Over time, word building progressions targets more difficult letter-sound and spelling-sound
combinations and word forms, including words with common vowel teams and consonant digraphs.
(See also Spear-Swerling 2011 for a discussion and
Cunningham and Hall 2001, 2008, for variations on word
building.)
Grade one instruction in word recognition includes
teaching high-frequency irregular words systematically.
Words with high utility are selected and used judiciously in
early reading. Teachers point out irregularities while focusing
children’s attention on all letters and letter combinations
in the word and provide repeated practice. The number of
irregular words introduced is controlled so that the children
are not overwhelmed, and previously introduced words
are reviewed daily. High-frequency irregular words (e.g.,
was, said, they, there), often confused by young children,
are strategically separated for initial instruction. Formative
assessment is important to determine the appropriate pace
of introducing new words and the amount of review necessary for individual children. Careful record-
keeping of children’s accuracy informs subsequent instruction.
Instruction in word families and word patterns (i.e., reading orthographic units of text, such as
at, sat, fat, rat, sometimes referred to as phonograms) begins after children have learned the letter-
sound correspondences in the unit (Ehri and McCormick 1998). Teaching children to process larger
highly represented patterns increases fluency in word recognition. However, the instruction is carefully
coordinated and builds on knowledge gained from instruction in letter-sound correspondences and
phoneme blending. A different path is followed by students who are deaf and hard of hearing and do
not have complete access to the letter-sound correspondences of English. American Sign Language,
fingerspelling, reading, and writing skills are interwoven for students who are deaf. The merging of
these skills enables the development of the alphabetic principle (Visual Language and Visual Learning
Science of Learning Center 2010).
Children practice their increasing knowledge of the
code with decodable text, which serves as an important
intermediary step between initial skill acquisition and the
children’s ability to read quality trade books. (See the
discussion of decodable text in the overview of the span of
this chapter.) Decodable text gives children the opportunity
to apply word analysis skills rather than simply reconstruct
text they have memorized.
By the end of grade one, children know and apply grade-
level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words
both in isolation and in text (RF.1.3a–g), see figure 3.33.
See figure 3.34 for guidance on one way to teach children to
blend printed words.
Grade one instruction in word
recognition includes teaching
high-frequency irregular
words systematically. Words
with high utility are selected
and used judiciously in early
reading. Teachers point out
irregularities while focusing
children’s attention on all
letters and letter combinations
in the word and provide
repeated practice.Teaching children to process
larger highly represented
patterns increases fluency in
word recognition. However,
the instruction is carefully
coordinated and builds on
knowledge gained from
instruction in letter-sound
correspondences and
phoneme blending.Grade 1 Chapter 3 | 251