Since English is weird, it is easy to get tripped up in attempts to present phonics instruction. As is pointed out in Phonics Faux Paus (one article in this pdf edition of American Educator), some examples that are used in teaching can be less than ideal. An alphabet chart that uses the word “xylophone” for the letter x is confusing, since the x makes the sound of /z/. The book “P is for Pterodactyl – The Worst Alphabet Book Ever” by Raj Haldar and Chris Carpenter is all about some problematic words. Another book by these authors is “No Reading Allowed: The WORST Read-Aloud Book Ever.”
The alphabet chart below from phonicsbooks.co.uk includes some advanced phonics patterns a beginning reader would not be expected to know. This company provides some pretty neat things at their free teaching resources like High Frequency Word Charts, infographics, and games. But this alphabet chart I would skip.
- apple is a two syllable word with a final stable Consonant-le syllable.
- egg is a floss rule exception
- fish includes the consonant digraph /sh/
- glove makes the “uh” Schwa sound rather than a long o you might expect if you know about Silent e
At Phonics Pow, efforts are made to avoid using words that have patterns before they are introduced in a logical sequence. Research shows that phonics instruction should be systematic (presented in a logical sequence) and explicit (directly taught). Check out the Phonics Pow Toolkit.
Phonics Pow 