Word Recognition
Review of High Frequency Words,
Phonemic Awareness, and Phonics
Stages in Reading Words
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Prealphabetic
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Usually around PK and K
Environmental print
Selective association
Might use random letters to spell words
May be able to spell their name bec/they
have memorized the words.
Stages in Reading Words
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Partial Alphabetic
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Letter-sound relationships used to read
words.
Words may be represented by using one
letter.
May begin to use vowels, but words will
not be spelled correctly.
Stages in Reading Words
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Full Alphabetic
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Sometimes also called letter-name stage.
Begin to process all letters in words.
Begin to apply their knowledge of lettersound relationships.
Cautious reading word-by-word.
Vowel sounds are spelled although it may
not be correct.
Stages in Reading Words
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Consolidated Alphabetic
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Sometimes called within-word pattern
stage.
Longer and more sophisticated words are
processed.
Begin to recognize words instantaneously
on sight without having to analyze letter by
letter.
Word Recognition
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What is word recognition?
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Strategies we use to identify the oral
equivalent of a word.
What are areas included in word
recognition?
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Sight Words
Phonemic Awareness
Structural Analysis
Phonics
Sight Words
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High Frequency Words
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Dolch
Fry
Colors
Numbers
How can we teach this type of word
recognition area?
Examples of centers—BINGO, Concentration,
PIG, Cloze, Roll-Say-Keep, and Gameboards.
Phonemic Awareness
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Awareness of Sounds in the Speech Stream
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Ways we can teach…
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How many sounds do you hear in cat, horse, and
bath?
Blending
Segmenting
Substituting—more advanced skill
Lots of language play
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Rhymes
Songs
Examples of Phonemic Awareness—
Rhyming Word Sit Down
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Children walk around the room in a big
circle taking one step each time a
rhyming word is said by the teacher.
When the teacher says a word that
does not rhyme with the other words,
then the children sit down.
Examples—she, tree, flea, spree, key,
bee, sea, went (children sit down)
Examples of Phonemic
Awareness—Syllable Clap
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Talk with students about why knowing
about syllables can help them read and
write words.
Ask students to clap with you to identify
the syllables they hear in each word.
Examples—adapt according to level of
student
airplane
table
porcupine
school
vacation
dinner
calendar
television
football
Examples of Phonemic Awareness—
Identification of Sounds in Words
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Using a song format to isolate the sound heard in the
words—sung to Old McDonald.
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What’s the sound that starts these words—turtle and time and
teeth?
(Wait for response)
/t/ is the sound that starts these words—turtle, time, and teeth.
With a /t/, /t/ here, and /t/, /t/ there, here a /t/, there a /t/,
everywhere a /t/, /t/.
/t/ is the sound that starts these words—turtle and time and
teeth.
Repeat with also with middle sounds and ending sounds.
Examples of Phonemic Awareness—
Teaching Phonemic Blending—”I Say it
Slowly, You Say it Fast” Game
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Explain to students that you will say the
words slowly. Students should repeat the
word back to you.
Example—
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Teacher says /k/-/ă/-/t/
Child says cat.
Example—
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Teacher says /r/-/ŏ/-/k/
Child says rock.
Examples of Phonemic
Awareness—Sound boxes
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Show students how to make sound boxes on
their paper or lap boards.
As the student says a word, then she stretches
it out, while sliding a marker into each box as
the sound, or phoneme, is heard.
Example—
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dog
horse
Lamp
teeth
Examples of Phonemic Awareness—
Phonemic Segmentation
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This activity teaches phonemic segmentation
using a song format—Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
(sort of)
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Listen, listen to my word,
Then tell me all the sounds you heard
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race
/r/ is one sound
/ā/ is two
/s/ is last in race, it’s true.
Thanks for listening to my word,
And telling all the sounds you heard.
Examples of Phonemic Awareness—
Consonant Substitution
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The most difficult task to do—substitution—
requires multiple levels of processing.
Children listen to a given word, then
substitute a new sound in the word.
Example—
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What
What
What
What
rhymes
rhymes
rhymes
rhymes
with
with
with
with
pig and starts with /d/--dig.
book and starts with /k/--cook.
sing and starts with /r/--ring.
dog and starts with /fr/--frog.
Structural Analysis
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Looking at parts of the words, or chunks.
Knowledge of syllables.
Includes compound words, contractions, multisyllable
words, inflectional endings, prefixes, suffixes.
