II. Phonics and Decoding

Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondence

The relationship between sounds (phonemes) and letters or letter combinations (graphemes) that represent those sounds

Short vowels

(CVC, CCVC, CVCC)

Vowel sounds that are quick and not pronounced like the letter name.

Examples of Short Vowel Sounds:

• Short A: /ă/ – cat, apple

• Short E: /ĕ/ – bed, pen

• Short I: /ĭ/ – sit, pig

• Short O: /ŏ/ – dog, pot

• Short U: /ŭ/ – cup, bug

Long vowels (CVVC, CVCE)

Vowel sounds that say their letter name (A, E, I, O, U).

• Long A: cake, rain

• Long E: me, tree

• Long I: bike, light

• Long O: rope, goat

• Long U: cube, flute

R-controlled vowels (CVCC)

Vowels followed by the letter “r” that change the vowel sound, creating a unique combined sound.

Examples:

• ar as in car

• er as in her

• ir as in bird

• or as in fork

• ur as in turn

vowel combinations (CVVC):

(D. VT)

• Diphthongs:

  • ai: rain

  • oi: coin

  • ou: cloud

• Vowel teams:

  • ee: seen

  • ea: beach

  • oa: boat

Silent Letters (CV)

• Silent "kn": know, knee

• Silent "w": write, wreck

• Silent "b": comb, thumb

• Silent "gn": sign, foreign

• Silent "gh": though, light

Explicit Phonics Instruction

Teaching phonics skills clearly and directly, with step-by-step explanations and modeling.

Systematic Phonics Instruction

structured, sequential teaching of phonics where skills are introduced in a planned, logical order from simple to complex.

Key Features:

• Follows a clear scope and sequence

• Builds foundational skills step-by-step

• Provides explicit teaching and practice

• Often includes assessment to monitor progress

Recursive Phonics Instruction

instructional approach that revisits and reinforces phonics skills repeatedly over time, integrating new patterns with previously learned ones.

Key Features:

• Builds skills

• Encourages

• Integrates phonics

• Adapts to students

Reading Skills

(D. E. F. C. )

1. Decoding: Translating written words into spoken sounds

2. Encoding: Spelling words by mapping sounds to letters

3. Fluency: Reading smoothly and accurately

4. Comprehension: Understanding and interpreting the meaning of text

Instructional Methods for teaching common phonics patterns and rules

(EI. WS. SR. RP. IA)

• Explicit instruction:

• Word sorts:

• Songs and rhymes:

• Reading practice:

• Interactive activities:

Graphemes Types

(SLC. SLV. D. D. T. D. CB. SLC. C(qu). VT. SS)

1. Single Letter consonant

2. Single Letter Vowel

3. Doublets

4. Diagraphs

5. Trigraphs

6. Dipthong

7. Consonant Blends

8. Silent Letter Combinations

9. Combination (/qu/)

10. Vowel teams

11. Schwa Sound

Single Letter Consonant

A single letter representing a consonant sound in written language (e.g., b, c, d)

Single-letter vowel graphemes:

A single letter representing a vowel sound in written language (e.g., a, e, i)

Doublets:

Two identical letters appearing together within a word.

Examples:

• letter (tt)

• book (oo)

• coffee (ff, ee)

Digraphs:

Two letters combined to make one sound (phoneme).

Examples:

• sh as in ship

• ch as in chair

• th as in thumb or this

• ph as in phone

Trigraphs:

Groups of three letters that combine to make a single sound (phoneme).

Examples:

• tch as in catch

• sch as in school

• igh as in light

Quadrigraphs:

Groups of four letters that together represent a single sound (phoneme).

Examples:

• eigh as in eight

• ough as in though, thought

Diphthongs:

Complex vowel sounds formed by gliding from one vowel sound to another within the same syllable.

Examples:

• /oi/ as in coin

• /ou/ as in out

• /au/ as in cause

• /ow/ as in cow

Consonant Blends:

Two or more consonants together where each sound is heard.

Examples:

• Beginning blends: bl (black), st (stop), tr (tree)

• Ending blends: nd (hand), st (last), mp (jump)

Silent letter combinations:

Letter pairs or groups where one or more letters are written but not pronounced.

Common Examples:

• kn: knight, knee (silent k)

• wr: write, wrist (silent w)

• mb: comb, lamb (silent b)

Vowel Teams:

Two vowels together representing one sound (e.g., /ee/ in tree, /oa/ in boat)

Schwa Sound:

The most common, unstressed vowel sound in English, pronounced like a quick, relaxed “uh” (/ə/).

Examples:

• about → the “a” sounds like /ə/

• sofa → the “a” sounds like /ə/

Morphological Analysis

Breaking words into their meaningful parts—prefixes, roots, suffixes—to understand or decode them.

Example:
Rebuild = re- (again) + build (base word

Etymology

The study of a word’s origin and history—where it comes from and how its form and meaning have changed over time.

