EDU 371: Phonics Based Reading & Decoding week 2 DQ 2

7 Onsets, Rimes, and Basic Phonic Patterns

“I use word families because I know they work,” says Ellen, a first‐grade teacher. Looking into Ellen’s classroom about halfway through the school year, you would see print everywhere—​students’ stories, dictated texts, and lots and lots of word family charts. “We try to work with one or two word families a week. After each is introduced, we write down all the words we know that belong to it.” Ellen points to one chart.

Look at the ‐an chart. At first we brainstormed words like Dan, man, tan, ran, and can. But later we added longer words that students thought of at home, either with their parents’ help, or through their own reading—​we added words like Annie, Anthony, candle, panda, and Santa. What students learn about word families can help them figure out longer words as well as the short one‐syllable words. They are intrigued by the word families and use them all the time in their decoding and spelling.

Phonics is a “way of teaching reading and spelling that stresses symbol‐sound relationships” (Harris and Hodges 1995, p. 186). Essentially, this definition suggests teaching children about the consistent relationship between written symbols and sounds. Traditionally this has meant teaching children how individual sounds or blends of consonant sounds are represented by their corresponding letters—​for example, that the short a sound is represented by the letter a as in bat, that the long e sound is sometimes represented by the letter combination ee, that the blended consonant sound is represented by the letters bl, or that the k sound is sometimes represented by the letter combination ck. This approach to phonics has helped many young readers develop a strategy for decoding words.

However, research by Theodore Clymer (1963/1996) casts doubt on the effectiveness of teaching children letter associations or rules for individual sounds. Clymer and his associates gathered phonics generalizations that were taught in various reading programs of the time. Then they found those words, taught in the elementary grades, that contained letters related to the generalizations, and examined the extent to which the letter (or letter combination) actually yielded the appropriate sound, or fit the rule. In other words, the researchers asked, “Would applying this rule help a reader decode this word?” Clymer found that a significant number of the generalizations did not consistently result in the appropriate word. As a result, he questioned the wisdom of actually teaching some of these generalizations. For example, one of the most renowned of all phonics generalizations states that “when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking and usually says its name”; when a word has two adjacent vowels, the long sound of the first vowel is heard and the sound of the second is not heard. After close examination of words that might fit this rule, Clymer found that over half did not yield the intended sound! (For example, the generalization does not apply to many common words such as canoe, guest, height, said, and steak.) A large number of other generalizations also were suspect according to Clymer’s research. Clymer also found that some rules, although highly reliable, applied to so few words that learning the rule hardly seemed worth the effort.

Does this mean that phonics should be thrown out of the school curriculum? Clearly not. Clymer’s (1963/1996) work suggests that phonics generalizations, especially those that are applied after the initial consonant(s) in words or syllables, may be troublesome. Moreover, the notion of going from sound to symbol may also be questionable. Readers begin with the written word and then think about sound representation. Perhaps this is also the appropriate direction for phonics teaching—​to begin with written symbols and then move to sounds.

What written symbols should we teach? Let’s start with letters that begin words and syllables, since they are regular, for the most part. To be more precise, the written consonants that precede the vowel in syllables (remember that every syllable has only one vowel sound, unless a diphthong is present) are fairly consistent in the sounds they represent. When a t begins a word or syllable and is followed immediately by the vowel, that t almost universally produces the t sound. The same is true of the consonant blend bl and the digraph sh. Readers can be confident that those letters represent those sounds.

Thus, one area of great consistency for phonics instruction is the consonants, consonant blends, and consonant digraphs that precede the vowel in words and syllables. These are onsets, and their dependability means they can be taught to beginning readers with confidence. Readers can use them. Moreover, initial word onsets tend to be much more useful in recognizing words. As readers our eyes are drawn to the beginnings of words.

For the most part then, traditional phonics instruction for onsets works well. Usually, beginning consonants are taught by associating them with concepts, pictures, or objects that begin with those letters and the sounds normally associated with the letters. For example:

b: bat, ball, barn

d: dog, duck

g: girl, gold

sp: spot, spin

In this approach students learn the sound‐symbol relationship by associating the visual form of the letter with the beginning sound of appropriate words. Students may read texts in which most of the words begin with a targeted letter and sound.

