Teaching students to read just got a little bit easier with my printable phonics sequence chart! Phonics instruction focuses on teaching reading by helping students master letter sounds.
By focusing on the phonics scope and sequence, your kids will learn to recognize sounds and how they are used in reading and spelling.
There’s a lot of debate about the science of reading and it can be challenging to know what order phonics should be taught. If you’re following the phonics scope and sequence by grade level, you’ll find my printable phonics sequence chart helpful as you create lesson plans.
Keep reading to learn more about systematic phonics instruction and the 7 parts of phonics. Then, grab my phonics sequence chart to use in your classroom. Plus, get some fun phonics activities you can use with your early readers!
Systematic Phonics Instruction
Phonics instruction focuses on helping beginning readers understand how letters (graphemes) are linked to sounds (phonemes). Students learn how to form letter-sound correspondences and spelling patterns they can put into practice as they read.
Systematic phonics instruction focuses on a sequential set of phonics elements taught in a certain order. This phonics scope and sequence can differ depending on the method of instruction being used.
Some teachers don’t follow a systematic approach to teaching phonics. Instead, these educators highlight phonics opportunistically as they appear in text rather than guiding instruction.
There are a few different phonics programs that follow the systematic method. For example, the Orton-Gillingham approach focuses on combined direct multisensory teaching strategies paired with a systematic phonics sequence.
This effective method is most commonly used for children with dyslexia or learning difficulties.
The literacy wars and studies in the science of reading have shown us that teaching children to read is often challenging. There’s not just one approach that works.
Phonics-based instruction helps children overcome common difficulties encountered while learning to read. Teaching phonics might not always be easy, but it’s effective.
What Are the Scope and Sequences of Phonics?
Following the phonics scope and sequence by grade level will help your students become efficient readers more quickly. Plus, it makes teaching your students to read easier.
My phonics sequence chart can help you teach the next skill to your early readers.
Phonics and phonemic awareness make up the first two essential components of learning to read. Developing phonemic awareness is the first step when teaching children how to read.
You will know a student has mastered this when they can hear, identify, and manipulate sounds without looking at the written letters or words.
The difference between phonemic awareness and phonics is that phonics includes written symbols. Once your child or student has a grasp on manipulating and identifying sounds, it’s time to introduce text into their reading journey.
As you teach phonics, your students will come to understand the basics of decoding simple words and spelling patterns.
The more your kindergarten, first grade, and second grade students practice phonics, the better they will become at reading! Learn more about the 5 essential components of learning to read with the 5 Pillars of Reading and get ideas you can use while teaching phonics skills.
My Printable Phonics Sequence Chart
Systematic phonics instruction is certainly effective, but what’s the right order? What’s the best phonics scope and sequence for each grade level? In what order should you teach phonics?
This printable phonics scope and sequence chart makes it easy to create lesson plans and stick to the schedule in your language arts lessons.
No matter what grade levels you’re teaching this year, you can use this printable phonics sequence chart to help your students master reading by the end of the year! It’s the perfect resource for k-2 teachers to add to a phonics curriculum in the classroom or homeschool.
You can use these printables to focus on each part of the scope individually and ensure phonics mastery with your students from the beginning of the year to the end. Learning to read can be hard work, but pairing this phonics sequence chart with phonemic awareness activities can make it easier.
Plus, it’s a really helpful resource to have on hand as you set up literacy centers in my personal experience. Adding phonics practice activities and fun practice with difficult concepts to your language arts center can encourage struggling readers to embrace phonics and get the extra practice every student needs.
Using Fun Activities to Teach Phonics Scope and Sequence
Take a fresh look at your phonics scope and sequence by grade level with my phonics sequence chart. Then, add some fun activities to your lesson plans with my printable early reading crafts.
These crafts make it easy to get creative, build fine motor skills, and master phonics in the classroom and at home.
Short Vowel Crafts
Digraph Crafts
Silent E Crafts
In What Order Should Phonics Be Taught?
In 2000, The National Reading Panel conducted research to evaluate the effectiveness of different approaches to teaching reading.
The panel discovered that students who received systematic or explicit instruction in phonics were better readers at the end of the instruction than students who received implicit instruction or no instruction at all.
They agreed that a set phonics scope and sequence should be taught systematically.
Consonants and Short Vowel Sounds
The first step in the phonics scope and sequence is to focus on teaching students consonants. Teach one consonant per lesson and try not to teach confusing consonants like m and n close together.
Master short vowel sounds next. Short vowels are taught in a particular order since there is a common confusion of i and e among young children. Here is the preferred order: a, i, o, u, e.
Then, teach the FLSZ rule. The rule states that single-syllable words where the letter f, l, s, or z appear after a short vowel are spelled ff, ll, ss, or zz. For example, the words stuff, full, less, and buzz demonstrate these endings.
Digraphs and Blends
Teaching digraphs is the next step in the phonics scope and sequence chart. Digraphs are a combination of two letters that make one sound such as th, sh, ch, wh, or ph. These are taught one at a time.
Next, your students will be ready to master consonant blends. This consonant sequence is made up of two or three letters and comes before or after a vowel. That’s why blends are sometimes called consonant clusters. In a blend, each letter retains its individual sound.
Glued Sounds and Silent Letters
In the phonics sequence chart, glued sounds follow blends. A glued sound is when letters have their own sounds, but they are difficult to separate. For example, nk and ing are glued sounds.
After mastering glued sounds, your students will be ready to learn about silent letters. These are letters we don’t hear when the word is pronounced. Words with silent letters can be tricky to read and spell.Here are some examples of silent letters that your students might see: ck, kn, wr, gh, gu, and mb.
Long Vowel Sounds
Then, the phonics scope and sequence introduces long vowels. Students can meet long vowels by comparing words with long vowels to CVC words. Teaching silent e before introducing long vowels makes this phonics principle easier to grasp for beginning readers.
If you need a done for you set of words, you can grab this free CVCe word list printable to pair with my craft. It’ll help make brainstorming process go even smoother!
Grab my printable phonics sequence chart to get the steps including teaching vowel sounds, consonant clusters, closed syllables, r-controlled vowels, cvce words, and phonics patterns.
This grapheme-phoneme chart makes it easy to make notes as you plan your lessons and functions as a quick reference for phonics concepts as you help your students build a solid foundation for reading this school year.
In Conclusion
Do you use a systematic phonics approach in your classroom? Could you use a little extra help with phonics scope and sequence as you plan and teach this school year? I hope this phonics sequence printable will help with your phonics lessons this year.
