Standard 2: Reading Foundations

Students will develop foundational skills for future reading success by working with sounds, letters, and text.

PHONICS AND WORD STUDY: Students will decode and read words in context and isolation by applying phonics and word analysis skills.

Student Actions 

Teacher Actions 

• Students will give most frequently used sounds for each consonant.

• Hard and soft sounds for c, g, and s.

• Common sounds for x (/ks/, /z/).

• Students will give short and long sounds for all vowels.   

• Teachers provide systematic, explicit instruction when teaching letter sounds and letter-sound correspondence.  

• Teachers provide anchors to help students remember letter sounds and letter-sound correspondence, such as hand motions, sign language, and/or picture cues.

• Teachers provide daily lessons with explicit instruction including letter sounds, letter-sound correspondence, instruction on how to produce letter sounds, practice producing letter sounds, and practice identifying letter sounds in the initial position of words.

• Teachers provide daily opportunities for students to interact with letter/sound activities in whole and small group situations.

• Teachers monitor letter/sound acquisition and provide feedback and interventions as needed.

• Teachers provide systematic, explicit instruction when teaching vowel sounds and letter-sound correspondence.

• Teachers provide anchors to help students remember vowel sounds and letter-sound correspondence, such as hand motions, sign language, and/or picture cues.

• Teachers provide explicit instruction explaining how to produce the sound (open, voiced), practice producing the sound, connecting sound to letter, and practice identifying the sound in the initial position of a word, then move to the medial position as students become more comfortable with letter sound.

• Teachers provide opportunities for students to interact with vowel sounds and letters in whole and small group situations.

• Teachers monitor vowel letter/sound acquisition and provide feedback and interventions as needed.

• Students who have trouble blending, may use additive blending, where students blend the first and second sounds, then add any additional sounds one at a time.

Supporting Resources 

Teacher Insights 

Florida Center for Reading Research:  Letter-Sound Correspondence Activities (PDF)

Florida Center for Reading Research:  Fluency with Letter-Sound Correspondence Activities (PDF) 

West Virginia Reading First Explicit Phonics Lessons (PDF)

Explicit, Systematic Phonics Lessons, Scope & Sequence Materials (webpage)

Reading Rockets:  Phonics Instruction (webpage)

Reading Rockets:  The Value of a Multisensory Approach (webpage)

• Alphabetic principle is the concept that letters and letter combinations represent the individual sounds in words.

• Vowels are unobstructed, voiced sounds.

• Discussing and modeling articulation may help students make sounds correctly.

• Picture and motion cues help students remember letter sound correspondence.

• When providing explicit instruction of letter-sound correspondence, beginning with a phonemic awareness activity to identify the target sound helps students make letter-sound connections.

• Provide interactive activities using picture sorts, interactive SmartBoard games, and identifying pictures or words that begin with the letter/sound focus using letter poems or books.

• Using simple 2-3 sound words with the target sound, show a word, then model blending the sounds to read the word, ask students to join you in blending the sounds to read the word, then ask students to blend sounds to read word independently.

• Model building 2-3 letter words with target sound, build words together, then ask students to build words independently.

• Read a poem or short story focusing on target sound, then ask students to highlight or identify words with target sound.

• Give each child a letter card, then ask students to hold up the card if the given word begins with the target sound. 

Due to recursive nature of the standards, it is essential that teachers are aware of how all objectives within and between strands work together for optimal instruction.