How is phonemic awareness different from phonics?
Phonemic awareness focuses on hearing the sounds in spoken language. Phonics instruction teaches the relationship between the letters of the written language and the phonemes of the spoken language. Phonics teaches children to read and write words. Phonics instruction is most effective when it is taught directly with a specific set of letters in a clearly defined order. The set of letters should include several consonants and a vowel. Stories should have mostly decodable text and controlled vocabulary for the children to read. New skills should build upon previous ones.
