When you comprehend decoding skills you are building a strong foundation for reading. This foundation will allow your students to fluently read and build vocabulary words for reading comprehension. The main reason why we need to use phonics word lists with real & nonsense words in our phonics-based guided reading lessons is to teach decoding strategies. I use phonics-based word lists daily in my structured word recognition lesson plans. These lists target the specific phonics skills being taught. Here are 7 ways you can use these word lists in your guided reading and phonics instruction.