Most Phonics Curricula Are Broken—Here’s What the Research Really Says
Let’s be honest. Despite the growing popularity of phonics, many phonics curricula still fail to teach kids how to read. They skip critical steps, move too fast, or rely on disconnected drills that don’t build true reading fluency.
📉 Here’s the result: Over 60% of fourth graders in the U.S. do not read at a proficient level—despite years of phonics instruction in early grades.
That’s not just a statistic. That’s an urgent call to rethink what we teach and how we teach it. This article is your in-depth, research-backed guide to understanding phonics curriculum: how it should be structured, what the Science of Reading recommends, and what to avoid when choosing or designing one.
The Only Guide to Phonics Curriculum: What It Should Actually Include
Most phonics programs look good on the surface. They have colorful workbooks, clever word games, and lots of repetition. But that doesn’t mean they’re aligned with cognitive science or best practices for literacy instruction.
Here’s what an effective phonics curriculum must include: Hint- kindergarten reading passages are a huge unlock.
1. A Systematic Scope and Sequence
The best phonics programs follow a carefully sequenced progression—starting with letter-sound correspondence, then moving to blending, CVC words, digraphs, silent e, vowel teams, and finally into multisyllabic decoding. Skipping steps or jumping around confuses the brain’s ability to map sound to print.
2. Explicit Instruction
There’s no guessing involved. A strong curriculum teaches phonics rules directly, models strategies, and provides ample guided practice before expecting independence.
3. Cumulative Review
Each new concept builds on previously mastered skills. If a child learns ch one week, they still practice ch alongside new patterns like sh, th, and wh in the following weeks.
4. Connected Text
Kids need to read real words in real sentences. A research-based phonics curriculum includes decodable readers that only use previously taught sound-spelling patterns so students can apply their decoding knowledge.
5. Integrated Phonemic Awareness
Phonemic awareness and phonics go hand-in-hand. The best curricula include daily phonemic awareness activities—blending, segmenting, deleting, and substituting sounds.
Why the Science of Reading Demands a Better Phonics Curriculum
The Science of Reading is not a trend—it’s a decades-long body of evidence rooted in cognitive science, linguistics, and neuroscience. It shows that reading is not natural and must be explicitly taught.
According to this science, reading development relies on:
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Phonological awareness
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Alphabetic principle
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Decoding skills
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Orthographic mapping
Any phonics curriculum that doesn’t actively support these areas is failing your students.
That’s why relying on outdated strategies like the three-cueing system (guessing from pictures, sentence structure, or the first letter) is not only ineffective—it can actually prevent students from becoming fluent readers.
How to Evaluate Any Phonics Curriculum (or Write Your Own)
Whether you’re choosing a boxed program or building your own materials, use these research-aligned questions to evaluate quality:
✅ Does it follow a logical scope and sequence?
Avoid anything random or theme-based phonics units (e.g., “oo” just because it's Halloween).
✅ Is there daily decoding and word work?
Real phonics lessons include spelling, reading, writing, and listening to words.
✅ Are decodable texts used consistently?
If a student is still learning CVC patterns, they shouldn’t be reading books filled with multisyllabic words and unpredictable patterns.
✅ Are phonemic awareness activities built into each lesson?
No child should move into phonics instruction without mastering oral sound manipulation skills.
✅ Does the curriculum offer reading intervention support?
The best programs provide Tier 1 instruction and support struggling students with built-in intervention tools.
Our favorite curriculum is the Orton Gillingham Curriculum. It has every component young readers need to master phonemic awareness, phonics, and decoding.
The Only Guide to Phonics Curriculum Implementation: Dos and Don’ts
DO:
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Follow a daily routine that builds fluency and confidence
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Use cumulative assessments to track mastery
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Pair phonics instruction with handwriting to reinforce letter formation
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Provide dictation practice to connect encoding and decoding
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Build vocabulary and oral language alongside phonics
DON’T:
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Move too quickly from one pattern to the next
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Introduce irregular sight words too early
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Rely only on worksheets or games
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Use texts that are not fully decodable
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Ignore comprehension and language development
Why the Right Phonics Curriculum Changes Everything
When phonics is taught explicitly, systematically, and in alignment with the Science of Reading, it doesn’t just improve reading scores—it transforms how kids feel about reading and provides the perfect reading intervention.
You see:
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Greater decoding accuracy
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Increased fluency
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Stronger spelling skills
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Improved confidence
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Less resistance to reading
You don’t need gimmicks. You don’t need a wall of sight words. You need a systematic phonics instruction program that builds skills step-by-step and gives every child a real shot at literacy.