Teaching word reading
skills to students who
have reading difficulties
John Munro
Teaching word reading accuracy
Two aspects
What to teach
How to teach it
Before
learning letter
cluster links
Teach letter
cluster –
sound link
1 syllable words
Automatize
letter cluster –
sound link-
1+ syllable words
Teach the letter cluster-sound links
Type of pattern
of individual letter-sound patterns
Example


individual sounds map into a letter
each letter has a name
a short string of letters can be recoded
to spoken word
Recode words with c-short vowel-c
Each letter linked with a sound
Example: hot, cat, dog
consonant clusters processed at once; a Develop first for onsets and rimes in 1-syllable word
letter-cluster and matching sound
Example: 'hot' as h-ot and 'stop' as st-op
pattern shared by several words
one-syllable simple word structure
two or more consonants can be linked
with the same sound
Readers learn to recognise letter strings that have
1.the consonant –vowel- consonant or cvc pattern
(for example, dig, pet),
2.the ccvc pattern (for example, stop, plug) and
3.the cvcc pattern (for example, sump, post)
Example: Patterns - shell, chop, them
Teach the letter cluster-sound links
Type of pattern
Example
words with long versus short vowel
sound
Two types of sounds associated with vowels; long and
short vowel sounds
vowel-vowel and vowel-consonants
digraphs
different letter groups linked with same
sound
Example: tree, seem, star, far
same letter cluster can be linked with
different sound
Example: stool versus foot, farm versus fare
Example: the long 'a' sound is linked with 'ay', 'ai', or
'a-e' as in may, main & mate
one-syllable more complex form of
digraphs and trigraphs
syllables and syllable-like units
Example: con + cert, in + side, out + side
'silent letters'
Example: write, lamb, know
how to read two-syllables, one after the
other
Example: button
Teach the letter cluster-sound links
Type of pattern
Example
stress patterns in two-syllable words
two-syllable word structure
letters surrounding a letter influence
how it is said
Options for pronouncing 'g' - gentle, grid
Options for pronouncing 'c' - cigar, current
letter cluster - meaning patterns
Example: micro, phone
how meaning is carried by particular
letter clusters
Example: adding 'ing', 's' or 'ed' to a verb
syllabic structure of multi-syllabic
words
Example: prefixes, suffixes and root words that aren't
said how they are written; tion, ance, ble, er
Teaching word reading accuracy
Three phases in teaching each written word pattern for 1 syllable words
Before learning to read the
word type, teach relevant
sound knowledge;
phonological +phonemic
knowledge
Review relevant word meaning
knowledge
Teach letter
cluster –sound
link- phonic
knowledge
Automatize
letter cluster –
sound linkorthographic
knowledge
Teaching word reading accuracy
A sequence for teaching students to read a 1 syllable rime unit
Teach
relevant
phonological
knowledge
Teach
relevant
phonemic
knowledge
Teach letter
cluster –sound
link- phonic
knowledge
Automatize
letter cluster –
sound linkorthographic
knowledge
To teach students to read ‘own’ rime as in town, brown, clown
Teach
phonological
knowledge for
“-ean”
Teach
students to
segment “ean”
Teach students
to link ean
with
“ean”
Automatize
link between
ean
“ean”
Teach the necessary phonological
knowledge.
say accurately
each of the words
they will learn to
read
distinguish between
words that have and
don't have the sound
targeted; distinguish
between brown clown,
town and bran clan, tan
Activities for
developing and
automatizing relevant
phonological
knowledge include
having readers
discuss the
shared sound
pattern, eg, how
you move your
lips to make the
sound
segment spoken
words such as brown
clown, town into
onset and rime.
suggest other words that
rhyme or alliterate with the
rime, for example, crown
gown, noun
Teach the necessary phonemic
knowledge.
segment words
into separate
sounds
blend separate
sounds into the
types of words to
be learnt
identify shared
vowel sounds
Readers learn relevant
phonemic knowledge.
Readers:
substitute consonants or
vowels in a spoken 1syllable words of up to
6 sounds long.
delete sounds from 1syllable words
recognise a
specified sound
by comparing 2 or
more 1-syllable
words
categorise vowels into
long versus short.
Work on several
examples.
Teach students to recall the meanings of
the words you will teach.
Review students’ abiliity
to recall and use the
meanings of some of the
words you will teach
meanings allow readers
:
use each word
in a sentence
that illustrates
its meaning,
invent a short story
using the list words.
What we mean
Some key concepts that describe aspects of this early development.
what we know
about the sound
patterns in our
language.
phonological
knowledge
what we know
about individual
speech sounds or
phonemes.
phonemic
knowledge
our awareness of
individual sounds
phonemic
awareness
what we know
about saying single
sounds with other
sounds
phonetic
knowledge
letter-sound
patterns
phonic
knowledge
patterns of letters
used to write words
orthographic
knowledge
11
How phonological, phonemic
knowledge develops
Implicit awareness recognize, say rhyming words
of sound patterns
recognize, say rhyming words in prose
in words
recognise words that alliterate
Segment words
into sound groups,
blend sound
groups
segment words into onset and rime
identify the first sound /last sound
blend onset and rime
Segment words into Segment words into individual sounds (phonemes)
sounds, blend sounds Tap for / count each sound
Blend sounds
12
How phonological, phonemic
knowledge develops
Manipulating
sounds within
words
Manipulating
sounds in 2-, 3syllable words
Delete sound from a word
Substitute one sound for another
Synthesize syllables and destress vowel
Identify the schwa and the sounds around ti
13
Phonological knowledge profile
Sounds in word
3
1.
4
5
6
Implicit awareness of sound patterns in words
1.1 Recognize rhyming words
1.2 Produce rhyming words
1.3 Recognize rhyming words in prose
1.4 Produce rhyming words in prose
1.5 Recognise words that alliterate
2.
Segment words into sounds
2.1 Segment words into onset and rime
2.2 Identify the first sound
2.3 Identify the last sound
14
Phonological knowledge profile (cont.)
Sounds in word
3
4
5
6
2.5 Segment words into individual sounds
2.5.1 Say each sound in order
2.5.2 Tap for each sound
2.5.3 Count the sounds
3. Sound blending
3.1 Onset-rime blending to make a word
3.2 Blend a sequence of sounds
4. Manipulating sounds within words
4.1 Delete sound from a word
4.2 Substitute one sound for another
15
Phonological knowledge profile (cont.)
5. Phonemic recoding: Bridging to written words
letters in word
3
5.1
Say individual letters (proportion correct)
5.2
Say letter clusters
5.3
Say groups of letter clusters
4
16
Phonological awareness and VELS
Word level knowledge: students at 0.5




