Targeted Literacy Instruction
Explore research-based strategies, interactive tools, and practical resources designed to enhance early literacy instruction.
DEVELOPING PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS
Phoneme blending is the process of combining individual sounds (phonemes) to form a word. For example, hearing the sounds /c/, /a/, and /t/ and blending them to say "cat." It is an essential phonological awareness skill that supports reading fluency and word recognition.
The Continuous Blending routine is used mostly in kindergarten as students are first learning to blend CVC words. Because the blending is continuous, this type of blending is easier phonologically than other types of blending. The routine can only be used when there is a 1:1 correspondence between letter and sound. Words that begin with a continuous consonant sound and end with a stop sound are usually the first words blended in a core reading program.
Students are expected to read words with automaticity. Many words are not decodable, so students need to form a visual memory for these words. Using a Read, Spell, Read routine helps students to accurately practice a non-decodable word and build it into long-term memory. This routine can be used when introducing high-frequency words or irregular words. It can also be used as a correction procedure with these same types of words.
“There is no comprehension strategy powerful enough to compensate if the student cannot read the words.”
DECODING AND PHONICS
Once students are familiar with a blending strategy they are able to quickly decode unknown words. Spelling Focused Word Reading is facilitated by an explicit focus on the vowel sound and any other difficult sound/spellings that hasten student ability to blend words with automaticity.
Phoneme segmentation is the process of breaking a word into its individual sounds or phonemes. For example, the word "cat" is segmented into the phonemes /c/, /a/, and /t/. It is a key phonological awareness skill that helps in understanding how sounds combine to form words, supporting early reading and spelling development.
“Students with strong phonological awareness will profit from phonics instruction more readily and are likely to become good readers, but students with weak phonological skills will struggle to become readers. More than 90% of students with significant reading problems have a core deficit in their ability to process phonological information. Without the capacity to attend to the individual sounds in words it is extremely difficult to match sounds to letters and decode words.”
Syllable Segmentation
Initial Sound Fluency
Other Phonological Awareness Routines
Segmenting spoken words into syllables is the most simple phonological awareness skill for most children. It involves breaking words into chunks or beats and each beat will contain a vowel sound, for example, the word ‘big’ contains one syllable, ‘fish/ing’ contains two syllables, and ‘hip/po/pot/a/mus’ contains five. If a student is unable to segment into phonemes, use this routine to build phonological awareness.
Initial Sound Fluency (ISF) refers to a child's ability to recognize and produce the initial sounds in spoken words. It is a key phonemic awareness skill that helps young learners identify and isolate the first sounds in words, laying the groundwork for effective decoding and reading development. Activities like sound matching, picture sorting, and rhyming games can strengthen this foundational skill, making it an essential part of early literacy instruction.
Some students find long words intimidating, but many are easier to read by blending syllables instead of individual sounds. The Multisyllabic Word Blending approach helps students focus on key parts, like vowels and challenging sounds, one step at a time. To make this routine effective, use words students encounter in text, reinforcing syllabication and related spelling rules.
READING WITH AUTOMATICITY AND FLUENCY
The Sentence by Sentence Decodable Text routine builds fluency and automaticity by focusing on phonics elements and allowing all students to practice decoding. As students become familiar with sound/spellings, word chunks, and high-frequency words, decoding becomes automatic, enabling them to focus on comprehension. This routine helps students read with increasing fluency, effortlessly recognizing words while tracking meaning.
The Read It Fast routine gives students additional opportunities for practice and to ensure automaticity of words. Research shows that repeated exposure to words strengthens neural connections in the brain, particularly in areas responsible for word recognition and decoding (National Reading Panel, 2000). Fluent readers use less mental effort for decoding, leaving more capacity for higher-order thinking like understanding the text's meaning and making inferences.
“Fluency is the developmental process that connects decoding with everything we know about words to make the meaning of the text come to life. Fluency is a wonderful bridge to comprehension and to a life-long love of reading.”