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Is Rhyming Ability Important in Reading?

By Dr. Tim Shanahan Last updated 2025/08/22

Description

Dr. Tim Shanahan clarifies what we know about rhyming in this blog post. Should rhyming be a key component of early reading instruction?

Curriculum Connection

This article helps to illuminate the importance of teaching students to work at the phoneme level (B2.1).
Grade(s): K 1
Topic(s): Phonemic Awareness
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2 Comments

  1. There are so many ways to incorporate rhyming in the classroom through nursery rhymes, poems, read alouds, songs and games and students do not need to get to mastery before moving ahead. Using these opportunities can allow explicit instruction to focus on getting to the phoneme level with blending and segmenting.

  2. Feels like rhyming is a higher level phonological awareness skill. It can also be a fun way to play with words, but perhaps should not be focus of intervention, but just reintroduced now and again in various ways.

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