select their written name, read aloud the
written names of children peers by using the
first letter of the name or other distinctive
visual features, may confuse words with the
same letters,
use terminology such as letter, word,
sentence
match written words with familiar objects and
people, for example, in the classroom and
show they are aware that a written word can
name an object, for example, table, door,
window, book.
learn a ‘sight/reading vocabulary’ by using
distinctive visual features in words to say, for
example them, you, me, come, the, to,
look.
Phonological knowledge : students



imitate spoken sounds, 2- or 3sound patterns and retain briefly a
string of 2 or 3 sounds.
suggest rhyming words.
blend two sounds.
Letter and letter-name knowledge:
students
 Recognize most common letters and
categorise them using shape,
 identify letters in visual memory
activities.
 Name common letters.
 represent some sounds (that is,
phonemes) by letters (or
graphemes).
Phonological awareness and VELS
Word level knowledge: students at 1.0





combine letter sound knowledge for reading simple
regular 1-syllable 2 to 4 letter words with short
vowels in various ways, for example, pin, egg,
hop; either (1) by recoding each letter to its
matching sound and then blending the sounds or (2)
by selecting one of more first letters and guessing
quickly the word,
match written words with familiar objects and
people in more contexts, the classroom.
continue to build a ‘sight’ or /reading vocabulary ,
for example, read I, here, me, am, with, car,
children, not, and, to will, look, he , up, in big,
go, come, for, you, at, went, get, they boys.
They are less likely to mis-read frequent words that
share one or more letters.
recognise and read words and phrases that are
repeated in the text.
combine a knowledge of context (meaning,
sentence structure and letters) to read or predict
words, for example, use the context and the initial
sounds of a word to predict it when reading aloud.
Phonological knowledge : students

repeat a spoken pattern of 3- or 4sounds.
 suggest words for a given context that
begin with a particular sound.
 blend two sounds automatically.
 blend an onset and a rime into a word,
for example “sl” and “ip” into “slip”.
 segment spoken 1-syllable words of up
to four sounds into onset and rime.
 identify the first sound in spoken words,
select words that begin with a sound,
for example, ‘which word begins with
“s” ?
Letter and letter-name knowledge:
 categorise lower and upper case letters.
 discriminate between similar letters (for
example, b and d, n and m) by sorting.
 identify the letters in memory activities.
 Name most common letters and recall
their most characteristic sound, identify
some sound - letter relationships.
Phonological awareness and VELS
Word level knowledge: students at 1.25