Other similar approaches exist. In the Letter People program, for example, students are taught initial sound‐symbol correspondence through cartoon‐like characters that have bodily features (e.g., Munching Mouth) that correspond with the visual form of the letter, which is displayed on the body of the character. As with most traditional approaches, students engage in a variety of worksheet‐like activities to solidify their knowledge of these beginning letter‐sound relationships.

A similar yet novel approach to beginning letter‐sound phonics, called Action Phonics (Cunningham 1987), teaches the beginning letter‐sound associations (and letter combination–​sound associations) through physical actions or movements that begin with the targeted sound. For example, the letter b might be associated with bending.

Teaching beginning letter‐sound relationships using Action Phonics requires students to position and move their bodies, which tends to reinforce students’ memories of the letters and sounds. Students connect the written letter with the physical position and action they engage in and subsequently with the associated sound. The physical movement acts like a conceptual glue that holds the sound and the symbol together until both the letter(s) and corresponding sound(s) are thoroughly learned.

Each week begins with a review of all the previously learned consonants, actions, and sounds; then one or more new initial consonants are introduced with their accompanying movements and sounds. In one review activity, each child is assigned a consonant and displays its action to the rest of the students in the class, who guess the letter and sound. In another variation, students are gathered in a circle, with one child or the teacher acting as the leader. The leader has all the letters printed on individual cards. The leader shows one letter card to the group, and the entire group displays the accompanying action and says the sound associated with the consonant. The activity moves from one action to another as the leader moves from one letter card to another. This activity is a great way to integrate physical education into phonics and can easily be employed by the physical education teacher to reinforce students’ phonics learning.

Teachers who use Action Phonics often find students making the action at their seats when they try to read or spell words on their own. One teacher said, “They are always in motion anyway. They cannot sit quietly and listen. They just naturally move some part of their bodies. Now they all move together purposefully” (Cunningham 1987, p. 249). Action Phonics is a great way to continue teaching phonics and reading, even at those times when students’ bodies are ready to get out of their seats and move about. Three key letters and sounds to teach early on—​st (stop), s (sit), and q (quiet)—offer a natural ending to the activity.

7.2 Moving on to Patterns (Rimes) beyond Initial Letters

After beginning letters are introduced, students need to explore how to construct and decode the remainder of words. Traditionally this has meant introducing short vowel sounds and words containing them, followed by long vowel sounds and the letters that represent them; however, Clymer’s (1963/1996) analysis found generalizations about vowels problematic. Vowels can represent many sounds in English.

Some experts suggest that vowel sounds be taught, not independently, but in the context of the consonants that follow them in syllables (Adams 1990; Gaskins et al. 1996/1997; Goswami 1997, 1998). The combination of a vowel and the consonants that follow it in a syllable is called a rime, phonogram, or word family. Rimes are a productive approach to phonics for several reasons. First, rimes consist of several letters, allowing a reader to analyze a word several letters at a time, rather than analyzing letters individually. Rimes make word decoding more efficient because they allow for the use of letter combinations. Second, rimes have a high degree of consistency. When the rime ack appears in a word, it nearly always makes ak; and when it appears at the end of a syllable, it almost invariably makes it. Third, rimes are ubiquitous—​they are in all words. One common rime such as at is present in thousands of English words. In addition, by their very nature, words containing the same rime do in fact rhyme. Thus, it is not difficult to find or compose poems that feature targeted rimes for children, providing superb practice in learning those rimes. Moreover, students can write and celebrate their own rhyming poetry as they begin to understand the connection between the written rimes and their corresponding sounds.

Linguists call rimes and onsets the psychological units of the English language (Moustafa and Maldonado‐Colon 1999). Children easily notice them. Children are more able to divide spoken English words into onsets and rimes than into individual phonemes, even before they are able to read (Goswami and Bryant 1990; Trieman 1985). Marilyn Adams (1990) writes this about the use of onsets and rimes as a core element in phonics instruction:

The onset and rime are relatively easy to remember and to splice back together. Yet another advantage of exploiting phonograms in decoding instruction is that they provide a means of introducing and exercising many primer words with relative efficiency and this, as we have seen, is in marked contrast to the slowness with which words can be developed through individual letter‐sound correspondences. Again, this advantage has long been recognized in many instructional programs. (p. 321)

Indeed, research has shown that instruction in rimes (learning sets of words that contain a targeted rime) is effective for beginning and struggling readers (Goswami 2000).

