Learning to Read

Phase 1: Developing Listening Skills

1. Environmental Sounds: Recognizing sounds in the environment.
2. Instrumental Sounds: Identifying different sounds made by instruments.
3. Body Percussion: Sounds made using the body (e.g., clapping, stamping).
4. Rhythm and Rhyme: Recognizing and creating rhyming words.
5. Alliteration: Identifying words that start with the same sound.
6. Voice Sounds: Differentiating between sounds made with the voice.
7. Oral Blending and Segmenting: Blending sounds to make words and breaking words into individual sounds.

Phase 2: Beginning to Read and Write

1. Set 1 Letters: s, a, t, p.
2. Set 2 Letters: i, n, m, d.
3. Set 3 Letters: g, o, c, k.
4. Set 4 Letters: ck, e, u, r.
5. Set 5 Letters: h, b, f, ff, l, ll, ss.
6. Making Short Words: Using the letters to form simple words.

Phase 3: Developing More Complex Letter-Sound Correspondences

1. Set 6 Letters: j, v, w, x.
2. Set 7 Letters: y, z, zz, qu.
3. Consonant Digraphs: ch, sh, th, ng.
4. Vowel Digraphs and Trigraphs: ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar, or, ur, ow, oi, ear, air, ure, er.
5. Reading and Writing Simple Sentences.

Phase 4: Consolidating Knowledge

1. Adjacent Consonants: Blends and clusters (e.g., st, tr, cl).
2. Polysyllabic Words: Words with more than one syllable.

Phase 5: Introducing More Complex Graphemes

1. New Graphemes for Reading: ay, ou, ie, ea, oy, ir, ue, aw, wh, ph, ew, oe, au.
2. Alternative Pronunciations for Known Graphemes: e.g., a in acorn, y in gym.
3. Alternative Spellings for Known Phonemes.

Phase 6: Developing Fluency and Comprehension

1. Past Tense: Introduction to -ed endings.
2. Suffixes: Adding suffixes to words (e.g., -ing, -er, -est, -ful).
3. Spelling Rules: Learning different spelling rules and patterns.
4. Reading Comprehension: Developing understanding of texts.
5. Writing Composition: Encouraging independent writing.

Each phase builds on the last, and the progression allows children to develop their reading and writing skills effectively.