Pathways to Structured Literacy:
Practitioner Guide
Volume One
(Targets 1-6 from the AIM Structured Literacy Scope and Sequence)
Target 2
Short Vowel Encoding Patterns; Open Syllable Type and Blends
□ -ck encoding pattern
□ Floss encoding pattern
□ -tch encoding pattern
□ Open syllable (Concept) in one syllable words (a, hi, she, etc.)
□ Base element (Concept)
□ Suffix <-s> (cats) /s/, (dogs) /z/
□ Suffix <-es> (boxes)
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□ Initial consonants blends (s blends, l blends, r blends and three letter blends)
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□ Final consonant blends:(-sk, -st, -sp, -ld, -lf, -lk, -lm, -lp, -lt, -mp, -nd, -nt, -ct, -pt, -ft, -xt)
Target 2: Short Vowel Encoding Patterns, Open Syllable Type, and Consonant Blends
Target 2 Teaching Tips
Before beginning Target 2 instruction:
Assess students’ reading and spelling of these 15 high-frequency, non-phonetic words.
During the delivery of the lesson:
□ Teacher explanations are clear
□ Multi-sensory strategies are used
□ I do, we do, you do - guided practice with lots of opportunity for repetition
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□ Students are working towards mastery
□ Students are encouraged to analyze words, listen for sounds; discourage guessing
□ Error corrections are made immediately
Foundational skills
□ Phonemic awareness drills will grow to include 4, 5, and 6 sound words as beginning and ending consonant blends are taught
Visual drill
□ Only previously introduced graphemes/morphemes
□ Students’ sounds are correct and automatic
□ Error cards are recycled back in the deck and drilled again
Target 2 Mini-Assessment
Tip: The mastery goal for Target 2 mini-assessment is 90% or higher for each section.
Teacher Copy Student Name: Date:
Section 1: Sounds
Giving Sounds: Drill -ck through suffix -es grapheme/morpheme cards, short vowels, and a selection of blend grapheme cards totaling 20 cards. If a student does not give all the multiple sounds for a grapheme card, mark it incorrect.
/20 %
Spelling Sounds: Dictate -ck through suffix -es, short vowels, and a selection of blends totaling 20 phonemes/morphemes. Remember to include multiple spellings of a sound. If a student does not correctly spell all of the multiple graphemes for a dictated phoneme, mark it incorrect.
/20 %
Section 2: Words
Word reading: stack fact trash frass swell she blend bress hi cliff wishes plint go spots foxes dond fuzz struck grunt zutch
/20 %
Word spelling: /10 %
1. brick 2. plant 3. notch 4. straps 5. dresses 6. clock 7. kept 8. spill 9. gruff 10. trust
Section 3: Sentences
Sentence reading:
1. The class bell buzzes at one.
2. Stitch the patches on the quilt.
3. “Go stack the dishes in the hutch for Jeff,” said Rick. /23 %
Sentence dictation (count punctuation and capitalizations as possible points):
1. The dog has kisses for me. /10 %
2. Clamp the hatch shut. /8 %
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3. Swim to the rocks. /9 % /20 %
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Target 2 Mini-Assessment
Student Copy Reading Sheet
Name: Date: Word reading: stack fact trash *frass swell she blend *bress hi cliff wishes *plint go spots foxes *dond fuzz stuck grunt *zutch * nonsense words
Sentence reading:
1. The class bell buzzes at one.
2. Stitch the patches on the quilt.
3. “Go stack the dishes in the hutch for Jeff,” said Rick.
Target 4: Vowel Teams and Diphthongs
Target 4 Teaching Tips
Tip: When introducing the concept of vowel teams, connect to the student’s previous knowledge of digraphs. Digraphs are two consonants that come together to represent one sound. Vowel teams are similar as they have two or more letters coming together to represent one vowel sound. Some combinations will represent long vowel sounds and some will represent vowel sounds that glide together (diphthongs) like /oi/ in coin.
The hardest part of vowel teams are spelling, not reading. Therefore, it is crucial to give lots of practice tracing over vowel teams and highlighting their spelling patterns.
This scope and sequence focuses first on more reliable vowel teams that have clear spelling generalizations, like when to use ai versus ay. Not all vowel teams are taught at once. For example, target 4 has the more frequent, reliable vowel teams, and targets 7 and 8 have less frequent and less reliable vowel teams.