Teach by analogy by focusing on onset and rime:
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Onset—part of the syllable prior to the vowel
Rime—vowel to the end of the syllable
Example—cat– “c” is onset, “-at” is rime
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If I can spell cat, then I can spell bat, fat, hat, mat, pat, rat, sat, and vat.
Example—hit—”h” is onset, “-it” is rime
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If I can spell hit, then I can spell bit, fit, kit, lit, sit, wit, and zit.
Implications for Instruction in
Syllabic Analysis
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Ss should be taught to process all of the syllables in words.
Ss need to be taught to see patterns in words.
Ss need to be flexible in their decoding of words-they should be prepared
to try another pronunciation if one way does not work.
Ss should integrate context and syllabic analysis.
Ss need to be reminded to use orthographic aspects of phonics
(awareness of sequence of letters when spelling the word).
Ss should be aware that an element in a multisyllabic word may not be
read in the same way as it is represented in a single syllable word
(carrots, car).
Elements such as –tion and –ture as in mention and future, which only
occur in multisyllabic words, need a careful introduction, frequent review,
and a great deal of practice.
Generalization Approach to
Teaching Syllabic Analysis
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Ask students to sort a group of words.
Teach a generalization (general rule) for dividing words, such as:
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Easy affixes-most form a separate syllable (ex. help-ful, re-build)
Compound words-usually are two separate words (ex. sun-set, night-fall)
Two consonants between two vowels-usually divide between the two
consonants (ex. win-ter, con-cept)
The ending –le-usually combined with a preceding consonant to create a
separate syllable (ex. cra-dle, ma-ple)
Two vowels together-a limited number of words split between the two
vowels (ex. i-de-a, di-al).
The idea behind teaching Ss an awareness of syllabic analysis is that it
helps students to decode an unfamiliar by separating the word into its
syllabic parts, then recombining the parts into a whole.
Pattern Approach to Syllabic
Analysis
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Introduce the syllabic pattern-introduce the pattern in a
single syllable word
Present the pattern along with a model word
Formulate a generalization.
Guided Practice
Application
Assessment and Review
Extension
Multisyllabic Patterns
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In order of difficulty:
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Easy affixes: play-ing
Compound words: base-ball
Closed syllable words: rab-bit
Open syllable words: ba-by
Final –e markers: es-cape
Vowel digraphs: a-gree
Other patterns: cir-cle
See also pp. 250-252 for major syllable
patterns.
Finally, we get to Phonics!
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Phonics, graphophonics, graphophonemics—all the same thing.
Breakdown—
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How does this differ from phonemic awareness?
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Graph—means written
Phonic—means sound
Study of letter-sound relationships
If you know that there are 3 sounds in cat, then you are phonemically
aware.
If you know that the first sound /k/ is made by the letter “c”, then that is
phonics.
Phonics is all about teaching the code—how students can break down
words to figure out how to say the word or how to spell the word.
Key Terms to Remember
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Phoneme
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Individual speech sounds
How many phonemes are in bath? (3)
Grapheme
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Refers to the letter that corresponds to a
specific phoneme
What graphemes represent the phonemes you
heard in bath-- /b/, /ă/, /th/.
Key Terms to Remember
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Morpheme
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Smallest unit of meaning--could be a word, a prefix, a suffix, or a root.
How many morphemes are in these words?
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Unladylike
 un- 'not'
 lady '(well behaved) female adult human'
 like 'having the characteristics of'
Dogs
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Dog- animal
s-plural marker on nouns
Technique
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One morpheme—technique consists of only one meaningful word part, however it
does have two syllables.
Basic Principles of Phonics
Instruction
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Must be Functional
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Must be Useful
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It must teach skills necessary for decoding words.
The skills should be ones that students do not
already know.
Must be Contextual
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The skills being taught should be related to
reading tasks in which students are currently
engaged or will soon be engaged.
Consonants
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There are 25 sounds in English.
Some are spelled with two letters that
represent one sound.
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Digraph—ch, sh, th
Some are groups of consonants that
represent two or three letter sounds.
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Clusters—most are composed of l, r, or s
with another consonant sound.
Vowels
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There are 16 vowels sounds in the
English language.
This number can vary by dialect.
