More Phonics Lessons and Passages - Blends and Digraphs

Blends and Digraphs Explicit Phonics Lessons and Passages are now available on Teachers Pay Teachers! (Click on the words for links.)

See our earlier blog post on effective phonics instruction by clicking here.

Sight Words Assessment and Practice using the 107 Zeno High Frequency Words - "Biggest Bang for your Buck!"

This short list of 107 words make up more than 50% of the words we encounter in text. That is a worthy list to teach!

Reading is comprised of both knowing words at sight and decoding. It is about 50/50 reading words at sight versus decoding in the early stages of reading. Thus, decoding skills are very important, but being able to read words at sight is also necessary. One thing that teachers spend a lot of time on is teaching sight words.

The Zeno 107 word list will give you, the teacher, the “biggest bang for your buck”. I recommend this list as the main (perhaps the only) list of sight words that you teach until you come to other sight words in your text reading, then you teach those in preparation for reading text.

Zeno, S. M., Ivens, S. H., Millard, R.T., & Duvvuri, R. (1995). The educator’s word guide. New York: Touchstone Applied Science Associates, Inc.

Our Sight Words pack is now available on TPT! CLICK HERE

What we have provided in our SIGHT WORDS Download…
•Student word card lists
•Assessment Tools
•Student’s Spelling Dictionary
•Spelling Practice
•Word Wall Words
•Flashcards
•Games

Effective Phonics Instruction

CVC Explicit Phonics Lessons and Passages 

Now available on TPT! Click here!

As teachers we know that in the early grades we must provide practice for our students to read text in order for new words to be learned. One of the hardest things to find is decodable text that contains the spelling patterns being taught that are easy enough for them to read, yet hard and long enough for them to have text reading practice. 

We have provided an explicit phonics lesson to accompany each passage. 

10 lessons with passages are included in this download:
-short a
-short e
-short i
-short o
-short u
-five mixed short vowel




Using our phonics lesson plans will help your students as they learn to read and will prevent many future reading difficulties. Our lessons follow research on the brain and dyslexia conducted by Shaywitz & Shaywitz (2003) and is made practical in the Teaching Reading Sourcebook by Honig, Diamond, and Gutlohn (2008).

Effective Phonics Instruction 

Here are a few quick reminders for you as you plan your phonics instruction.  These reminders will help you use your time in the most effective way for the most growth in your students.

What phonics IS...

• Explicit and Systematic
• Quick Paced
• Includes Decoding Strategies
• Teaches Sound-Spelling Correspondences 
• Needs to be Applied to TEXT Reading
• Links to Phonemic Awareness
• Effective in Preventing Future Reading Difficulties
• Can be Taught Whole-group, Small-group and One-on-one
• A Means to an End (one piece of a reading program)

What phonics IS NOT...

• Spelling Practice (this adds to the knowledge of how words work, does not teach decoding)
• Word List Reading
• A Whole Reading Program (just one piece)
• The Goal of Reading (Comprehension is the GOAL)
• Making Diacritical Marks 
• Memorizing Syllabication Rules

Steps to Effective Phonics Instruction

1. Phonemic Awareness Warm-up
2. Sound-Spelling Review
3. Word Blending
4. Sight Words
5. Text Reading (This should be given at least 50% of the total lesson time)
6. Optional Word Work 

Assessing Phonics

Poor accuracy is usually an indicator that a child needs explicit phonics instruction. We recommend using the Core Phonics Survey to assess the sound-spelling patterns that you'll need to teach either whole group or in a small group intervention.