During the delivery of the lesson:
□ Teacher explanations are clear
□ Multi-sensory strategies are used
□ I do, we do, you do - guided practice with lots of opportunity for repetition
□ Students are working towards mastery
□ Students are encouraged to analyze words, listen for sounds; discourage guessing
□ Error corrections are made immediately
Foundational skills
□ Phonemic awareness drills will include isolating, blending, segmenting, and/or manipulating sounds
□ Morphological awareness drills will include isolating, identifying, adding, deleting, and/or substituting morphemes
Visual drill
□ Only previously introduced graphemes/morphemes
□ Students’ sounds are correct and automatic
□ Error cards are recycled back in the deck and drilled again
□ Sound production cues are provided as needed (voiced/unvoiced, lip biter, etc)
□ Teacher prompts for multiple sounds and rules associated with the grapheme
□ Teacher prompts for meaning/part of speech for morpheme cards
Here are the graphemes with multiple sounds for target four:
• a /ă/, /ā/
• e /ĕ/, /ē/
• i /ĭ/, /ī/
• o /ŏ/, /ō/
• u /ŭ/, /ū/, /ōō/
Auditory drill
□ Only previously introduced phonemes/morphemes
□ Teacher dictates sounds/morphemes correctly
□ Students repeat sounds/morphemes before writing
□ Student writes multiple spellings from most to least common
Here are the phonemes with multiple spellings for target four:
• /ā/ a, a_e, ai, ay
• /ē/ e, e_e, ee, ea
• /ī/ i, i_e, y, igh
• /ō/ o, o_e, oa, ow, oe
• /ū/ u, u_e
• /ōō/ u, u_e
• /oi/ oi, oy
Blending drill
□ Only previously introduced grapheme cards
□ Logical placement of cards in the initial, medial, and final positions
□ Teacher only changes 1 or 2 consonant cards OR 1 vowel card
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□ Student touches cards producing sounds and blends whole word
Review word reading
□ Only real, nonsense, and non-phonetic words containing previously introduced skills/concepts
□ As needed, coding procedure supports accurate reading
□ Language extension activities are included to develop word meaning (i.e. synonym/ antonym, multiple meanings of words, homonyms, analogies etc.)
□ As needed, explicit instruction of non-phonetic words that includes identifying part(s) of the word that have irregular phoneme-grapheme correspondence and part(s) that do not
□ Students may re-read to build fluency
Review word spelling
□ Only words containing previously introduced skills/concepts/rules are dictated
□ Students repeat back word before spelling
□ Segmenting by sound is encouraged
□ Segmenting by syllables and morphemes is encouraged
□ All written words are read back aloud
Review sentence reading
□ Only phrases/sentences containing previously taught skills/non-phonetic words
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□ Students read orally at a sufficient rate and with expression; student may re-read for fluency
□ Teacher activates background knowledge
□ Teacher may pre-teach some vocabulary words
□ Teacher asks comprehension questions or asks student to paraphrase
Review sentence dictation
□ Teacher dictates phrase/sentence twice
□ Student repeats back phrase/sentence twice
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□ Only phrases/sentences containing previously taught skills, non-phonetic words, and meaningful sentence construction are dictated
□ Student reads back all phrases/sentences
Oral reading of connected text
□ Only passages containing previously taught skills/non-phonetic words
□ Students read orally at a sufficient rate and with expression; student may re-read for fluency
□ Teacher activates background knowledge
□ Teacher may pre-teach some vocabulary words
□ Teacher asks comprehension questions or asks students to paraphrase
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Below is the word reading list from r-controlled vowel ar. Beneath the word reading chart are sample ideas to develop meaning at the individual word level. Remember the goal for students is to not only decode words, but understand the meaning of each word they read.
shark bar mark smart part harm cart far car charge dark marsh yarn lark darn park
stark arch bark charm
Students can generate multiple meanings for park, charm, bark, lark, darn and charge.
Park a car.
Play in the park.
Someone might charm you. Collect charms for a bracelet.
A dog will bark.
A lark is a bird.
Oh darn!
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There is bark on a tree.
To do something on a lark is for fun like a prank.
Darn a sock or sweater.
Charge your phone. Charge money for an item or service.
Students can generate antonyms for part, harm, dark, and far.
part - whole harm - help dark - light far - near
Students can generate synonyms for arch, smart, marsh, stark, yarn and cart.
arch - bend/bow smart - brilliant/bright marsh - bog/wetland
stark - grim/blunt yarn - thread/spun wool cart - wagon/buggy
Students can complete word analogies using words from the word reading list.
hot : cold :: near : (answer: far)
handle : cup :: wheel : (answer: car or cart)
oink : pig :: : dog (answer: bark)
bird : sky :: : ocean (answer: shark)
join : tie :: block : (answer: bar)
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Roll, Read, and Review
Options
Connect four: Provide students with their own set of colored chips. Players should take turns rolling a die and then read one word under the column of the number they rolled. If read correctly, they should cover the word with a chip. The game should continue until someone gets four in a row (either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally) to win! Language extension activities could include generating a synonym or antonym for the correctly read word or using it in a sentence.
Roll and read: Students roll a die and read all the words under the column of the number they rolled. Language extension activities could include generating a synonym or antonym for one of the correctly read words or using it in a sentence.