Example:

• "Telephone": From Greek "tele" (far) + "phone" (sound).

Ways to break down words

(IF. C. P. C. S. B. R/S/P. C. B/D. V. VP)

• Inflected Forms:

• Contractions:

• Possessives:

• Compounds:

• Syllables:

• Base Words:

• Roots:

• Prefixes:

• Suffixes:

• Consonants:

• Blends/Digraphs:

• Vowels:

• Vowel Pairs:

Morpheme

the smallest units of meaning in a language.

• Unhappily = un- + happy + -ly (3 morphemes)

Free Morphemes

A morpheme that can stand alone as a word with meaning.

Examples:

• book

• run

• happy

Bound morpheme

a morpheme that cannot stand alone and must attach to a free morpheme to convey meaning.

Example:

• -ed (as in played)

• un- (as in undo)

Instructional methods for teaching syllable types in decoding multisyllabic words

(EI. SD. WS. C. VA)

• Explicit Instruction: Teach syllable types with examples.

• Syllable Division: Break words into syllables (e.g., cab-in-et).

• Word Sorts: Sort by syllable type.

• Chunking: Practice decoding with syllable chunks.

• Visual Aids: Use color coding or charts.

Teaching Syllable patterns

(ST. MP. SS. VA. R)

• Syllable types (closed, open, vowel-consonant-e).

• Model and practice breaking words into syllables.

• Syllable sorting by pattern.

• Visual aids to highlight patterns.

• Repetition for practice.

Types of syllables

(C. O. V-Ce. VTD. R-C. C-le)

• Closed

• Open

• Vowel-Consonant-e

• Vowel Teams (Dipthong):

• R-controlled:

• Consonant-le:

Common activities to teach syllables

(SC. SL. MWM. SS)

• Syllable Clapping: Clap for each syllable in a word.

• Syllable Lists: Create lists of words and break them into syllables.

• Multisyllabic Word Manipulation: Practice changing syllables in multisyllabic words.

• Syllable Scoop: “Scoop” each syllable with a finger as you say the word.

Structrual Analysis

Breaking words into meaningful parts (prefixes, roots, suffixes) to understand and decode them.

Example: Unhappiness = un- + happy + -ness

Multisensory approaches to support recognition of non-decodable / irregularly spelled words

(VC. TW. AR. MN/M. KM. I/S)

• visual cues (highlight tricky parts)

• tactile writing (sand, finger tracing)

• auditory repetition (say the word aloud)

• mnemonics or memory tricks

• kinesthetic movement (clap syllables, tap letters)

• Pair words with images or stories to reinforce meaning

High frequency or Sight words

common words that readers recognize by sight without needing to decode them.

ex.

• and

• it

• you

• to

• is

• he

• she

• was

• for

Ways to build and extend phonics

• Teach letter-sound rules explicitly

• Practice blending & segmenting

• Use word families & patterns

• Include multisensory activities

• Read decodable texts

• Play phonics games

• Introduce prefixes & suffixes

• Encourage repeated reading

Cueing Systems

(S. S. G. P)

Clues readers use to decode and understand text:

1. Semantic: Meaning and context (e.g., She drank the hot ___. → tea)

2. Syntactic: Grammar and sentence structure (e.g., He will ___ the ball. → verb)

3. Graphophonic: Letter-sound relationships (e.g., ph sounds like /f/ in phone)

4. Pragmatic: Social and language use context (e.g., requests vs. questions)

Semantic Cues

Clues that help readers understand or predict a word based on the meaning of the sentence or passage.

Examples:

• “She ate the juicy ___.” → apple (makes sense in context)

• “The dog began to ___ when it saw the stranger.” → bark

Graphophonic Cues

Clues readers use that relate to letter-sound relationships. They help students decode (sound out) unfamiliar words by analyzing letters and sounds.

Examples:

• Recognizing that "c" in cat makes a /k/ sound.

• Noticing that "igh" in light represents a long "i" sound.

Vowel Digraph

(two vowels = one long vowel sound):

• ea – beach

• ai – rain

• oa – boat

• ee – feet

Inflected Forms

Word endings that show tense, number, person, or comparison without changing the base meaning.

Examples:

• walk → walked (past tense)

• cat → cats (plural)

• fast → faster (comparative)

• play → playing (progressive

Contractions

Two words combined into one by omitting letters and adding an apostrophe.

Examples:

• do not → don’t

• it is → it’s

• they are → they’re

Possessives

Show ownership or belonging, usually by adding ’s or just ’ to a noun.

Examples:

• Singular possessive: dog’s bone (bone belongs to one dog)

• Plural possessive: boys’ bikes (bikes belong to multiple boys)

Syntactic Clues

Hints from a word’s position in a sentence and grammar rules that help determine meaning or identify unknown words.

Examples:

• Word order (The cat sleeps. – noun likely comes before the verb)

• Function words (a, the, is, was)

• Verb tense, plural endings, or subject-verb agreement