As soon as students have some beginning letter‐sound relationships established, teachers can begin concurrently teaching longer letter‐sound patterns. This is where rimes come in.

By definition, each syllable contains one rime. There are many rimes worth teaching. Fry (1998) found that 353 different rimes can each generate at least two fairly common one‐syllable words. Given that so many rimes exist in English, which ones should be taught first to young students? One approach is to teach those rimes that are most productive in terms of word generation. Fry has identified 38 rimes that make 654 one‐syllable words by simply tacking on different onsets to each rime. We combined Fry’s rimes with other common rimes identified by Wylie and Durrell (1970), and added a few of our own to develop a list of 75 essential rimes (see Figure 7.1). Students can use these rimes to decode (and spell) over 1,000 one‐syllable words simply by adding an initial consonant, blend, or digraph. That’s pretty phenomenal. Furthermore, those 75 rimes can be used to decode several thousand longer, multisyllabic words. Teaching approximately two rimes per week, the entire set of rimes can be taught in kindergarten and first grade.

Beyond this initial set, which rimes should be taught at different grade levels? Although instructional materials may provide a rime‐teaching sequence, we prefer that teachers themselves establish their own rime curriculum. Here’s how it might work:

• Teachers get together in grade‐level groups—​K through grade 3 or 4.

• Using a set of rimes (see Appendix) , each grade‐level group identifies 50 to 100 rimes that are appropriate to teach at its grade level.

• Lists are analyzed and cross‐checked across grade levels to ensure that all rimes are taught at one grade level and reinforced at others.

• Each grade level now has its own list of rimes that it is responsible for introducing and is aware of previously taught rimes that need to be revisited.

Now that we have a set of rimes to teach, the question becomes: How do we teach them to our students? In many classrooms, teachers and students brainstorm words that contain targeted rimes. These words and their rimes are listed on a sheet of chart paper and put on display for students to read and use at their convenience.

Figure 7.1 Rasinski‐Padak Essential Primary Rimes

Source: Based on Fry (1998) and Wylie and Durrell (1970).

Although this is a good start, it does not go far or deep enough in encouraging students to learn rimes. Word recognition requires deep learning of word patterns. This means seeing the patterns in isolation, in words and in texts, and reading plenty of words and text that contain those patterns. What follows is a week‐long sequence of activities for teaching two or more rimes per week:

Day 1

1. Introduce one or two rimes—​for example, ack and ick. Print the rimes on a display board and say the sounds they represent several times. Ask students to do the same.

2. Brainstorm and list on chart paper words that contain the ack and ick rimes. Words should be mostly one‐syllable words, though a few multi-syllabic words can be included.

3. Read the words with students several times. Have groups and individual students read the words. Encourage students to read the words on their own throughout the day and into the next. Chant the list of words chorally several times each day. Eventually add the words to the class word wall (see Chapter 9).

4. Challenge students with a Hinky Pinky, written on the board or chart paper, that uses some of the words just brainstormed. A Hinky Pinky is a riddle for which the answer is two or more rhyming words (see Chapter 6).

5. Introduce two or three poems featuring the targeted rime, written by the teacher or another poet, and displayed for all to see on chart paper. Slowly at first, read each poem to students several times, pointing to the words as you read and asking students to join in as they feel comfortable. After a few readings the entire group should be reading the poem chorally. Divide the students into smaller groups and continue to read the poems in parts. Ask a few individual students to read each poem aloud. Ask all students to read the poems throughout the next several days. These authentic reading activities promote reading fluency and sight word acquisition as well as focus children’s attention on the targeted rime. The shared experience of reading the poems chorally and repeatedly (Gill 2006) offers children the invitation to join in whenever they feel comfortable and competent—​perhaps with the first reading, or after the third reading once a high degree of familiarity with the text has been developed.
   Ellen, the first‐grade teacher we introduced to you at the beginning of this chapter, wrote these poems featuring ack and ick. Some are parodies of common rhymes that are already familiar to many children.

My Duck Jack

Diddle diddle quacking
My duck Jack.
Has a bill that is orange
and wings that are black.
Loves to yack with a
quack quack quack.
Diddle diddle quacking
My duck Jack.