Types of vowel sounds:
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Short vowel sounds--/a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/
Long vowel sounds--/ā/, /ē/, /ī/, /ō/, /ū/
More Vowel Sounds
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Other vowel sounds—
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/aw/--daughter, law, walk
/oi/--noise, toy
/ŏŏ/--wood, should, push
/ ōō/--soon, new, prove, group
/ow/--tower, south
/∂/--above, operation, similar
R-controlled vowel sounds—
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/ar/--far
/air/--hair
/i(∂)r/--steer, clear, here
/∂r/--her, sir, fur
/or/--horse, door, tour
Onset and Rimes
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Onset-the consonant or consonant cluster preceding the rime
Rime-vowel, vowels, or consonants that follow the onset
Cat
 C-onset
 At-rime
That
 Th-onset
 At-rime
Refer to pp. 216-218 for a list of major word patterns that can
be taught using the idea of onset and rime.
Scope and Sequence
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Consonants usually presented first.
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Fewer spelling options for consonants.
Initial letters, which are usually consonants,
are best taught first.
Skills taught in one grade are usually
addressed again in another grade.
Use major word patterns.
Using decodable texts.
Look at S&S on page 214.
Teaching Initial Consonants
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Phonics instruction usually begins with initial
consonants.
Being the first sound in a word makes it easier for
students to hear..
Beginning sounds are also usually the first sound to
appear in students’ invented spelling.
Begin phonics lesson with emphasis on phonemic
awareness.
Teaching Final Consonants
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Handle the teaching of final consonants
in the same way as initial consonants.
Final consonants are significant aid in
the decoding of printed words, so be
sure to not neglect them.
You can teach the final sound as you
also teach word patterns that use them.
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/d/ in -ad
Teaching Consonant Clusters
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Sometimes called blends
Combination of consonants
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sp- in spot
str- in straw
It can be difficult for students to separate the sounds
(especially for “l” and “r” clusters.
Begin with “s” clusters. Introduce a word with the cluster,
then also a word with one part of the cluster missing (ex.
stick-sick; stand-sand; stink, sink). Ask students what the
second word is missing that was present in the first word.
Slowly say the word and have students count the sounds
(ex. stick).
Teaching Vowel
Correspondences
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Vowels can be taught in the same way
as consonants.
The main difference is that the vowels
can be spoken in isolation without
distorting the sound.
Vowels can be taught in isolation or as
part of patterns.
Approaches to Teaching
Phonics
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Analytic
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Studying sounds within the context of the
whole word.
Example--/w/ is the sound heard at the
beginning of the word wagon.
Synthetic
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Saying a word sound by sound then
synthesizing the sounds into words.
Example--/k/ /a/ /t/ equals cat.
Analytic Phonics—Steps
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Analytic Phonics provides students with opportunities to
analyze whole words and break the words down into
smaller, manageable parts.
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Identify a list of words that share a common letter-sound
relationship.
Say each word aloud to students and pause to let students repeat
the word back. Move through each word in the list.
Ask students what they notice about the words, such as how the
words look or sound alike or different.
Through this discussion, lead students into a recognition of the
common letter-sound relationship.
Help students to identify a generalization about the letter-sound
relationship.
Synthetic Phonics—Steps
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Synthetic phonics first teaches students letter/sounds,
then students practice blending the sounds together to
make words.
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Introduce each letter name to students.
Teach the sound that each letter makes.
As each letter is written on the board or chart paper then point
to the letter, and say the sound that each letter makes.
Make a hand motion to indicate blending the sounds together.
Continue this process until students can easily recognize the
letter and the corresponding sound.
Steps for TeachingAnalytic/Synthetic Combination
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Phonemic awareness-introduce sound (ex. /m/, talk about position of
mouth when forming the sound (lips are pressed together), call
attention to words in a poem or other text that have that sound
Letter-sound integration-write the words with that sound on the
board-ex. man, moon, milk; discuss with students that these words all
have the /m/ sound that is represented by the letter “m”
Guided practice-read a story that has this sound, sing a song, read or
poem, and/or compose sentences
Application-students read selections that contain that sound
Writing and spelling-review the formation of the letter “m”, dictate
some easy words with this letter/sound.
Assessment and reteaching-note whether students are able to apply
their knowledge of “m” while reading or writing, review and reteach
as necessary
Examples of Centers
This next section provides examples of
different centers as each is related to a
stage of reading.
Emergent Stage
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Age Level
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Reading Words
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Usually around prekindergarten or kindergarten.
Do not understand that letters in written words have
sounds.
Limited to reading words from memory—sight word reading.
Guess words from context.
Will pretend to read text.
Writing Words
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Scribbles, letter-like forms, or random letters that probably
do not correspond to a matching letter-sound relationship.
Corresponding WTW Spelling Stage: Emergent
Developing Fluency
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Fluency—the ability to read text accurately
and quickly.
