades 3–12
- Picture Dictionary
- Graphic organizers—FREE printables!
Embrace Students’ Native Language
Whenever possible, draw connections between English phonics and students’ native languages. Many languages share common phonetic principles, and pointing out similarities can help learners grasp English phonics more easily.
Teaching phonics to older students, including newcomer and secondary ESL learners, is a critical component of literacy education. By implementing age-appropriate, research-based strategies, you can equip students with the decoding skills necessary for reading fluency and academic success.
Whether through structured phonics intervention programs, engaging activities, or meaningful connections to content-area learning, phonics instruction is a powerful tool for supporting older struggling readers on their journey to literacy.
Our interactive eBooks feature engaging, age-appropriate lessons for teaching phonics and word study skills to your older English learners (ELs/ELLs).
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