Influential Reading Group Makes It Clear: Students Need Systematic, Explicit Phonics - Teaching Now - Education Week Teacher | Professional Learning for Busy Educators | Scoop.it
From blogs.edweek.org - July 26, 2019 6:08 AM
The International Literacy Association has put out a new brief endorsing "systematic and explicit" phonics in all early reading instruction.

"English is an alphabetic language. We have 26 letters. These letters, in various combinations, represent the 44 sounds in our language," the ILA brief released last week reads. "Teaching students the basic letter-sound combinations gives them access to sounding out approximately 84% of the words in English print." 

It's a strong statement from an influential, big-tent organization whose members, which include teachers, researchers, and parents, have traditionally held a wide range of views on reading approaches.

"It's kind of a refreshing piece," said Timothy Shanahan, a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "A lot of people think ILA is an anti-phonics group, but it's a large group."