When a Thousand Ducks Quack

When a thousand ducks go quack
And a set of ear plugs I lack
I find my trusty old jacket
Place it over my head.
It softens the racket.
That I truly do dread.

A Duck Named Mack​

—I know a duck
His name is Mack
—Makes quite a racket with
his quack quack quack
—He yacks at us all
all manners does he lack
—That’s my Mack
the duck who quacks!

Hickory Dickory Click

Hickory dickory click
The chickens are feeling sick
The clock struck nine
Now they’re feeling fine
Hickory dickory click.

Hickory Dickory Dare

Dickery dickery dare
The chicken flew up in the air
She looks pretty slick
When she flies so quick
Chickery chickery chair.

Poems can be found in many collections (see Figure 7.2). A second source for poems is the teacher. If you, the teacher, cannot find poems that contain ack, surely you can write a couple of four‐ to six‐line poems, as Ellen did, that present students with real texts featuring the targeted rime. Not only does this provide students with a rich source of reading material for practicing their knowledge of rimes, but it shows students that their teacher is also a writer.

Once the poems have been read, reread, and read again, students find individual words and word parts in the poems. This can mean pointing to, underlining, and circling significant words and word parts on a second copy of each poem (the initial copy is kept clean for future use). At this point you want to draw students’ attention to individual words in the poem, particularly those words that contain the targeted rimes. One of our colleagues, Belinda, a first‐grade teacher, uses fly swatters as word whoppers. She cuts rectangular holes of various sizes out of several fly swatters (see Figure 7.3). She “whops” one of the words from the poem and asks students to identify it. The word whopper isolates the word so that it must be read on its own, without the aid of the general context of the poem. Later, Belinda gives each child a word whopper and asks individuals to whop words and word parts from the poem that she pronounces.

1. The lesson ends with these two assignments:

   1. Students are given a sheet of words containing the rimes brainstormed earlier. They practice reading and spelling the rimes at home. The sheet also contains the poems practiced during the day so that students can practice reading the poems at home with the assistance of a family member.

   2. Students are asked to write their own short rhymes that feature the targeted rime. Students can write their two‐ to six‐line poems on their own or with a family member, a classmate, or a buddy from another grade.

This focus on poetry also allows teachers and students to celebrate a wonderful genre that is often neglected and underused in the language arts curriculum (Benton 1992; Cullinan, Scala, and Schroder 1995; Denman 1988; Lockward 1994; Perfect 1999, 2005; Rogers 1985). Even the simple poems that teachers and children may write say something very important to students—“poetry is valued and celebrated in our classroom. We are poets!”

Figure 7.2 Poetry Collections and Songbooks for Celebrating Poetry and Lyrics and for Teaching Word Patterns

Bagert, B. (1992). Let me be the boss: Poems for kids to perform. Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mills.

Bagert, B. and Rasinski, T. (2010). Poems for building reading skills. Huntington Beach, CA: Shell Educational Publishing.

Carle, E. (1992). Eric Carle’s animals animals. New York: Philomel.

de Paola, T. (1988). Tomie de Paola’s book of poems. New York: Putnam.

de Regniers, B. S., et al. (1988). Sing a song of popcorn: Every child’s book of poems. New York: Scholastic.

Harrison, D. L. (2007). Bugs. Honesdale, PA: Front Street Press.

Hopkins, L. B. (1993). Extra innings: Baseball poems. New York: Harcourt, Brace.

Hopkins, L. B. (1995). Been to yesterdays: Poems of a life. Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mills.

Hopkins, L. B. (Ed.). (1995). Small talk: A book of short poems. New York: Harcourt, Brace.

Hudson, W. (Ed.). (1993). Pass it on: African‐American poetry for children. New York: Scholastic.

Hudson, W. and Hudson, C. (Eds.). (1995). How sweet the sound: African‐American songs for children. New York: Scholastic.

Krull, K. (1992). Gonna sing my head off: American folk songs for children. New York: Knopf.

Lansky, B. (Ed.). (1991). Kids pick the funniest poems. Hopkins, MN: Meadowbrook.

Lansky, B. (1996). Poetry party. Hopkins, MN: Meadowbrook.

Larrick, N. (Ed.). (1990). Mice are nice. New York: Philomel.

Lobel, A. (1983). The book of pigericks. New York: Harper and Row.

Moss, J. (1989). The butterfly jar. New York: Bantam.

