Phonics May Equal Trouble

While reading chapter 5 "Strategies to Figure Out Words" I was very intrigued with the strategies of teaching phonics section.  I never realized how many ways there are in which you can teach phonics. There is the synthetic approach (children learn letter sounds one-by-one), and the analytical approach (chunking), and other sub-categories within the two approaches. While searching online I found a very intriguing article titled "Why Phonics Tests Spell Trouble". This is an article written from the UK that talks about the use of nonsense words when teaching phonics and whether or not that is an appropriate approach to use. The article explains the concern that by using nonsense words we are confusing students. We are having students try and read words that have no meaning, yet we are trying to teach them that words do have meaning, and that the use phonics helps to decode that meaning. By adding nonsense words though we are confusing this students and possibly deterring their learning of words. I  found this to be a very interesting point on phonics, especially since we are all currently working on the Reading Horizon Program that has us practice with nonsense words.