Background The National Reading Panel (NRP) identified five essential components which comprise effective reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary development, fluency, and comprehension (2000). Educators integrate these core skills into their literacy instruction in order for students to become proficient readers. The Common Core State Standards (NGA & CCSO, 2010, pp.16-17) highlighted the importance of phonics instruction as a critical foundational skill, when it stipulated that students in grades from kindergarten through five “know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.” The value and need for explicit, systematic phonics instruction in the primary grades (K-2) has been well documented.