Moss, J. (1991). The other side of the door. New York: Bantam.

Nesbitt, K. (2005). When the teacher isn’t looking. Hopkins, MN: Meadowbrook.

Nesbitt, K. (2007). Revenge of the lunch ladies. Hopkins, MN: Meadowbrook.

Opie, I. and Opie, P. (Eds.). (1992). I saw Esau: The schoolchild’s pocket book. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick.

Pottle, R. (2007). I’m allergic to school. Hopkins, MN: Meadowbrook.

Prelutsky, J. (Ed.). (1983). The Random House book of poetry for children. New York: Random House.

Prelutsky, J. (1984). The new kid on the block. New York: Random House.

Prelutsky, J. (1990). Something big has been here. New York: Greenwillow.

Rasinski, T. and Brothers, K. (2006). Poems for word study (K–​1, 1–​2, 2–​3). Huntington Beach, CA: Shell Educational Publishing.

Rasinski, T. and Zimmerman, B. (2001). Phonics poetry: Teaching word families. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Silverstein, S. (1974). Where the sidewalk ends. New York: Harper and Row.

Silverstein, S. (1981). A light in the attic. New York: Harper and Row.

Slier, D. (Ed.). (1990). Make a joyful sound: Poems for children by African‐American poets. New York: Checkerboard Press.

Figure 7.3 Word Whopper

Day 2

1. Day 2 begins with students copying their poems on chart paper. These are then hung around the room for later use.

2. Next, students read the words and poems from the previous day.

3. Finally, the lesson turns into a poetry festival as students go around the room reading and celebrating each new poem written by a classmate. Stopping at each posted poem, the author first reads the poem to his or her classmates, pointing out key words. Then, the group reads the poem several times, chorally, antiphonally, and finally in pairs and as individuals. Not only does this activity promote practice of key rimes in real contexts, it also gives children another reason to celebrate language and themselves as authors.

If a classroom aide is available, the poems can quickly be typed, printed, and copied for each student to read several times at home. Eventually, students may make their own individual or classroom poetry anthologies. Imagine children’s feelings of accomplishment as they see their own poetry “published” in classroom books.

Day 3

Day 3 is a repeat of Day 1 with other contrasting rimes. If the rimes ack and ick were targeted in the first part of the week, the rimes for the second half of the week should either include the short a sound (at, ap) or ck ending (eck, ock). Before beginning the new lesson, students may want to reread some of the poems and words from Days 1 and 2.

Day 4

The Day 4 lesson is a repeat of the Day 2 lesson with students practicing and making poems using the targeted rime.

Day 5

Day 5 provides students a chance to review the rimes of the week as well as the opportunity to analyze the differences between the rimes when they occur in the same context.

1. The teacher provides students with a short list of words that contain all rimes that were studied during the week. Students can read the words, spell them, sort them into various categories, or any combination of these activities. This activity requires students to discriminate the sounds and spelling of the week’s rimes in determining the correct word, spelling, or category.

2. Students read a couple poems or other texts that contain the rimes studied during the week. Again, this provides students with opportunities to examine the rimes within a common context. If it is difficult to locate such poems or other texts, the teacher may write her or his own poem or take a dictated text from students that contains the appropriate rimes.

3. The teacher leads the students in playing one or more word games (see Chapter 14). This provides an additional and enjoyable context for students to study and play with the words and rimes they have studied during the week.

4. Students take copies of the poems and texts home. They practice the texts over the weekend for a possible poetry party performance on Monday.

This sort of lesson routine provides students with the deep analysis and massed practice that allows them to learn the targeted rimes; however, word recognition instruction on these rimes need not be limited to this routine. Children’s books provide the impetus for one activity that first‐ and second‐grade teacher Jeannine uses with her students (Rajewski 1994). During a study of ants, Jeannine introduces her students to the book Antics! by Cathi Hepworth (1992), an ABC book in which every word contains the rime ant and the accompanying illustration features an ant. For example, the b word is brilliant and the illustration depicts an Einstein‐like ant working in a laboratory. After examining the book, students search for other words that have ant within them.