Two components:
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Repeated Readings
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Automaticity—recognize words rapidly
Accuracy—being able to identify the word
Shared Reading
Guided Reading
Choral Readings
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Read Aloud
Example of Phonics Centers
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Emergent Stage
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BINGO
BRS Sort
PTM Sort
Follow the Path Game—BRSPTM
CFD Sort
3-Cat Sort
5-Cat Sort
From WTW Spelling Stage: Emergent Stage
Beginning Stage
Age Level
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Usually begins around kindergarten or first grade.
Reading Words
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Begin to detect letters in words to some of the sounds they correspond to.
May use partial letter cues to identify unfamiliar words.
May misread words with similar letters—man for men, this for that, horse for
house.
May sometimes read words backward as they learn directionality—was for saw.
Sight word vocabulary continues to grow.
Learn the sounds that correspond to basic consonants—b, d, f, j, k, l, m, n, p,
r, s, t, v, z—but not soft sounds of c (/s/) and g (/j/) or hard sounds of c (/k/)
and g (/g/).
Will finger-point (point to words as they are read) and read aloud slowly word
by word.
Beginning Stage Continued
Writing Words
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Beginning and ending sounds will be represented.
Letter names used to spell vowel sounds.
Begin to spell phonetically.
Most silent letters are omitted.
Corresponding WTW Spelling Stage: Letter NameAlphabetic Stage
Examples of Phonics Centers
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Beginning Stage
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LRS sort—l-blends, r-blends, s-blends
ch and th sort—digraphs ch and sh
Shopping Game—ch and sh
Gruff Drops Troll at the Bridge—r-blend
words
Corresponding WTW Spelling Stage:
Letter Name-Alphabetic Stage
Transitional Stage
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Age Level
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Reading Words
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Usually around Second Grade and can continue through Fourth Grade.
Begin to learn chunks of words, such as onset, rime, syllables, affixes, and root
words, and how these chunks occur in different words.
Begin to recognize spelling patterns that occur frequently in words: -it, -at, -in, -an,
-and, -all.
Sight word vocabulary continues to grow as they begin to store longer words in
their memory.
Reading words by analogy becomes easier as they begin to recognize spelling
patterns in words.
Children begin to read with more expression as they develop fluency and ease with
reading.
Writing Words
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Practice dividing written words into onset-rime.
Practice reading and spelling words by analogy.
Corresponding WTW Spelling Stage: Within Word Pattern Stage
Examples of Phonics Centers
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Transitional Stage
 Flip-It—long and short vowel patterns,
featuring CVCe
 Treasure—r-controlled vowel patterns
 Turkey Feathers—long vowel sound
patterns
Corresponding WTW Spelling Stage: Within
Word Pattern Stage
Intermediate Level
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Age Level
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Reading
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Also can begin around Second, Third, or Fourth Grade and can continue through
eighth grade.
Focus at this level is on broader elements of words represented by syllables.
Continue to develop fluency and read with expression.
Preferred way of reading is probably silent versus oral.
May begin to experiment with different types of genres in reading, as they explore
which one they like the best.
Writing
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Look at words that represent more complex phonic generalizations, such as adding
inflectional endings, prefixes/suffixes, and how and when to do consonant
doubling.
Help explore vocabulary words by looking at relationships between words.
Corresponding WTW Spelling Stage: Syllables and Affixes Stage
Examples of Phonics Centers
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Intermediate Stage
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Freddy, the Hopping, Diving, Jumping
Frog—double, do nothing, drop the –e
The Apple and the Bushel—differentiate
between –el and –le endings
Homograph Concentration—using context
Corresponding WTW Spelling Stage:
Syllables and Affixes Stage
Advanced Stage
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Age Level
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Can begin around fifth grade and continue into high school.
Reading Words
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Readers have highly developed automaticity and speed in reading familiar
and unfamiliar words.
Most words they read are already in their sight word vocabulary.
Readers have multiple strategies they can use when they come across a
word they do not know.
Recognition of words is so automatic that the major focus shifts to finding
meaning from text.
Writing Words
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Look at words with prefixes and suffixes that are not as common in words,
and explore how to know word meaning based on the prefix, suffix, or
context the word is used.
Explore etymology of words.
Examples of Phonics Centers
with Vocabulary Connection

Advanced Stage—also known as Derivational
Relations
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Word Sort— -tion or -sion
Word Trees
Jeopardy
Semantic Feature Analysis
Combining roots and affixes
Corresponding WTW Spelling Stage:
Derivational Relations Stage