say 1 - and 2- letter onsets and 2- letter rime units
with predictable short vowel sounds, for example,
ip, et, without recoding each letter separately.
read unfamiliar 1-syllable regular words with
predictable short vowels by segmenting into onset
and rime, saying each unit and blending.
read automatically ‘sight’ or reading vocabulary
taught earlier without hesitation and add to this.
Phonological knowledge : students

blend 3 sounds automatically into a
word and 4 or 5 sounds with attention.

segment 1-syllable words of up to 6
sounds into onset and rime.

segment 1-syllable words of up to 3
sounds into individual sounds.
Letter name knowledge : students name and
say the most common sound for all
letters.
Phonological awareness and VELS
Word level knowledge: students at 1.5

read aloud 2- and 3- letter predictable rimes
and 2-letter onsets and use these to read
relevant unfamiliar 1-syllable words by
recoding and blending

read automatically 1-syllable regular words
and ‘sight vocabulary’ taught earlier.

use word reading strategies based on this
knowledge.
Phonological knowledge : students

segment 1-syllable spoken words of
up to 4 sounds into separate sounds.

blend strings of up to 4 sounds
automatically into words and strings
of up to 5 sounds into words with
attention

delete the first sound from 1syllable spoken words.
Phonological awareness and VELS
Word level knowledge: students at 1.75
Word level knowledge: students
Read 2- to 4- letter predictable rimes with
regular vowel- vowel and vowel-consonant
digraphs and 2- and 3-letter onsets with
consonant digraphs and use these to read
unfamiliar 1-syllable words by recoding and
blending.
read automatically 1-syllable regular words and
‘sight/reading vocabulary’ taught earlier
read unfamiliar words by making rime and onset
analogy with known words.
use word reading strategies based on this
knowledge.
Phonological knowledge : students
show relevant phonological and
phonemic knowledge for 1-syllable
spoken words of up to 6 sounds; they
segment these words into separate
sounds.
blend strings of up to 6 sounds into
words and
delete the first or last sound sound
from a spoken word.
Phonological awareness and VELS
Word level knowledge: students at 2.00


read 2- to 4- letter irregular rimes and use
these to read relevant unfamiliar 1-syllable
words either (1) by recoding and blending
onsets and rimes or (2) by making rime and
onset analogy with known words.
Phonological knowledge : students

Manipulate sound patterns in 1syllable spoken words in complex
ways; delete, insert and substitute
sounds in spoken words.

Synthesize 2 spoken syllables into a
known word by blending and
‘destressing’ the vowel in one of the
syllables.

Analyse the sound patterns in 2syllable words; (1) hear two 2syllable words that differ in one
sound and say that sound; (2) hear
a 2-syllable word and substitute one
of the sounds and say the word
formed.
recognise syllables in familiar 2-syllable
words and use these to read unfamiliar 2syllable words by analogy.
Phonological awareness and VELS
Word level knowledge: students at 2.25
Phonological knowledge : students

Read 1-syllable words that have ‘silent letter 
patterns’ and link these with the origin of the
word, for example, ‘knife’ or knee’.

read 2- and 3- syllable words by saying each
syllable, blending and modifying the stress
on the vowel in one of the syllables to match
a spoken word.

describe the actions they use to read 2- and 3syllable words (or example, when they might
read a 2-syllable word either by analogy or by
recoding and blending syllables and then destressing one vowel.

Synthesise 3 spoken syllables into a
known word by blending and
‘destressing’ the vowel in one of the
syllable, for example, “dis”, “a”
and “point”.
identify the sound patterns shared
by 2- and 3- syllable spoken words,
for example, they hear “protect”
and “proceed” and say “pro” or hear
“action” and “station” and say
“tion”.
Phonological awareness and VELS
Word level knowledge: students at 2.5

read accurately 2- and 3- syllable words of
high or moderate frequency.