Students can emulate Hepworth’s book by writing their own alphabet books with other rimes. This is possible because rimes generate an enormous number of words. A rime or phonogram ABC book can become an exciting class project as students are assigned one or two letters and asked to think first of several words that contain the targeted rimes and then of how those words might be illustrated. Students then compile their work into a whole‐class ABC book. Students will want to read and reread their phonogram‐ABC books for days. Here is the beginning of a rime ABC book using the ack phonogram:

The website www.onelook.com is an excellent tool for finding words that contain a particular phonogram or set of letters. Simply enter the phonogram preceded and followed by an asterisk (for example, *ack*). Then hit enter and an alphabetical list of targeted words containing the phonogram will appear. Figure 7.4 provides additional online resources for teaching word families.

Figure 7.4 Electronic Sources for Poetry

Word Family Resources

http://www.kidzone.ws/phonics/activity1.htm Provides an introduction to word families and word family instruction. It has several related links.

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/word-family-sort-30052.html The International Reading Association and National Council of Teachers of English provide some excellent word family lessons and practice.

http://www.mrsjonesroom.com/teachers/wordfamilies.html Contains several great teacher resources related to phonics and fluency, including word family activities and rhyming poetry.

http://curry.virginia.edu/go/wil/rimes_and_rhymes.htm#This_Week Contains thirty rhymes (one per week) and accompanying lessons that support rime and phonics instruction.

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/rhymes/wordfamilies/ Provides many word family examples along with a wealth of activities that can support teaching word families. It also includes poems and rhymes organized by word families.

Teachers can encourage students to use the targeted words in their talk and writing. Words can be added to each student’s word bank (see Chapter 11) ; students can sort the word bank words by rime or other structural or semantic feature. Students can play games such as Word War, Concentration, or Go Fish with the word bank cards. Teachers can introduce other Hinky Pinkies that feature targeted rimes (e.g., What’s another name for John’s book bag? Jack’s pack). Cloze passages, in which students use the context of a passage along with the rime knowledge to determine unknown words, can be developed and used (see Chapter 12). Words featuring the targeted rimes can become spelling words for the given week. Other word games such as Hangman and Wordo (see Chapter 14) can also be played.

Throughout this chapter and, indeed, throughout this book, you will see that we have a strong preference for the use of poetry. We feel that several features of poetry make it an optimal genre for teaching phonemic awareness, phonics, and fluency (Rasinski, Rupley, and Nichols 2008).

Poems for children are often characterized by a defined rhythm and rhyme. The rhythmical language, along with the regularly occurring rhymes, makes them easy to learn to read. Moreover, the brevity of most poems for children means that they can learn to read the entire text in a relatively short period of time (usually in a day). We want children to feel success in learning to read. One way to feel success is to learn to read something well every day. In our reading clinic for struggling readers our goal is for each one of our students to learn to read a text well every day—​so that the students (and their parents) can feel that they are achieving success in learning to read.

The rhymes embedded in most poems also makes them real decodable texts for working on phonics. When students read “Rain, rain, go away, come again another day . . .” they are practicing reading the ay rime in an authentic text that celebrates language as much as it provides phonics practice for students.

The rhythmical language patterns and rhymes in poems make them fairly easy to emulate. Students (and teachers) can model their own personal poems after the language patterns found in the poems that they have read. Students in our reading clinic regularly write (and perform) poetry that they themselves have written. We collect students’ poetry and publish it in a book of poetry that is given to each student at the end of the clinic. The feeling of success and self‐efficacy that students have when they see that they have contributed to a book of poetry is hard to duplicate. A few years ago we had students write their own versions of “Yankee Doodle”:

Yankee Doodle went to town
Flying in an airplane.
There he went to see his friends,
Jack, Jill, John, and Jane.

Yankee Doodle went to town
Riding on a hairless pig.
He felt sorry for that sow,
So he bought her a new wig.

Yankee Doodle went to town
Hopping on bunny
All the folks laughed at him
Because he looked so funny.

Onsets and rimes are certainly not the only elements of an effective phonics and word recognition program; however, given their efficiency in teaching multiple‐letter patterns (rimes and some onsets) as well as their generalizability and consistency, they offer students a wonderful entree into the world of phonics, word recognition, and spelling. We see the systematic and joyful study of onsets and rimes as the foundation to any phonics (and spelling) program. Onsets and rimes can be used in ways that allow students to be creative and constructive in their own learning. They can be used to decode one‐syllable words in their entirety, and they are very useful in helping readers at least partially figure out longer, more difficult words.