Show an awareness of simple morphographic
patterns, for example, ‘s’ added to a noun
can indicate a plural, ‘ed’ added to a verb can
indicates an action that has finished.
Phonological knowledge : students

segment spoken words of 2- and 3syllables into phonemes and
identify the sounds around the
unstressed vowel in a 2-syllable
word, for example, “Which sound
comes after the (unstressed vowel)
in “remain” or “pocket”.

add syllables to 1- and 2- syllable
words, hear “stay” or “act” and add
“tion” to each and say the word.
Phonological awareness and VELS
Word level knowledge: students at 2.75
Phonological knowledge : students

work out the meanings of unfamiliar words in 
less redundant contexts where components of
the meaning are developed across 3 or more
paragraphs.

read accurately 2- to 4- syllable words with
less familiar syllabic patterns.

use simple morphographic patterns to assist
in working out the meaning of unfamiliar
words.

show an awareness of homonyms and
homophones.

manipulate the sound patterns; they
segment spoken words of 2- and 3syllables into phonemes and in
particular can identify the sounds
around the unstressed vowel in 3syllable words and automatise this
for these words.
add syllables to 2- and 3- syllable
words, for example and “dis” to
“appearance” or “ed” to “expect”.
Phonological awareness and VELS
Word level knowledge: students at 3.00
integrate simple morphographic and
graphophonic strategies to read accurately 2syllable words and to infer their meanings.
Phonological knowledge : students
automatise the phonological knowledge
covered in 2.00 to 2.75.
Teach the letter cluster-sound links
teach the students to link the letter cluster with the sound pattern that you taught in
the before learning to read the words phase
introduce the letter cluster in a word family by using up to 4 to 5 words.
frown
town
clown crown
brown
Introduce new
pattern
We have been talking about words that have ‘own’ like brown and town.
Look at how we write them: brown
and.
Read each word
Read each word with students. Students repeat reading each word 2 or 3
times.
Readers say the onset and rime of each word separately, pointing to each
letter cluster as they say it, for example, for "town" say "t" and "own".
Read each word
in segments
Blending letter
clusters.
brow
n ?
How are these like what you know
town
Teach students to read letter clusters by saying each part and blending
•
onsets and rimes into 1-syllable words
•
two letter clusters into a 2-syllable word.
Teach the letter cluster-sound links
How the
words are
similar
The readers read each word again and say
•
the rimes of the words in each category, for example, own and
•
what all members of the list share, both letter clusters and shared sounds.
Visualise
each word
and the rime
pattern
Readers read each word, close their eyes, make a picture of it and write it. They
•
look at 2 or 3 instances, close their eyes, 'see' the words, imagine writing
them and discuss how they are similar
•
visualise the letter cluster in a word that has the sound, eg., the 'ow' in an
image of a crown
•
move the letter-sound cluster to other words.
Develop writing and spelling in parallel with reading. Show the letters that are in
the correct sequential positions by ticking
Spell the
word
Transfer
Select other words that have the same rime but that you haven't taught. Use
letter-sound nonsense words with the rime, letter and rime cards to make up words that
rime units to readers need to say as quickly as they can.
other words Encourage readers to predict how to say unfamiliar words.
Write a
sentence
Readers make up a sentence about each word that illustrates its meaning.
Teach the letter cluster-sound links
Discriminate Students learning 'own' could read the following:
the word
type from
frown
town
clot
now
brown
trod
similar words
torn
fort
clown
crown
town
bran
they have
already learnt
Discriminate Students link this letter sound with the same letter pattern but that is said
the word
differently: How do you tell how to say each one ? How are they different ?
type from
words they
frown
thrown
slow
now
blown
know
have learnt
tow
flow
clown
crown
town
row
with the
same pattern
What do you know now about
when you see –own in a word
? How could you read this
word ?
grown
When we see –own in
a word we can say it as
‘oa’ or ‘ou’
Teach the letter cluster-sound links
Link the
What other letter patterns you have learnt make the sound as brown has ? How do
sound with
we spell these words?
other sounds Students link this letter sound pattern with the same sound but that is written
they know.
differently: How do you tell how to say each one ? How are they different ?
frown
town
clown
What do we know now about
the ‘oun’ sound ?
Reading
prose
noun
When we hear the –’oun sound
you can spell it as ‘own’ or ‘oun’
Transfer the letter cluster to prose. The readers and / or the teacher can
•
invent and write short stories that contain the words. They read them.
•
read sentences containing some of the words.
•
read words containing the unit in prose.
•
scan prose they read for other words that have the letter cluster and list them.
Avoid prose that repeats rime units in high frequency, unnatural ways.
Teach the letter cluster-sound links
Read 2- and
3- syllable
words
frowned
brownie
browner
browning
browned
frowning
drowning
crowned
downer
clowning
Dictation for
sentences
Provide dictation for sentences containing the words with the pattern.
Teach
metaphonemic
knowledge
directly.
For the -own pattern, they discuss
•
what they know about letter cluster patterns
•
how they can use what they know about some words to read others
•
how they could make bigger words from the smaller words.
•
how they segment words, why segmenting words into 2 or 3 parts is useful.
•
talk about their developing knowledge of word patterns
•
recognise familiar letter cluster patterns in unfamiliar words
•
see themselves as 'self teachers'.
Monitoring word reading progress
New word
Not sure
More sure
Really sure
frowning
drowning
crowned
downer
new
house
brown
Know word perfectly
car
Abstract the letter cluster pattern.
Students use regularities and patterns in rime letter clusters to learn
more abstract patterns and use them to predict words.
gown
brown
town
howl
-ow-
fowl
cowl
Organize changing knowledge in a
systematic easy-to -use way
Letter pattern
-oa-
Examples of each type of pattern
boat
boar
-ai-
train
-ee-
feed
-ow-
shown
fair
brown
After learning to read the words :
automatising
teach the students to automatise their knowledge of the letter pattern guide them to
recognise the letter pattern automatically to lead to orthographic reading.
Categorizing, sorting,
matching activities.
Read unfamiliar
words by analogy.
flown
grown
blown
browntown
gown
I can work out how to read
drown
by using what I know about
brown
Memory activities.
I knew that I would read -ow- in a word as (long o). Now I know that I
can also read it as ‘ou’.
Awareness of word
structures.
Which of these could be words?
drow
n
glowf
rowg
After learning to read the words :
automatising
teach the students to automatise their knowledge of the letter pattern guide them to
recognise the letter pattern automatically to lead to orthographic reading.
Use letter cluster
blown
town
brown
pattern in game
gown
flown
grown
activities.
Teach students
I can work out how to read these words by breaking them up like this:
to chunk new
flow ers
pow der
written words.
What goes with
what?
Students predict the likely letters/ clusters that might precede or follow. ow
drow
glowl
n
Guide readers to
recall the letter
cluster faster.
The 37 dependable rimes
The English language is often said to be irregular. However, there are 37
dependable rimes, whose pronunciation remains the same regardless of the
onset. From these consistent endings, you can make over 500 words
-ack -ail -ain -ake -ale -ame -an -ank -ap - ash -at -ate -aw -ay
-eat -ell -est
-ice -ick -ide -ight -ill -in -ine -ing -ink -ip -it
-ock -oke -op -ore -ot
-uck -ug -ump -unk
The 37 dependable rimes test
bin
pin
thin
spin
rock
sock
block
clock
jump
pump
thump
can
man
plan
than
bell
well
shell
spell
test
rest
chest
day
say
play
stay
back
pack
black
track
saw
paw
draw thaw
hill
fill
chill
spill
meat
beat
cheat
cab
tab
grab
crab
ring
wing
thing
bring
cake
make
shake
bug
mug
plug
slug
duck
luck
truck
stuck
date
late
plate
hot
not
shot
spot
sick
pick
brick
thick
name
came
shame
fat
pat
chat
that
tail
mail
snail
trail
rice
mice
slice
cap
tap
clap
trap
bank
tank
thank
drank
ride
hide
slide
hop
top
stop
shop
mask
task
flask
-
fine
mine
shine
lip
zip
drip
ship
junk
bunk
trunk
chunk
more
core
store
hit
pit
spit
grit
pink
wink
think
stink
woke
poke
broke
rain
main
brain
sale
male
whale
light
Learning to read words effectively
John Munro
This program is intended to
assist students to read words
automatically. The students
need to be able to recall the
sound
Each slide first shows the
student the last part of a word
(the ‘rime’). The student says
this. Then the student sees
the first part (the ‘onset’ and
says the word
Each slide first shows the student the last
part of a word (the ‘rime’). The student says
this. Then the student sees the first part
(the ‘onset’ and says the word
The students need to be able to recall or to
work out the sound of each rime and onset
before they use this type of program
The student slides begin after this one.
Each slide is accompanied by a sound
effect. You can turn the sound off if it is
distracting.
se t
le t
ta b
da b
la b
ga b
ri g
pe t
ta b
fi g
pi g
This is the end of this set of
words
Parents and teachers can modify this
format to suit the types of words the
student is ready to read next